These were often on biblical subjects, but could also deal with literary, philosophical or historical matters.
[4] Charles Wright gives as a modern American example of the same sort of riddle "Who first played tennis in the Bible?
The Frankish Table of Nations, a brief genealogy of the Germanic peoples, was the incorporated as the answer to a question in one collection of eight ioca.
[5] The lines are usually prefaced with dic mihi (tell me), dico tibi (I tell you), interrogatio (question) or responsio (answer) and only in later dialogues discipulus (student) and magister (teacher).
In one group of ioca, the names of the emperor Hadrian and the philosopher Epictetus are used for the interlocutors.