Note 862 — Chapter XII · THE SWORD IN ANCIENT ROME; THE LEGION AND THE GLADIATOR.

A congener of the Keltic Ast = branch; whence the Fr. arme d’hast. It was the Greek κοντός, contus, or lance, an unbarbed spear, a royal sceptre: under the Republic it collected the hundreds (hastam centumviralem agere); it noted auctions (jus hastæ), it was the weapon of the light infantry-man (hasta velitaris), and it served to part the bride’s hair (Ovid, Fast. ii. 560). Hastarius and hastatus, hasta and quiris are synonyms; the gæsum was a heavier weapon and barbed, and the jaculum, with its diminutives, spiculum, vericulum, or verutum, was a lighter javelin. Virgil uses hastile poetically.