i. e. “The sharp stakes hardened in the fire[689].”
The term which Xenophon uses of the stakes is, according to some manuscripts of his work, σχαλίδες. He says, they should be fixed so as to lean backwards, and thus more effectually to resist the impulse of the animals rushing against them[690]. The Latin term answering to στάλικες was Vari. We find it thus used by Lucan:
Aut, cum dispositis adtollat retia varis
Venator, tenet ora levis clamosa Molossi.
Pharsalia, iv. 439, 440.
i. e. “The hunter holds the noisy mouth of the light Molossian dog, when he lifts up the nets to the stakes arranged in order.”
[689] Brunck, Anal. ii. 10. We find στάλικες in Oppian, Cyneg. iv. 67, 71, 121, 380; Pollux, Onom. v. 31.
[690] De Venat. vi. 7.
Gratius Faliscus, adopting a Greek term, calls them ancones, on account of the “elbow” or fork at the top:
Hic magis in cervos valuit metus: ast ubi lentæ