"Unusual Battle Injuries In Ancient Combat" Topic

"The historian Procopius relates some unusual combat injuries of the Gothic War, which took place from 535 to 554 A.D. as part of the emperor Justinian's attempt to bring back the Italic peninsula and its environs back into the Roman fold. A few incidents stand out as worth of relation here. In our modern age of firearms and high-velocity projectile weapons, we forget that battlefield wounds from swords, javelins, and spears had their own bizarre qualities.

In the spring of 537, Justinian's general Belisarius sent his commanders Martinus and Valerianus to a place called the Plain of Nero near Terracina, which is about 75 kilometers southwest of Rome. The Roman forces engaged the Gothic occupiers at close quarters:…."
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Amicalement
Armand

Gives one pause …..

My head, eyes, and other parts are now in a permanent state of pucker.

TVAG

My favorite ancient combat injury remains the one described in Maccabees. One of the the Maccabean swordsmen managed to get directly beneath a hostile elephant, stabbing straight up into the heart. The elephant of course died instantly--with the soldier directly underneath the collapsing beast.

We still, of course, have body parts penetrated by flying metal. But death by collapsing elephant is unusual on the modern battlefield.