LANCEA, a spear; an offensive weapon used by the ancient cavaliers, in form of a half pike. The lance consisted of three parts, the shaft or handle, the wings, and the dart. Pliny attributes the invention of lances to the Ætolians. But Varro and Aulus Gellius say the word lance is Spanish; and hence others conclude that the use of this weapon was borrowed by the people of Italy from the Spaniards. Diodorus Siculus derives it from the Gaulish, and Festus from the Greek λάγκα, which signifies the same thing.