Roman use of the Contus

[gswain]

I wish I knew some background on where it came from but I do not. It came from an estate of someone here in Texas. I started researching the scale armor. I first found pictures of St. George but almost all of them show the dragon in them so I decided it was not that. Then I found Sarmatian sculptures that looked close and finally discovered this meassge board. I notice his right hand is up on the horses head. Since some of the carving is missing, I wondered whether his hand is up high like holding a pike or banner. Maybe that would then connect up with the flowing material behind him or maybe it is just a cape. I did just notice his legs have some scale or plate armor on them near where he sits on the horse (notsure it is visible in any of the photos.