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The Romans, like the Greeks, used torture during interrogations. Until the 2nd century CE, torture was used only on slaves (with a few exceptions). After that period, torture also affected the lower classes. According to Roman law, the testimony of a slave was considered true only under torture. It was believed that they could not be trusted and had to be deliberately “tortured”.
It is worth noting that according to many scholars, torture was an everyday matter for ancient civilizations and was officially included in the legal system of states. Torture was considered necessary to stop bad and unacceptable social behavior.
Crucifixion
Crucifixion was a form of capital punishment used in ancient times by the Persians, Romans, Phoenicians, and Carthaginians, among others, as a form of shameful execution of slaves, rebels, and other people who were not full citizens. Only a citizen of low status (humiliores) could be sentenced to such a death – in the case of a serious crime, such as treason against one’s own country. The condemned person was then tied or nailed to a large wooden cross and left there until he died. It was an extremely long and painful death.
The hypothesis that the custom of crucifixion in Rome developed from the primitive practice of arbori suspendere, or hanging arbor infelix (“ill-omened tree”), dedicated to the gods of the underworld, is rejected by William A. Oldfather, who points out that this form of execution consisted of hanging the suspect from a tree. Moreover, this punishment was not intended to kill the condemned, much less to sacrifice him to the deities of the underworld.
Tertullian mentions in his 1st-century CE Apology that trees were used in crucifixions. However, it was Seneca the Younger who had already used the phrase infelix lignum (“unfortunate wood”) for the horizontal beam (patibulum) of the cross. The works of Plautus and Plutarch are the only Roman sources that mention criminals carrying their own patibulum.
The most famous crucifixion took place after the suppression of the Spartacus’ Revolt in 71 BCE. As a warning, Marcus Crassus ordered 6,000 rebels to be crucified along the Appian Way leading from Capua to Rome. Mass crucifixions also took place during the civil wars of the 2nd and 1st centuries BC and after the capture of Jerusalem in 70 CE. Josephus Flavius mentions that the Romans crucified defenders along the walls.
Roman law used this torture not only to kill but above all to dishonor and emphasize the low status of the condemned. Josephus Flavius mentions that Jews of high classes used to be crucified, only to take away their status. The Romans also often broke the legs of the condemned to hasten death and forbid their burial.
Sometimes, before hanging, the victim was severely whipped, which caused significant blood loss and the victim went into a state of shock and stupor. Then the condemned had to carry a horizontal beam (patibulum) to the place of execution. According to Roman source literature, a person condemned to crucifixion never carried the entire cross, contrary to popular belief and contrary to many modern reenactments of Jesus’ path to Golgotha. The vertical beam (stipes) was already firmly planted in the ground at the place of execution. The condemned person was stripped of his clothes. Then the victim was tied or nailed to the beams. For this purpose, iron, tapered nails from 13 to 18 cm long were used. Sometimes, after the execution, the nails were collected by onlookers and carried with them as healing amulets. The condemned person, nailed to the beam, was pulled up and attached to the vertical post. Then the whole thing gave the tool its most famous form, that of a cross. The cruelty of the executioners took on various forms, and the torment could last from several hours to even several days. The condemned person was hanged right-side up or upside down.
Since crucifixion itself – without significant damage to organs – did not cause death, in most cases the direct cause of death of the condemned (occurring within a period of several to a dozen or so hours or even days) was suffocation, exhaustion, dehydration, or bleeding out as a result of injuries. In such a case, the condemned initially had their legs relatively straightened, bent enough so that the feet could be nailed to the cross. After a few or a dozen hours, the leg muscles could no longer support the weight of the body and would bend under the condemned. At that point, the diaphragm was pressed so much that the condemned began to suffocate – and this could last for another several or a dozen or so hours. Another way of dying on the cross was bleeding out (nails driven in in a way that led to a quicker death) or death from exhaustion (using a leg rest).
In Roman times, modifications to this method of execution were also used, by placing a support on a vertical pole at the level of the condemned’s feet, thanks to which the condemned could breathe relatively freely. Death occurred from exhaustion, even several days after the execution began. Executions were also sometimes sped up by breaking the condemned’s legs (this made it impossible to support himself and try to take a breath).
Crucifixion was practised from the 6th century BCE until the 4th century CE, when in 337 Emperor Constantine the Great banned this type of execution in honor of Christ, who was the most famous victim of this execution. In addition, Roman legionaries would have fun during torture by hanging the condemned at various angles. A tortured convict, according to Roman rules of crucifixion, could die for several days. The body was left to be devoured by vultures and other birds.
Bronze Bull
The bronze bull, also called the Sicilian bull or the bull of Phalaris, was an instrument of execution invented by the Greeks. Its inventor was Perillus of Athens, who persuaded Phalaris (tyrant of the Sicilian city of Akragas in the 4th century BCE) to use it as an instrument of execution, into which the condemned were put through an upper, closed hole and then roasted alive, lighting a fire under the bull. The screams of the victims were distorted as they passed through an ingenious modulator placed in the bull’s head and heard outside as the roar of the animal. Phalaris, amazed by Perilaus’ idea, ordered him to enter the device and demonstrate how it worked. The naive artist entered, and the tyrant ordered the hole to be closed and a fire to be lit under the bull. Perillus, often considered the first victim of the “Bronze Bull”, was dragged out before he could fry, and then thrown from a cliff on the tyrant’s orders.
The bronze bull was supposedly sunk into the sea in 554 BCE, just after the tyrant was overthrown by a revolt led by Theron’s ancestor, a certain Telemachus, and Phalaris himself was supposed to be the last victim roasted in it. According to another version, after the capture of Akragas, the bull was transported by Himilco to Carthage and only after its destruction, returned to Akragas.
It is believed that the Romans used this type of torture to kill Jews and Christians. According to Christian tradition, Saint Eustace was roasted in a bronze bull along with his wife and children on the orders of Emperor Hadrian. However, the Catholic Church considers these stories to be completely untrue. A similar fate befell Antipas of Pergamon during the persecution under Domitian in 92 CE. The instrument was also used in 287 CE under Emperor Diocletian on Pelagia of Tarsus.
Boat
First described by Plutarch of Chaeronea as a Persian torture technique. The victim was stripped naked and then securely tied between two upturned boats, so that the head, hands and feet protruded from the hulls. The condemned was forced to drink milk and honey in large quantities until diarrhea occurred, which attracted insects along with the sweet drinks. To top it all off, the tortured person was smeared with honey in intimate places: under the armpits, in the groin. Then the tied condemned person was released into the middle of the body of water, where he was exposed to intense sunlight and the activity of insects, which drank his sweet blood and bred in his body. The cause of death was probably dehydration, starvation or septic shock.
Skinning
Torture was already used by the Assyrians and later by the Romans. Hot water was poured over the victim. Then the executioner took a knife and tore the skin off the body, from the legs to the head. Death depended on how much skin was removed from the body and how extensive the wounds were.
Damnation to the beast
Throwing to the lions was one of the most “distinctive” methods of torturing and killing victims. Most often, the condemned (they were called bestiarii) were thrown to the lions in the arena for the amusement of the spectators.
The beginnings of this practice of killing can be found in the Bible in the 6th century BCE, which mentions that the Jewish prophet Daniel was thrown into a den of lions. Ultimately, however, God saved his life. Scientists claim that throwing people to be devoured was already occurring in Egypt, Central Asia, Libya and Carthage. Hamilcar Barca, for example, during the war between the Carthaginians and mercenaries (which broke out after the defeat in the First Punic War) in 240 CE threw three prisoners to be devoured by beasts. Hannibal, in turn, during the Second Punic War, ordered captured Romans to fight with him. Those who survived then had to face elephants.
The phenomenon of damnatio ad bestias in Rome did not function in the form of offering sacrifices to deities. During the monarchy, lions were not known at all, and King Numa Pompilius in the 7th century BC, according to legend, banned the practice of throwing victims to be devoured. In Rome, damnatio ad bestias began to be used to provide entertainment for the crowd. For this purpose, various animals were brought in, from the most distant corners of the state and beyond, including: lions, bears, leopards, Caspian tigers, black panthers, bulls. Damnatio ad bestias was a spectacle that was interwoven with gladiator fights and was the main attraction for the masses. Initially, such practices could be seen in the Roman Forum. However, as officials and later emperors began to invest in their popularity, performances began to be held in amphitheaters built specifically for this purpose.
In ancient Rome, there were professional trainers of wild animals, who were supposed to properly prepare the animals to fight the condemned, arouse aggression in them and encourage them to eat human meat. Sometimes hunts/fights were played in the arena, where a warrior in a tunic, armed only with a sword or spears, stood against the beasts. Sometimes he was accompanied by a venator (“hunter”) equipped with a bow, whip or spears, who often fought for money or glory. So these were not, in the strict sense of the word, executions, but rather a competition between humans and animals. It should be emphasized that we cannot call such warriors gladiators. Gladiators fought among themselves. Here we can talk about venatores. Various animals appeared in the arena during the hunt: hyenas, elephants, wild oxen, buffaloes, lynxes, giraffes, ostriches, deer, antelopes, zebras or hares. The first such hunt (venatio) was organized by Marcus Fulvius Nobilior, consul of 189 BC in Circus Maximus in 186 BC, on the occasion of Rome’s conquest of Aetolia in Greece. To this day, we can see with our own eyes the underground passages in the Colosseum and other amphitheaters, through which animals were once led to the arena.
People thrown to the beasts without a chance to defend themselves were usually accused of high treason (citizens) or of committing another serious crime (freedmen, slaves). Even if a naked and defenseless convict killed an animal in some way, more beasts were sent to the arena until all the bestiarii were dead. It is said to have been rare that two animals were needed to kill one man. Sometimes a single animal could deal with a few convicts. Cicero mentions that during a certain spectacle, one lion killed 200 bestiarii one after another. However, it happened that young men themselves recruited themselves to the bestiarii, as mentioned by Seneca the Younger. Blaise de Vigenere, the French translator, claims that bestiarii also fought for money, training in professional schools for fighting beasts (scholae bestiarum or bestiariorum). Sometimes even several such warriors were released against several wild animals.
The custom of throwing criminals to the lions was brought to Rome by Lucius Aemilius Paulus of Macedon, who defeated the Macedonians in 168 BC, and his son Scipio Aemilius the Younger, who conquered Carthage in 146 BC. The idea of punishment was “stolen” from Carthage and was used against deserters and traitors to the state. The severity of the punishment was intended to discourage taking inappropriate legal steps. Over time, Roman authorities discovered that this method of combating undesirable social behavior was extremely effective, which led to regulating it. According to the accepted norm, the condemned were tied to a column or thrown to the animals in the arena, defenseless and naked (objicere bestiis).
Cases of such justice are found in the sources. Strabo, the Greek traveler and geographer, mentions the execution of the rebel slave leader Selurus. Martialis, in turn, recorded that the bandit Lavreol was crucified and devoured by an eagle and a bear. Executions are also mentioned by Seneca the Younger, Apuleius, Lucretius and Gaius Petronius. Cicero, in turn, in one of his works, expresses indignation at the fact that a certain spectator was thrown to wild beasts simply because he was “ungraceful”. Suetonius mentions that when meat prices were high, the emperor Caligula ordered the animals in the amphitheaters to be fed with the flesh of prisoners. Pompey the Great, during his second consulship (55 BC), arranged a fight between well-armed gladiators and 18 elephants.
The most popular wild beasts in the arenas were lions, imported from Africa. Less popular were bears, which were imported from Gaul, Germania, and even North Africa. According to some historians and researchers, the mass capture of animals and their export from North Africa had a negative impact on the local wildlife.
Damnatio ad bestias was also used against Christians. The first persecutions took place in the 1st century AD. Tacitus mentions that during the reign of Nero after the fire of Rome in 64 CE, followers of Christ were dressed in animal skins (called tunica molesta) and thrown to dogs. This phenomenon was later used by subsequent rulers, who moved it to the arenas of amphitheaters. The use of damnatio ad bestias against Christians was intended to show them to Roman society as the worst criminals.
Under Roman law, Christians were accused of the following crimes:
- insult to the emperor’s majesty (majestatis rei);
- gathering in secret, nocturnal, illegal meetings (collegium illicitum or coetus nocturni), which were treated as rebellion;
- refusing to offer libations or burn incense in honor of Caesar;
- non-recognition of state gods (sacrilegi);
- the use of forbidden magic (magi, malefici);
- professing a religion not recognized by law (religio nova, peregrina et illicita), by the law of the Twelve Tables.
Christians were blamed for natural disasters, e.g. droughts, famines, epidemics, earthquakes, floods.
According to Tertullian (2nd century CE), Christians gradually began to avoid theaters and circuses, which they associated with places of torture. Persecution of Christians ended in the 4th century CE, when Constantine the Great issued the Edict of Milan in 313, introducing religious freedom.
Roman law, which we know largely thanks to Byzantine copies (Theodosian Code, Corpus Iuris Civilis), strictly regulated which convicts could be thrown to the wolves. Such people included:
- army deserters;
- people who employed magicians to harm others (introduced under Caracalla; later renewed under Constantius II in 357 CE);
- poisoners – according to Sulla’s law, patricians were decapitated, plebeians were thrown to the beasts, and slaves were crucified;
- counterfeiters (they could also be burned);
- political criminals;
- parricides, who were most often drowned in a tied bag with snakes (poena cullei). However, in the absence of a water reservoir, damnatio ad bestias was used;
- initiators of revolts and rebellions – were, depending on their social status, crucified, thrown to the wolves or expelled from the country;
- child kidnappers for ransom (according to the law of 315 CE they were either thrown to the lions or decapitated).
A conviction for damnatio ad bestias deprived a citizen of all civil rights; he could not write a will, and his property was confiscated by the state. The exception to the rule were military officials and their children. Another regulation was the Petronius Law (Lex Petronia) of 61 AD, which prohibited masters from condemning their slaves to damnatio ad bestias without prior permission from the court. Local administrators, on the other hand, had to consult with the official imperial authority before staging a gladiator fight with wild animals. The practice of throwing victims to the devour was finally banned after the fall of Rome in 681 AD.
Breaking on the wheel
Breaking on the wheel has its origins in Greece. The Romans later adopted the torture device. A naked victim with their limbs spread wide apart was tied to metal rings. Thick pieces of wood were then placed under their hips, knees, ankles, elbows and wrists. Then the executioner crushed their body with a heavy wheel (a type of angular club whose edges were covered with metal). After crushing their limbs, the victim was placed in an upright position. Then the crowd tormented them, for example by gouging out their eyes.
Imprisonment
Impalement appears in human history as early as the 18th century BCE. The instrument of punishment includes the Code of Hammurabi. Of course, impalement also occurred as an execution in ancient Rome. It is worth mentioning that the word “crucifixion” used could also refer to impalement. Therefore, if we come across the word in Roman sources, without the context presented, we can also assume impalement.
The instrument of punishment was a previously prepared stake – a wooden pole sharpened on one side. The executioner tied the legs of the condemned man lying on the ground with ropes or cords to a pair of horses or oxen, and placed the stake between the condemned man’s legs. When the animals moved forward, they pulled the condemned man along. The stake was driven into the man’s anus or crotch and sank further, but it was not allowed to pierce him completely. Then the executioner untied the animals, and the pole with the impaled man was placed vertically. Under the influence of the body’s weight, the stake sank deeper and deeper, slowly piercing the entrails. The condemned man would die for a long time, depending on the strength of the body and the degree of damage to the internal organs; it could take up to 3 days. A stake driven crookedly significantly prolonged the suffering of the condemned man. Sometimes, to make the punishment more severe, the condemned man was smeared with a flammable substance after being impaled on the stake and set on fire.
Sawing
This form of execution was not commonly used during the Roman Empire. However, it gained its “popularity” during the reign of Emperor Caligula, who sentenced his political opponents and members of his own family to be sawn. The bodies of the condemned were cut with a chainsaw across the torso, not down the torso as was usually done. Caligula watched the executions from the sidelines, feasting on delicious food. He claimed that torture whetted his appetite.
In 365 CE Procopius declared himself emperor and opposed the rightful ruler Valens. The usurper was defeated, and as a result of the treachery of Agilonius and Gomoarius, he was taken prisoner to make matters worse. In 366 CE Procopius was tied to two trees that were pulled down to the ground. When the ropes holding the trees were cut, Procopius was torn in two. Agilonius and Gomoarius, in turn, were cut into pieces on Valens’ orders.
Crushing
The Romans, thanks to other nations (e.g. Carthage) around the Mediterranean, at some point, began to use elephants for military purposes. Sometimes, for execution, the condemned person was laid on the ground and the animal was ordered to stand on the head/body of the victim. The writer Valerius Maximus (1st century CE) mentions that Lucius Aemilius Paulus Macedonicus, after defeating Macedonian king Perseus in 168 BC, ordered elephants to be used to crush the bodies of three deserters (Valerius Maximus, Facta et Dicta Memorabilia, 2.7.14). Another solution was to place a heavy stone on the victim’s chest, which caused suffocation and death.
Finally, it is worth mentioning another form of execution. The condemned person was dressed in a special tunic, the so-called tunica molesta, which was covered with a flammable substance, such as kerosene. Then the unfortunate person was set on fire in the arena to the delight of the spectators.
