Ἐν δὲ ταῖς νουμηνίαις οἱ δοῦλοι ἐπωλούντο. Schol. Aristoph. Eq. 43. The auctioneer or slave-broker (προπάτωρ) was answerable at law for the quality of the persons whom he sold; that is, that they corresponded with the description given of them in the catalogue. Poll. vii. 11. 12. Cf. Casaub. ad Theoph. Charact. p. 257, and Scaliger on the word Propula ad Virg. Cul. 411. p. 1255, seq. Slaves were sometimes sold in the temple of Castor and Polydeukes. Dem. in Steph. i. § 23. On this occasion the slaves were stationed, as I have seen them in the bazaars of modern Egypt, in a circle in the market-place, and the one whose turn it was to be sold mounted a table, which seems to have been of stone, where he exhibited himself and was knocked down to the best bidder. Sometimes when the articles were lively they made great sport for the company, as in the case of Diogenes who bawled aloud “whoever among you wants a master, let him buy me.”[93] ----- Footnote 93: Diogen. Laert. vi. 1. 4. ----- To the friskiness whether natural or assumed which the young barbarians often exhibited on this occasion, Menander alludes in the following fragment of his Ephesian:[94] I scorn by the gods to be breechesless found, And for sale tripping briskly the vile circles round. ----- Footnote 94: Harpocrat. v. κύκλοι. p. 108. Vales. Cf. Poll. vii. 11. ----- Slaves of little or no value were contemptuously called “salt-bought,” from a custom prevalent among the inland Thracians, of bartering their captives for salt;[95] whence it may be inferred, that domestics from that part of the world were considered inferior. ----- Footnote 95: Poll. vii. 14, seq. -----