sufflamen

• I Lit.: rotam astringit multo sufflamine, Juv. 8, 148: tardat sufflamine currum, Prud. Psych. 417.—
• II Trop., a clog, hinderance, impediment (post-class.): nec res atteritur longo sufflamine litis, Juv. 16, 50; Inscr. Grut. 180, 3.

• sub+FLA-, a clog, brake, drag-chain: rotam astringit multo sufflamine, Iu.: longum litis, hinderance, Iu.

SUFFLA´MEN(τροχοπέδη, ἐποχλεύς), a drag to check the wheels of carriages or waggons (Juven. 8.148, 16.50-Z2). 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 (3. 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.

(ἐποχεύς). A drag-chain used as a brake upon a wheel (Juv. viii. 148), and employed to relieve the pressure upon the horses when going down hill.