Arrian and the ‘kontos’

[D B Campbell]

What Duncan means is, your posited word "tois kontois" is simply "ho kontos" in the dative (not accusative!) plural case. It's the same word, only in the case that means "with/by kontoi" rather than "the kontos."

Oops ... slip of the keyboard, Dan! (I'm currently dozing off in an over-heated, under-ventilated office. :oops: )

[Paullus Scipio]

Thank you, Dan, for explaining the greek and clarifying the point! As, I said, I don't claim to speak ancient greek, but I am glad that others do and can assist in such matters! )

However, it doesn't affect the argument of my case at all, and I took this possibility into account when considering it....

...and I hope the Ancient Greek Language Scholars will not conclude that ‘kontos’ and ‘kontois’ are the same…

It just means that Arrian, rather than 'inventing' a new word derived from the verb-root 'akontis..' ( and I still think there is a strong connection...Arrian always accompanies 'kontois by 'akontis..'/ thrown/hurled), adapted an existing one and used it in a 'new' way....

….actually, not quite so; the greeks, fond of slang, nicknamed the large two-handed cavalry lance ‘kontos’ or’ bargepole’, but it was only a nickname, not the actual name although the Romans adopted the word into Latin as ‘Contus’ to mean two-handed cavalry lance. But, being a nickname in Greek, it was applicable to other things as well…..

According to the Lexica (LSJ and others) the word-root 'Konto..' and 'kontos' simply mean 'pole' which has the same generic meaning as in english, namely 'straight wooden shaft', of any size, thus 'kontos' has the meaning of 'a pole, a punting pole, a crutch, a shaft tipped with iron as in goad, or boat-hook'

Arrian's word then, if not derived from 'akontis/thrown', but rather from 'Kontos/pole' in its sense of 'iron tipped shaft', and used by him in a new way, is still a most appropriate word in Greek to be used for 'pilum'...... D

[Dan Diffendale]

It just means that Arrian, rather than 'inventing' a new word derived from the verb-root 'akontis..' ( and I still think there is a strong connection...Arrian always accompanies 'kontois by 'akontis..'/ thrown/hurled), adapted an existing one and used it in a 'new' way....

Just a further linguistic clarification here... there is no verb root akontis. It's a participial form of a verb.
That verb is akontizw, and it is derived from the noun akwn, "javelin" (itself from ake_ "point". The original, primary meaning of the verb akontizw is "to throw a javelin at" -- "javelinize", if you will (our -ize ending in English comes from the same Greek ending -izw), and as such shows up first in Homer. Thereafter it takes on a wider range of meanings, throwing more generally.