Page 38 - All About History - Issue 19-14

Through Histor

TORTURE D

Humanity’s penchant for ingenious cruelty is no
better visualised than in its tools of torture, horrific

devices honed to break mind and body

SICILIAN BULL 570 BCE
A torture and execution
CRUCIFIXION 600 BCE
Despite being made A traditional
device rolled into one, Medieval
famous as a capital
this was one of ancient immurement coffin
punishment, notably
Greece’s most terrible
in the crucifixion of
penalties. The device
Jesus, the practice
consisted of a huge bronze
of crucifixion is
bull, with its insides hollow
one of the earliest
and a latched door on one
recorded forms of
side of its stomach. The
torture. Developed
victim was stripped naked
by the ancient and put inside before a fire
Crucifixion is one of the Persians, Seleucids The Sicilian bull literally was light underneath. The
roasted its victim alive
oldest forms of torture and Carthaginians
metal would heat up and slowly roast the contained
inthe6thcenturyBCE,crucifixion entailed
person to death. Its nostrils were even designed to
whipping a victim, often forcing them to
transform the victim’s screams into the sound
drag a large wooden crossbeam to their place
ofabullcallingout.
of punishment and then be either bound or
nailed to it, with the beam then hoisted up Vlad III of
a vertical shaft to a height of three metres Wallachia
(ten feet). This would levy an intense and 1431-1477 ROMANIAN
Theterrorofamanwho may have
prolonged quantity of pain on the crucified,
spawned the Dracula fiction, Vlad III was
which if unchecked, would lead to death by renowned for his bloodlust. One of his
exhaustion or heart failure. most infamous torture techniques was
to impale victims on large spikes, which
saw the victim die slowly by blood
loss, heart failure or shock. One
of Vlad’s nicknames was
‘Vlad the Impaler.’
THE STOCKS 50 BCE
A form of torture and public humiliation
rolled into one, the stocks incapacitated
a person by securing their feet or hands
between two large, hinged wooden
planks. The stocks were located in a
public place, such as a market square, The second Statute of COFFIN IMMUREMENT 900
and other people were encouraged to Labourers (1350) ordered that Anotherinfamoustorturetechniquefrom
throw stones and other paraphernalia at stocks be made in every town theMiddleAges,thisentailedencasing
the purported criminal. As the stocks and village in England a victim within a metal cage roughly
were located outside, the victim theshapeofahumanbody,withlarger
was also subject to the effects Jean- individuals often forcibly stuffed into cages
of the weather both day and Baptiste Carrier that were too small for them. The cage
night. Providing the victim 1756-1794 FRENCH wasthenhungfromatreeorgallowsand
was left for only a couple Carrier specialised in mentally and left out day and night, exposed to the
physically breaking his enemies in
of days, the survival rate barbaric ways. One of his techniques was elements. Passers-by were encouraged
was high, however if left the ‘republican marriage’, which entailed to throw rocks and other hard objects
for more than a week whipping and beating a naked male and at the trapped victim and, if the death
female couple, before tying them
or in particularly harsh together, skewering them with a penalty had been levied, the slowly
conditions, they would sword and then throwing dying victim was left up long enough
usually die from hyperthermia them in a river. for birds and other animals to start
or heat exhaustion. eating them alive.
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