7 Most Brutal Methods of Execution of the Ancient World
Death has always remained the scariest phenomenon for a human being. Because no one has come back from the realms of death who can tell us what happens at the time of death. We can only imagine and guess that it might be a painful experience unless tasted. Those who have experienced near-death situations tell different stories. For some, death is an escape from the miseries of the world and they long for it, while for others, it was a horrible experience. However painful or not, the idea of dying one day sends shivers down one’s spine.
I was talking about normal death, and it was scary. But what if somebody faces execution excruciatingly and painfully? What if you face the most brutal death in the world? How would you see it?
We often see these brutal killings in movies or news where horrible incidents happen. But ancient history was fraught with inhuman, painful, and brutal execution methods. Here are the seven shocking and brutal methods of punishment of the ancient world:
1# Flaying
Flaying was the weirdest way of execution of the ancient world. Killing an enemy has always been there in human history and still criminals of serious offenses meet horrible ends, but flaying is the crankiest idea one can think of. Removing one’s skin is known as Flaying and it was very much in fashion in the ancient world. The kings of the ancient world gave horrible punishment to their enemies to make them an example for others and to spread horrors among other nations and convince them to come into subjugation. The brutal execution involved removing the victim’s skin with a knife. This would expose the victim to septic wounds and would die of pain and infection.
Flaying was used as a brutal method of execution in the ancient Roman Empire, Persian Empire, Ottoman Empire, and medieval England. The Assyrian kings from 911 to 609 BC used to flay their enemies and considered it as a symbol of their power. The Rasam Cylinder also records a similar method of executions by King Ashurbanipal in 7th century BC that says;
‘Their corpses they hung on stakes, they stripped off their skins and covered the city wall with them.’
2# Molten Metal
The ancient world was by no means lawless but it had its own rules of punishment to follow. One such punishment for the offender was execution with molten metal. Accordingly, in Ancient Israel, people who committed adultery, incest, or any other heinous crime faced horrible death by molten metal poured down their throats. First, they would judge the case, confirm the crime, and would strangle the criminal with soft rope in front of the witnesses who reported the crime or provided evidence. The strangulation would cause the victim to open their mouth to breathe, they would pour down molten lead or gold into the victim’s throat. This would burn him down the path and would kill him brutally.
3# Death in the Brazen Bull
The Greeks were famous for their unusual methods of punishment and execution. However, their methods of execution and punishment differed from case to case. For example, Athenian Socrates (470–399 BC) was offered a drink of hemlock as an execution. Other death punishment involved throwing a criminal into a deep ravine to be killed from injuries or left in the wilderness to be eaten by animals.
But the tyrant Phalaris of Akragas, Sicily, used a horrible device — the Brazen Bull — for executing criminals and enemies. The Attic sculptor made it from bronze in the size of a real bull, hollow from inside with a small door. They would place the victim inside it and would light the fire underneath it to roast the condemned alive. It was devised in a way the screams of the burning victim would create a sound similar to a bull’s bellow.
It is said the tyrant king himself shuddered at the idea of roasting someone alive in that device, so he eventually put its creator into it to test it. However, according to legends, king Phalaris also met his end by being roasted in the brazen bull.
4# Death by the Waist Chop
Li Si was an ancient Chinese writer, philosopher, politician, and advisor to the emperor in the Qin Dynasty, who invented a method for punishing the offender. This horrible punishment comprised of inflicting severe pains on the victim by cutting his nose first, then one foot and hand, followed by emasculation, and in the end to cut the victim half in the waist. They would chop the waist by using a large sharp blade to cut it with precision. The punishment was brutal in a way that the victim would die of pain gradually.
According to the legends, Li Si threw his support against the emperor Zhao Gao in the political turmoil in imperial China in 207 BC who executed him through his invented punishment of waist chopping. His family was also executed along with him in the line with Ancient Chinese practice of collective persecution. So, the inventor himself faced the horrors of his punishment.
5# Babylonian Code of Hammurabi
The Ancient Babylonian Empire flourished in 1894–1595 BC in modern-day Iraq. The empire stressed providing justice and equality to run the government smoothly. They developed rules and regulations known as the Code of Hammurabi, which called an eye for an eye to provide appropriate justice to its citizens. According to the code, you would receive the exact punishment you had inflicted. For example, if you had killed someone with a knife, by stoning or burning, you would meet the same fate. A rapist would face the fate of castration while a perjurer would lose his tongue. Even burglars would be hanged where they committed burglary and a small injury would receive the appropriate punishment.
Negligence was also punishable by death. Even builders were also held responsible and put to death if their buildings would kill anyone in the collapse. However, all these laws were not strictly applicable if the victim happened to be a slave. According to the Code, a murderer of the slave would only provide another slave to the master to fulfill justice.
6# Death in the Boats
The Ancient Persian Empire had a very strange method of punishing serious offenders — death in the boats. The punishment was, according to Plutarch (46–119), horrible in many ways. It involved the victim being tied in a boat with head, arms, and legs sticking outside, with another identical boat sealed on it like a shell. Then they would force the victim to drink honey and milk and also would cover the hands, legs, and head with it. They would then leave the victim in a deserted place, open to flies, vermin, and animals. The flies would then swarm the victim, would enter his body, and feed on it.
Mithridates (401 BC) was a soldier of King Artaxerxes II of Persia, who betrayed the king by making some secret confession in a royal party after getting drunk. This embarrassed the king and in his fury, he ordered to punish Mithridates with the infamous punishment of boats. According to the legends, Mithridates faced this filthy and horrible method of execution for 17 days before dying.
7# Crucifixion
Crucifixion was yet another horrible and brutal method of death that spread fear and horrors in the criminals and offenders. Ancient Rome was famous for this brutal punishment. The Roman society was class-ridden and the upper class enjoyed every privilege and faced fewer punishments. Laws were relaxed for them. Only slaves and second-class citizens faced the fate of crucifixion. However, there are pieces of evidence that members of upper-class citizens also met crucifixion for their crimes.
The victim would face the punishment of getting naked first, then beating, and would be forced to drag the large wooden cross to the place of execution where the victim would be nailed to it through feet and hands and left to starve. The passersby would often humiliate the condemned by stoning or beating him. This would make the punishment more painful for the sufferer who would eventually die of hunger and pain.
The Romans abolished crucifixion in 337 AD after Christianity gradually emerged as a dominant religion in the empire.
The death penalty was not only prevalent in the ancient world but also was very much common in modern times before being outlawed in some countries. Only 56 countries in the world still carry out the death penalty, however, the method of execution has evolved and is not that brutal. According to sources, only 18 countries conducted executions in 2020.
