SUFFLA´MEN
SUFFLA´MEN (
τροχοπέδη,
ἐποχλεύς), a drag to check the wheels of
carriages or waggons (
Juv. 8.148,
16.50). It is defined by the scholiast on the
former of these passages as “vinculum ferreum; quod inter radios
mittitur dum clivum descendere coeperit reda:” i. e. it was
usually a simple drag chain which locked the wheel. Rich, however, is
mistaken in making the word
τροχοπέδη an
argument for its being a mere “fetter,” since Athenaeus (iii.
p. 99 c), who quotes that word from Herodes Atticus, and is the only
authority for it, says that it was a
ξύλον
διαβαλλόμενον διὰ τῶν τροχῶν, and goes oh to state that
the same
ξύλον was called
ἐποχλεὺς by Simaristus. We must therefore
suppose that the ancient drag was sometimes a drag-chain, sometimes a log of
wood attached by two chains so as to check the wheel, as may be seen in
waggons of the present day. We have no indication of anything like a
“slipper” drag. Casaubon reads
ἐποχεὺς in the passage of:Athenaeus, but the occurrence of
the word
μόχλος in the context favours
rather the other reading.
[
G.E.M]
