ungula

Ille tamen neque terribili stat spumeus ira; Ungula nec celso fervida calce tonat.

The horses are better; there is the dash of high venture in them; they have snuffed battle; their limbs are suppled to a bounding gallop,—as where in the Æneid, "Quadrupedante putrem sonitu quatit ungula campum."

The first is a prelude in triplets intended to picture the gallop of the steed, a common enough device since the days when Virgil did it much better without the aid of musical notation, in his well-known line,— “Quadrupedante putrem sonitu quatit ungula campum.”

Stare adeo miserum est, pereunt vestigia mille Ante fugam, absentemque ferit gravis ungula campum.

There, too, were the virgæ, or rods with thorns in them; the flagra, lori, and plumbati, whips and thongs, cutting with iron or bruising with lead; the heavy clubs; the hook for digging into the flesh; the ungula, said to have been a pair of scissors; the scorpio, and pecten, iron combs or rakes for tearing.