Italian spearheads do not suggest so much connection with Mycenaean types. Some of them are narrow, but most have broad and strongly-curving blades which spring sharply from the sockets (No. =260=; fig. 100). A spearhead from Sicily is remarkable for its great size (No. =261=): it is thirty-five inches long. The rest of the arms belong to the historical period. The usual weapons of the Greeks were the spear and sword. The bow was a special arm, which did not form part of the equipment of the ordinary soldier, and its use, like that of the sling, was practised by men of certain districts, who served as mercenaries to other states. The axe was a barbarous weapon, and is generally represented in the hands of Amazons, who brought their mode of warfare from the wilds of Scythia (see fig. 109). =Greek swords.=--The earliest Greek swords in this collection date from the tenth century B.C., when iron was fast taking the place of bronze; but forms common in the Bronze Age were still reproduced in iron, just as those peculiar to stone implements were for some time preserved in bronze. This conservative tendency is noticeable in three iron swords, of which two are from Cyprus (Nos. =262=, =263=; fig. 101_b_). They reproduce the general form of the bronze sword from Enkomi in the same island (No. =250=; fig. 96). A short iron dagger is similar to the common Mycenaean type (No. =264=; fig. 101_a_). [Illustration: FIG. 101.--IRON SWORDS, SHOWING THE SURVIVAL OF MYCENAEAN TYPES (NOS. 263-4). 1:4.] The ordinary Greek sword of the fifth century B.C. is represented by three examples. The type appears frequently in works of art. On a vase in the Third Vase Room (E 468; Pedestal 6) there is a drawing of the combat of Achilles and Memnon, in which Memnon is armed with this sword. In the sheath by his side is another, so that it is possible to see both hilt and blade at once (fig. 102). The shape is entirely different from that of prehistoric times. The hilt is round and the pommel a small knob, while the guard is a plain crosspiece. The blade, which, being made of iron, is long and thin, swells from the hilt towards the point in the manner characteristic of the cutting sword. All these features are visible in the examples (No. =265=; fig. 104_a_, _b_). The swelling blade is best seen in the largest specimen, while the iron-handled fragment, which was excavated from a tomb near the Mausoleum at Halikarnassos, shows the original form of the hilt. The small dagger with a bone hilt and the bone end of the scabbard forms part of a group of weapons which were found on the battlefield of Marathon (No. =266=; fig. 103). The others are iron spearheads, arrowheads both of bronze and iron, and leaden slingshot, two of which are marked with a thunderbolt and the Greek name _Zoilos_. [Illustration: FIG. 102.--VASE-PAINTING OF THE COMBAT BETWEEN ACHILLES AND MEMNON, SHOWING THE CLASSICAL GREEK WEAPONS.]