Sufflamen

Sufflamen (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]