Quaestiones Graecae

Question 1. Who are they at Epidaurus called Κονίποδες and Ἄρτυνοι?

Solution. The managers of the affairs of the commonwealth were one hundred and eighty men; out of these they elected senators, which they called ἄρτυνοι. The most part of the common people were conversant in husbandry; these they called κονίποδες, because (as may be supposed) they were known by their dirty feet when they came into the city.

Question 2. What woman was that among the Cumans called Onobatis?

Solution. This was one of the women taken in adultery, which they brought into the market-place, and set her upon a certain stone to be seen of all; from thence they took her and set her on ass-back, and led her round about the city, and afterwards set her up again upon the stone; the rest of her life she led under disgrace. Her they called Onobatis (the woman that rode upon an ass); hence they abominated the stone as unclean. There was also a certain magistrate among them, called Phylactes (a conservator); he that had this office kept the prison for the rest of his time; but at the nocturnal convention of the senators he came into the council, and laying hands on the kings led them forth, and detained them in custody until the senate had determined concerning them, by a vote given in private, whether they had acted unrighteously or not.