The offensive arms of the foot-man were, a sword, a spear, and a bow.  The sword, which was called by the Persians akinaces, appears to have been a short, straight weapon, suited for stabbing rather than for cutting, and, in fact, not very much better than a dagger. [PLATE XXIX., Fig. 2.] It was carried in a sheath, and was worn suspended from the girdle on the right side.  From the Persepolitan sculptures it would seem not to have hung freely, but to have been attached to the right thigh by a thong which passed round the knee.  The handle was short, and generally unprotected by a guard; but, in some specimens, we see a simple cross-bar between the hilt and the blade.

The spear carried by the Persian foot-man was also short, or, at any rate, much shorter than the Greek.  To judge by the representations of guardsmen on the Persepolitan sculptures, it was from six to six and a half or seven feet in length.  The Grecian spear was sometimes as much as twenty-one feet.  The Persian weapon had a short head, which appears to have been flattish, and which was strengthened by a bar or ridge down the middle.  The shaft, which was of cornel wood, tapered gradually from bottom to top, and was ornamented at its lower extremity with a ball, sometimes carved in the shape of an apple or a pomegranate. [PLATE XXIX., Fig. 3.]

The Persian bow, according to Herodotus and Xenophon, was of unusual size.  According to the sculptures, it was rather short, certainly not exceeding four feet.  It seems to have been carried strung, either on the left shoulder, with the arm passed through it, or in a bow-case slung at the left side.  It was considerably bent in the middle, and had the ends slightly turned back. [PLATE XXX., Fig. 1.] The arrows, which were of reed, tipped with metal, and feathered, were carried in a quiver, which hung at the back near the left shoulder.  To judge from the sculptures, their length must have been about two feet and a half.  The arrow-heads, which were either of bronze or iron, seem to have been of various shapes, the most common closely resembling the arrow-heads of the Assyrians. [PLATE XXX., Fig. 3.]

[Illustration:  PLATE XXX.]

Other offensive weapons carried occasionally by the Persian foot-men were, a battle-axe, a sling, and a knife.  The battle-axe, which appears in the sculptures only in one or two instances, is declared to have been a common Persian weapon by Xenophon, who, upon such a point, would seem to be trustworthy.  The use of the sling by the Persian light-armed is quite certain.  It is mentioned by Curtius and Strabo, no less than by Xenophon; and the last-named writer speaks with full knowledge on the subject, for he witnessed the effect of the weapon in the hands of Persian slingers during his return with the Ten Thousand.  The only missiles which the Persian slingers threw were stones; they did not, like the Rhodians, make use of small lumps of lead.

The knife seems also to have been a Persian weapon.  Its blade appears to have been slightly curved, like that of a pruning-hook.  It was worn in a sheath, and was probably thrust into the belt or girdle like the similar weapon, half knife, half dagger, of a modern Persian.