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What was she, who in the citie of Cumes they named Onobatis?
WHen there was any woman taken in adultery, they brought her in to the publick market∣place, where they set her upon an eminent stone to the end that she might be seene of all the people: and after she had stood there a good while, they mounted her upon an asse, and so led her round about the city: which done, they brought her backe againe into the market∣place, where she must stand as she did before upon the same stone: and so from that time for∣ward she led an infamous and reprochfull life, called of every one by the name of Onobatis that is to say, she that hath ridden upon the asse backe. But when they had so done, they reputed that stone [ 10] polluted, and detested it as accursed and abominable.
There was likewise in the same city a certeine office of a gaoler, whom they called Phylactes: and looke who bare this office, had the charge of keeping the prison at all other times: onely at a certeine assembly and session of the counsell in the night season, he went into the Senat, and brought forth the kings, leading them by the hands, and three held them still, during the time that the Senat had made inquisition and decreed whether they had deserved ill and ruled unjust∣ly or no: giving thus their suffrages and voices privily in the darke.