Lance and Bow Cavalry

[Sean Manning]

I think the passage is Gregory of Tours 2.8, a chapter which Gregory attributes to Renatus Frigeridus book 12. The Latin Library text of this sentence is:

"Medii corporis, virilis habitudinis, decenter formatus, quo neque infirmitudini esset neque oneri, animo alacer, membris vegitus, eques praesumptissimus, sagittarum iactu peritus, contu inpiger, bellis aptissimus, pacis artibus celebris, nullius avaritiae, minimae cupiditatis, bonis animi praeditus, ne inpulsoribus quidem pravis ab instituto suo devians, iniuriarum patientissimus, laboris adpetens, inpavidus periculorum, famis, sitis, vigiliarum tolerantissimus."

So Aetius was a most ourstanding horseman, skilled at the shooting of arrows, vigorous with the lance or contus, et cetera. What contus meant to Gregory in the sixth century I leave as an exercise to the Romanists.

I suspect that steppes cultures had been using both spears and bows on horseback since the early first millenium BCE, although the same man did not necessarily use both weapons in the same fight.