Ca. 600-400 BC. Eastern Mediterranean. A well preserved short iron sword of the akinakes type (Greek ἀκῑνάκης') with a pointed bevelled blade, bow-shaped guard, rectangular grip, and coiled pommel; custom-made stand included. The akinakes, a short straight sword, became very well known to fifth-century BC Greeks, who recognised it as 'the Persian sword' (Herodotus 7.54.2), and collected them as part of their war booty (Herodotus 9.80.2) - inventories show that a good number of akikanes swords were dedicated on the Athenian Acropolis as a votive offering to Athena (Miller 1997, 47). Akinakes swords can be identified on the reliefs at Persepolis, the capital of the Achaemenid Empire, where men in Persian dress can be seen wearing it thrust through the knot of their robes. Akinakes were also used by the Medes, Scythians, the Caspii, and later by the Greeks themselves. Akinakes were made most commonly of iron, but some examples survive in gold, which Herodotus (8.120) tells us were a standard royal gift: Xerxes, for instance, gave a gold akinakes to the Hellespont along with a gold phiale and a bowl (Herodotus 7.54.2). To find out more about akinakes swords, see Miller, M. C. (1997). Athens and Persia in the Fifth Century BC: A Study in Cultural Receptivity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 46-48. Size: L:525mm / W:65mm ; 525g. Provenance: From the private collection of an Oxford gentleman; previously in an old British collection, formed in the 1990s on the UK / International art markets.