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Originally Posted by Dmitry
The blade is inscribed AUT VINCER MO HUNGARIA, which I roughly translated from Latin as VICTORY FOR MY HUNGARY, and is engraved with figures in hussar dress.
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The inscription, badly spelled, should read VINCERE AUT MORI HUNGARIA -- conquer or die for Hungary. It was frequently used on northern and eastern European blades of the 17th and 18th cents. -- depending on the retail market for the blades, another country's name (frequently POLONIA) was substituted, or simply omitted. The occurrence of spelling errors may be attributed to illiterate artisans copying from pattern-books, and perhaps the general decline in the use of Latin outside of academia and the legal/medical professions in post-Reformation Europe.