I.of copper or bronze (only poet. for aheneus; yet Hor. uses the latter oftener than the former).
I. Lit.: signa, the bronze images of the gods, Lucr 1, 316: “ahënis in scaphiis,” id. 6, 1045, falcīs, id. 5, 1293; cf. Verg. A. 4, 513; “lux, i. e. armorum aënorum,” id. ib. 2, 470: “crateres,” id. ib. 9, 165.— Hence, ăēnum (sc. vas), a bronze vessel: “litore aëna locant,” Verg. A. 1, 213; so Ov. M. 6, 645, Juv. 15, 81 al., of the bronze vessels in which the purple color was prepared, Ov. F 3, 822; Sen. Herc. Oet. 663; Stat. S. 1, 2, 151 (hence, aenulum).—
II. Trop.
A. Firm, invincible (cf. adamantinus): “manus,” Hor. C. 1, 35, 18.—
B. Hard, rigorous, inexorable: “corda,” Stat. Th. 3, 380.