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As beliefs of this type are an integral part of the character of the lower orders, I am certain that the passage in Petronius is not devoid of sarcasm; and if such is the case, "contus" cannot be rendered "pole." The etymology of the word contumely is doubtful but I am of the opinion that the derivation suggested here is not unsound.
All translators have rendered "contus" by "pole," notwithstanding the fact that the word is used in a very different sense in Priapeia, x, 3: "traiectus conto sic extendere pedali," and contrary to the tradition which lay behind the gift of an apple or the acceptance of one. The truth of this may be established by many passages in the ancient writers.
A recondite rendering of "contus" would surely give a sharper point to the joke and furnish the riddle with the sting of an epigram. "You will see a town that resembles the fields in time of pestilence." In tracing this savage caricature, Petronius had in mind not Crotona alone; he refers to conditions in the capital of the empire.
The wound was now healing fast, and in three weeks from the time of the accident nothing but a scar remained: so that I again sallied forth sound and joyful, and said to myself: I, pedes quo te rapiunt et aurae Dum favet sol, et locus, i secundo Omine, et conto latebras, ut olim, Rumpe ferarum. Now this contus was a tough, light pole eight feet long, on the end of which was fixed an old bayonet.
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