Worst Roman Punishment?

[Onasander]

Decimation was used in cases other than desertion, I have a thread in the Religious forums about the Saint of the Infantry that describes this how it was done.

[FLavius Valerius Constantinus]

What kind of intruments were used if any?

[sullafelix]

OK nasty punishments...well there are a few actually. Having a mullet stuck up your behind always struck me as quite unpleasant. Apparently they used the mullet because it had nasty scales so when it was pulled back out.....ouch (now that would make your eyes water). You could punish your wife and her partner if you caught them inflagrante, even kill him as I rmember rightly. The favoured method of execution in Rome though was strangulation by a bloke with big hands! Incidentally it was illegal to strangle a virgin girl and so if you needed to do that, like on the odd occasions that they executed a whole family, you would get the executioner to...well I am sure I don't have to spell it out....first then strangle her.

 

Also don't forget what they used to do at the games, they could get quite imaginative. They used to re-enact various incidents from Rome's earlier history, for instance. One of their partciular favourites was to get a condemned criminal and get him to play Mucius Scaevola. Scaevola was a great hero from Roman early history and he once proved his bravery by holding his hand in a brazier until it burned clean away. Guess what they used to do to the criminals centuries later...poor swines.

 

Anyway must go and get on with some actual work.

 

Toodleooo

 

Sulla

[Sextus Roscius]

Mullet....doesn't sound pretty. You've really taken it into consideration eh sullafelix?

 

BTW FLavius Valerius Constantinus, the instrument used for decimation was that the soilders who were chosen (one out of every ten randomly) were stoned to death while tied to a pole by the other soldiers who were not chosen.....

 

Just to answer your question.

[Lost_Warrior]

Also don't forget what they used to do at the games, they could get quite imaginative. They used to re-enact various incidents from Rome's earlier history, for instance. One of their partciular favourites was to get a condemned criminal and get him to play Mucius Scaevola. Scaevola was a great hero from Roman early history and he once proved his bravery by holding his hand in a brazier until it burned clean away. Guess what they used to do to the criminals centuries later...poor swines.

 

::shudders:: that is horrendous. But I gotta ask: why was Rome's great hero such an idiot????? :shock:

[FLavius Valerius Constantinus]

Who is Mucius Scaevola and what did he do wrong?

[Lost_Warrior]

He didn't do anything wrong. He WILLINGLY and INTENTIONALLY burned his own hand off to prove his bravery

[sullafelix]

It is in Livy...somewhere....but basically I think it was when rome was beseiged by the Samnites. Mucius Scaevola swam the Tiber and tried to bump off the opposing king, however, he got the wrong guy and was captured. The king said I am going to kill you unles you tell me all your secrets now I can't remember who did the sticking in of the hand whether it was the king or Mucius but the upshot was that Mucius proved his barvery by holding his hand there until it burnt away. Then he said you will never defeat rome because we are all that brave and there are a thousand others like me. The king surrendered...that's impressive, stoopid perhaps but definately brave.

 

That is your off topic reply :pimp:

[FLavius Valerius Constantinus]

Wow that's really one hardcore guy, I seem to get the feeling that he is also a pyscho.

 

Oh to stay on topic, another horrible punishment is the widespead getting your limbs and body pulled apart by horses going in different directions. I believe Hernando Cortes also used this method later on.

[Princeps]

The favoured method of execution in Rome though was strangulation by a bloke with big hands!

 

That's how they did Vercengetorix I believe.

[Pertinax]

I f I remember rightly some of Varus's commanders "prefered death by torture" than to give fight inthe Teuteborger debacle. If Rome was as grizly as we have read what on earth did the Germans get up to?

[FLavius Valerius Constantinus]

The Germans I think were less brutal than the Romans. What makes the Germans seem more cruel than the Roman is just that their rituals or traditions aren't civilized(more likely culturally foreign to the Roman view) and so it brings on an impression great savagery than any other people.

 

And oh, didn't the Romans have a favorite time of day to watch executions.(I got it from the history channel documentaries.)

[Lost_Warrior]

Executions took place in the middle of the day, during the arena games (much of the time). These public executions were a "break" from the gladatiators and such, and the "respectable" Romans used this break to go get lunch and come back for the fights.

[Pertinax]

Yes if you were a respectable person you considered it vulgar to watch the mid-day executions, though again I recall one Emperor deliberatley watched to show that he was concerned that justice be seen to be done by him as the highest authority.(Claudius?)

[Favonius Cornelius]

Depending on your psychology, being abandoned on a deserted isle to live out the rest of your days can be tough, particularly for the aristocratic women who always seemed to get this one.