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ἀκινάκης. A great iron sword was found in a tomb at Kertsch, but the weapons are usually bronze. For sword-worship among the Alani in fourth century A. D. cf. Ammianus, xxxi. 2. 23 ‘(gladiumque) ut Martem regionum praesulem verecundius colunt’; cf. Gibbon (c. 34, iii. 419-20) for Attila's use of the ‘sword of Mars’.

τοισίδ̓: i. e. ‘with the victims to be described next’. Mars naturally had the most human sacrifices.

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