Horror: 8 Most Cruel Execution In History.
The painting “The Judgement of Cambyses” by Gerard David, created in 1498, depicts the story of the Persian judge Sisamnes, who was flayed alive for his corruption. While the old saying suggests there are many ways to accomplish a task, including “skinning a cat,” history reveals there were various gruesome methods used to execute individuals in ancient times. In this article, we will examine eight of the most macabre methods for dispatching people in antiquity.
1. The Brazen Bull
One of the most infamous methods of execution in ancient times was the brazen bull, allegedly invented by the Attic sculptor Perillos and presented to the sixth century BC tyrant of Akragas in Sicily, Phalaris. The condemned was placed inside the hollow bronze bull through a small door at the back, and a fire was lit underneath. As the person inside was slowly roasted alive, pipes inside the bull would convert their screams into sounds resembling the mooing of a real bull. While this method was not widely used, it is an example of the cruel and imaginative ways people have devised to execute their enemies. In ancient Greece, executions were typically indirect, and citizens could be banished to die in the wilderness or thrown into a chasm to perish from their injuries, while slaves were often beaten to death with clubs. The Athenian philosopher Socrates, for example, was sentenced to death by hemlock poisoning.
Even the notorious and cruel tyrant Phalaris was shocked by the brazen bull, and he thought it appropriate to test the device by throwing its inventor inside. Eventually, Phalaris allegedly met his own end in the bronze bull.
2. deаtһ by molten metal
Another gruesome method of execution was used in ancient Israel, where Mosaic law defined 36 crimes as punishable by death. Those found guilty of incest or adultery with the married daughter of a member of the priesthood were executed by burning, but not by being burned from the outside.
First, the guilty individual would be strangled with a soft rope by two witnesses integral to the case. This was considered humane to avoid causing additional suffering with coarse material. When the strangulation caused the condemned to gasp for air, molten lead was poured down their throat.
3. Poena Cullei
Today, when someone talks about “getting the sack,” they usually mean they’re about to be fired from their job. However, in Ancient Rome, the phrase took on a much more gruesome meaning. “Getting the sack” referred to the punishment of poena cullei, or “penalty of the sack.”
The punishment involved the condemned individual being beaten or whipped before being sewn into a large sack and thrown into a river or the sea. But the individual was not alone in the sack; they were accompanied by a variety of animals, such as a snake, a chicken, an ape, and a dog.
4. Flaying is a gruesome method of execution that involves removing the victim’s skin, often by cutting incisions in the legs, buttocks, and torso and then peeling off the skin as intact as possible. This method has been used to inflict unimaginable pain on the condemned in different parts of the world for centuries, including in Ancient Rome, medieval England, and the Ottoman Empire.
The Assyrians were known for their brutality in warfare, and flaying was just one of the many gruesome methods they used to intimidate their enemies. The flayed skins were often hung on walls or used as trophies to display the military might of the empire. The practice was also used as a form of punishment for rebellious subjects, with the flaying often being carried out in public as a warning to others who might consider challenging the authority of the empire.
5. The Five Pains was a method of execution used in ancient China that involved five distinct torturous steps leading up to death. One of the most infamous steps was the waist chop, which involved the condemned individual being placed in a kneeling position with their head held back and their neck resting on a wooden block. A sharp sword was then used to chop the individual’s body in half at the waist. The waist chop was considered to be a particularly gruesome and painful method of execution, and it was reserved for individuals who were deemed to have committed the most serious crimes. Li Si was one such individual, and his execution by waist chop is still remembered as one of the most brutal in Chinese history.
The ‘waist chop’ was not formally abolished in China until the 18th century.
6. “An eye for an eye” was a guiding principle during the First Babylonian Empire (c. 1894 BC – c. 1595 BC) in what is now modern-day Iraq. This period placed a strong emphasis on maintaining balance, and the law of talion – or the principle of retribution – was at the center of this ideology.
Under this law, if one were to knock out someone else’s teeth, their own teeth would be knocked out in return. Perjurers would lose their tongues, and rapists would be castrated. However, the law was not applied equally to everyone. For instance, a free man who assaulted or even murdered a slave would typically only be fined, indicating that the law favored the powerful and privileged.
This style of punishment extended to the death penalty as well. Anyone caught looting a house fire would be executed on the spot by being thrown into the burning building. Burglars would also be hanged at the place where they had committed the crime. Negligence could also be punishable by death. Builders were executed if one of their constructions collapsed and killed someone. The inequality of slaves before the law was also evident, as seen in Line 218 of the Babylonian Code of Hammurabi, which specifies that if a surgeon kills a slave through malpractice, he only needs to “restore,” i.e. replace, the slave.
7. Crucifixion
Ancient Rome was a brutal place where justice was class-based. If, for example, you were a slave on trial, only evidence obtained under torture could be accepted by the court, and the torture was often carried out in court as well. Crucifixion was typically reserved for slaves and humiliores (second-class Roman citizens), although there were instances of upper-class Romans being crucified.
The unfortunate person being crucified would usually be stripped naked, scourged, and beaten, and then forced to carry a large wooden cross to the place of execution. They would then be nailed to the cross through the hands and feet, while soldiers or bystanders would sometimes stab, beat, or humiliate the victim.
Being crucified upside down was considered a mercy, as death arrived sooner. However, the actual cause of death varied from case to case. It could be due to septic shock from the open wounds, or when the prisoner grew exhausted and could no longer support their weight or breathe properly, they would die from asphyxiation.
Crucifixion was typically carried out in a highly publicized manner.
8. Mithridates was a soldier who lived and fought during the First Persian (Achaemenid) Empire and died in 401 BC. During a royal banquet, Mithridates, who was drunk, betrayed the confidence of King Artaxerxes II. Infuriated and embarrassed, the king ordered a punishment that became infamous in the ancient world: scaphism, also known as “the boats.”
According to Plutarch, who wrote about this punishment hundreds of years later, the condemned person was taken to a body of water and placed inside a boat. An identical boat was then placed on top of it, forming a sort of shell with the person’s arms, legs, and head sticking out of the sides. This was the beginning of the punishment.
Mithridates is said to have endured ‘the boats’ for 17 days before dying. The use of the death penalty has been a brutal and merciless practice that persisted not only throughout antiquity and the middle ages but also into the modern era. In England, the ‘Bloody Code’ system implemented in 1723 made more than 200 offenses punishable by death, including damaging a fishpond, cutting down an ornamental shrub, and having a sooty face on a road at night. It is shocking to note that France carried out its last execution by guillotine as recently as 1977.
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