Sozomenus, Historia Ecclesiastica

Ἡ δὲ βασιλὶς, φιλεῖ γάρ πως τὸ νοσοῦν τοῖς ἀπευκταίοις ὑπέχειν τὴν ἀκοὴν, ὑπέλαβεν ἀληθῆ εἶναι τὴν διαβολὴν, καὶ μάλιστα παρὰ Ἰουδαίων γεγενημένην: ἐπεὶ τὰ αὐτῶν ἐφρόνει, καὶ Ἰουδαϊκῶς ἐβίω, καὶ ἀψευδεῖς αὐτοὺς ἡγεῖτο καὶ εὔνους αὐτῇ. Παραλαβόντες δὲ οἱ Μάγοι Ταρβούλαν καὶ τὰς λοιπὰς καταδικάζουσιν αὐτῶν θάνατον: καὶ πρίονι διχῆ τεμόντες, ἀνεσκολόπισαν, καὶ ὡς ἀποτρόπαιον νόσου, διὰ μέσου τῶν σκολόπων τὴν βασιλίδα παρελθεῖν

But the queen—for the sick are somehow inclined to lend an ear to ill-omened things—took the accusation to be true, especially as it had come from Jews; for she shared their views and lived in the Jewish manner, and thought them truthful and well-disposed to her. And the Magi, taking Tarbula and the other women, condemn them to death; and having cut them in two with a saw, they impaled them on stakes, and, as a charm to avert the sickness, [made] the queen pass through between the stakes

Καὶ τελευτῶντες, τρίποδα ξύλινον ἐκ δάφνης κατεσκευάσαντο, καὶ ἐπικλήσεσι καὶ λόγοις οἷς εἰώθεισαν, ἐτέλεσαν: ὥστε συλλογῇ γραμμάτων, καθ̓ ἕκαστον στοιχεῖον ὑπὸ μηχανῆς τοῦ τρίποδος καὶ τῆς μαντείας σημαινομένων, ἀναφανῆναι τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ ἐσομένου βασιλέως.

And at last they made a wooden tripod of laurel, and consecrated [it] with the invocations and formulas to which they were accustomed, so that, by the gathering of letters, each letter being indicated by the device of the tripod and by the divination, the name of the future emperor might be revealed.