Quote Originally Posted by Watchman
This is AFAIK correct. And makes you wonder what the uproar was, given that one of the more popular instruments among Hellenic cavalrymen for smiting down thine neighbour was the kopis/machaira, which is pretty much designed for messily dismembering people.
There's a theory that the Romans just kept at it when they were dead already, so they'd not be exactly shocked at the weapons effects, but rather on how the systematic Roman soldier looked at killing. As in, butcher-work.