Expert: Maria - 3/17/2010

Question
I am doing a report and I need examples of the tortures, punishments and executions styles used in the ancient world. I know that Ancient Greeks and Romans are your expertise, so any help would be greatly appreciated. Are there any books I should buy, websites that you recommend, etc.?

Answer
Hello,

As we read in The Law of the Twelve Tables, i.e. the ancient Roman legislation which was written in 451-449 BC,the Romans used
the following punishments:
-hanging;
-hurling from the Tarpeian Rock, a steep cliff of the southern summit of
the Capitoline Hill (only for treason or false witness);
-burning alive;
-fatal beating (only for slaves);
-drowning in a sack (Latin, “poena cullei” meaning "the punishment of the sack" )  
as a Roman capital punishment imposed for parricide: the culprit was drowned
in a leather sack together with a cock, a dog, a serpent, and a monkey.
-decapitation.

Crucifixion, which was a cruel  method of capital punishment, particularly  in Persia, Mesopotamia, Carthage, Egypt, it was used in Rome  from about the 6th century BC to the 4th century AD when Constantine the Great abolished  it  in the Roman Empire where
the crucifixion was the capital punishment  generally  inflicted on all those
who were not Roman citizens, like Jesus for example, while Roman citizens were
condemned to be beheaded (St. Paul e.g.).


As for the ancient Greek punishments, the worst crimes were punished with
banishment (called "ostracism") or death.
In early Athens murderers  were thrown into a pit of sharp spikes called
the “barathron” (in ancient Greek letters, βάραθρον meaning “cleft”),
while the Spartans cast their criminals into a disused dry well.
In Greece there was also a kind of crucifixion called “apotumpanismòs”
(Ancient Greek letters, ἀποτυμπανισμός), i.e. an execution on the
wooden board: the guilty was chained around the neck, wrists,
and ankles, then nailed to a long wooden plank where he was left
to die of starvation.


This in short, of course, as the matter is very broad, as you can
read in “Ancient Greece Crime and Punishment” by Richard Dargie and
“The History of Torture and Execution: From Early Civilization through Medieval
Times to the Present” by Jean Kellaway.

See at:
http://www.amazon.com/History-Torture-Execution-Civilization-Medieval/dp/1585746...

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/results.asp?WRD=The+History+of+Tortu...

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Ancient-Greece-Crime-and-Punishment/Richard-Dar...

http://books.google.com/books?id=ZAlosp0mhqEC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Ancient+Gre...


http://www.carlsbadnm.com/sleeman/Story/crucify.htm   

http://encyclopedia.stateuniversity.com/pages/5235/crucifixion.html

http://www.fordham.edu/Halsall/ancient/12tables.html

Hope this can be helpful to you.
Have a good work!
Maria
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P.S. I really hope that you can read the whole text. Let me know about it, please!