Most Horrifying Methods of Execution in the Roman Era...

 


Poena cullei , also known as sacking, was one of the most gruesome Roman execution methods. In this method, the guilty person is put in a sack and thrown into the water to be left to die.

This punishment is given to people who are guilty of paricide, which means killing their parents. The person would be put alive in a leather sack with several animals, including a dog, monkey, snake, and rooster.

The sack would then be tied and thrown into deep water to ensure the person inside the sack died underwater.This method of punishment was first used around 100 BC. However, the initial existence of this method of execution is estimated to have existed a century earlier.

At first this punishment was simply putting the snake in a sack. The entry of other animals began after the Roman Empire.

The penalty of poena cullei is said to have become famous during the reign of Emperor Hadrian. During his reign, the emperor was said to have had the punishment of putting the convict in a sack with a rooster, a monkey, a poisonous snake and a dog.

Emperor Hadrianus also had other methods as an alternative to this punishment. For example, the culprit would be thrown to the wild animals in the arena.

This execution technique is said to have stopped around the 3rd century AD during the reign of Emperor Constantine. However, this method of execution was then resumed during the reign of Emperor Yustian, after having been stopped for around 200 years.Tarpeian Rock is an ancient Roman cliff famous as a place of the most grisly executions. The perpetrators, including traitors, murderers, and slave thieves were thrown from this cliff to their deaths.

The height of this cliff is about 80 feet, and this process is one of the easiest ways to punish the guilty. The Roman Forum is clearly visible from the top of these Tarpeian cliffs.

According to legend, the cliff was named after one of the Vestal Virgins, Tarpeia – the daughter of the Roman commander Spurius Tarpeiushad. When Rome was besieged by the Sabines, Tarpeia opened the city gates and let in the Roman enemy, Titus Tatius, in the 8th century BC.

He did so in exchange for gold bracelets and rings worn by the Sabine people. Tarpeia had betrayed when Rome was besieged by the Sabines.


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