Roman use of the Contus

[ValentinianVictrix]

There is at least one passage in Ammianus Book XXXI of his history where he describes infantry being armed with contus, rendered by the translator as 'pikes'. It may well be an experiment by Valentinian who Ammianus and one other ancient author claimed was 'an inventor of new kinds of arms'. It's only during the reigns of Valentinian and his brother Valens do we see any reference to Roman infantry using the old Pilum, referred to in the various passages as 'pilis', which may indicate that Valentinian reintroduced the use of that weapon during his reign.