Page 16 - All About History - Issue 08-14

Crime

Crime across history

TRIAL OF SOCRATES Spanish

GREECE 399 BCE Inquisition
One of the most famous criminal trials in SPAIN 1478
history, the trial and subsequent execution One of the biggest crimes
of Socrates echoes through the ages. Wrongly in Medieval Europe was
accused of impious acts, including ‘failing to Socrates is considered one that of heresy, specifically
of history’s greatest minds
heresy against the Catholic
acknowledge the gods that the city [of Athens]
Christian god, resulting
acknowledges’ and ‘introducing new deities’, through in the formation of the
his philosophical musings and teachings, Socrates Spanish Inquisition. As
was put before an Athenian jury and, after refusing to such, throughout Spain and
Europe, Jews, protestants
defend himself against the spurious charges brought
and anyone perceived to
against him, was sentenced to death. be practicing witchcraft,
His followers then encouraged him to flee from the sodomy, bigamy or
city only for the philosopher to refuse in accordance blasphemy were tortured
with his philosophy of obedience to law. He then and then, once condemned –
usually by forced confession
proceeded to take the law into his own hands and
– executed. Burning and
carried out his own execution, drinking a poisonous hanging were the two most
cup of hemlock. Today, Socrates’s death is held up common punishments for
Greek scholar Zaleucus creates
as an example of the unreliability of democratic rule The Spanish Inquisition the crime of heresy.
and human-created laws. was ruthlessly efficient
Crime timeline l Hellenistic laws l Constantine l Trial by Ordeal
superseded
crucifies crucifixion
by Ordeal, a process where alleged
l Ma’at is enforced l Greek law created By the end of Hellenistic After 1,000 years The first recorded example of Trial
Greece’s dominance in
of use as a
In ancient Egypt the concept the mid-2nd century punishment for criminals had to prove
of Ma’at, a set of rough the Locrian Code, the first BCE, ancient Greece the most serious their innocence by
ethical and moral laws recognised written has developed the most crimes within passing a physical
aimed at maintaining Greek code of law. refined legal system in Carthaginian and test, is written,
balance within society Punishment for the world, with trials, Roman society, describing how the
and avoiding anarchy adultery is blinding, jurors and a range of crucifixion is process involved
and chaos, is formed and which Zaleucus punishments for crimes. finally abolished by combat or body
Egypt’s Sphinx represented by a goddess of sentenced his own 150 CE Emperor Constantine I. mutilation by fire or
the same name. 2500 BCE son to. 650 BCE Zaleucus created 337 CE water. 590 CE
the Locrian Code
2500 BCE 1500BCE 500BCE 250BCE 0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200
l Middle Kingdom expansion l Gortyn code laid down l Stocks go huge l Islamic law
From the close of ancient The civil law of the ancient l Septimus Severus sanctions Entering the Medieval collated
Egypt’s Middle Kingdom, city-state of Gortyn, mass executions period, the use of placing Famous scholar
Egyptian society develops southern Crete, is created The draconian Roman emperor, convicted criminals al-Shafi’i outlines
a variety of legalised and laid down in the Gortyn who seized power in 193 CE, in stocks becomes the four sources of
punishments for crimes, code, dictating oversees the executions of widespread, with their Islamic law in his
ranging from caning for punishments between 1,000 to 3,000 punishment involving book Al-Risala, with
theft to decapitation for for various Christians and Jews who refuse to being pelted with rotten older tribal laws
tomb robbing. civil crimes. renounce their religious beliefs. fruit by others while The stocks adapted. 800 CE
Egyptians were 1664 BCE 400 BCE 210 CE incapacitated. 500 CE provided a very
law-giving public punishment
pioneers
The Gortyn code The Gunpowder Plot
Tutankhamun’s
tomb turned over ENGLAND 1605
EGYPT 1323 BCE An infamous failed assassination
attempt against King James I of England
Excavated evidence suggests
by a group of English Catholics led by
Tutankhamun’s tomb was
Robert Catesby, the Gunpowder Plot
plundered the same year he was
was so climactic that it is still celebrated
buried, with thieves making
annually in England on Bonfire night
off with perfumes, oils and
(5 November). Catesby and his men
small objects of different value.
plotted to blow up the House of Lords
The tomb was raided at least
during the State Opening of England’s
twice prior to its re-discovery
Parliament by igniting 36 barrels of
by Howard Carter in 1924. The
gunpowder beneath the building.
punishment for tomb raiding
However, the plot was leaked and after
in ancient Egypt was death, so
capture the conspirators were convicted
whoever broke in was either very
of high treason, with most hanged, Robert Catesby was one of the
brave or very foolish.
drawn and quartered as a result. leaders of the Gunpower Plot
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