Contus
κοντός
Contus (κοντός, from κεντέω, to prick or pierce) was, as Nonius (p. 555 m., 18.24) expresses it, hasta longior et robusta, with a pointed iron at the one end. (Verg. A. 5.208) It was used for various purposes, but chiefly as a punt-pole by sailors, who, in shallow water, thrust it into the ground, and thus pushed on the boat. (Hom. Od. 9.287; Verg. l.c. and 6.302. Cf. κοντωτὰ πλοῖα in Diod. 19.22.) It also served as a means to sound the depth of the water. (Festus, s. v. Perconctatio, p. 214, ed. Müller; Nonius, p. 44 m.; Donat. on Terent. Hec. 1.2, 2.) At a later period, when the Romans became acquainted with the huge lances or pikes of some of the northern barbarians, the word contus was applied to that kind of weapon (Verg. A. 9.510; Tac. Hist. 1.44, 3.27; Lamprid. Commod. 13); and the long pikes peculiar to the Sarmatians were always designated by this name. (Tac. Hist. 1.79, Ann. 6.35; Stat. Achill. 2.416; Valer. Flacc. 6.162.)
From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.