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The most brutal killings of the ancient world


whitegandalf

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Can start with mention of two cases from the vking period.

he stuck a "kvanstilk" (a pipe) down his throat and put a snake into it, then a burning iron to force the snake down his throat. The snake ate its way out of the side of the torso of Raud and killed him.

(This was done by a christian to a viking when he cursed the name of jesus)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ormen_Lange_%28longship%29

And the viking tradition to do suicide was to cut up your belly. cut the intestine and tigh it to a tree and walk 7 times around, then you can die with honour.

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While doing some research for an anthro paper I read about a skeleton found, cause of death 47 stone arrow point wounds. I guess they wanted to make sure she was dead.

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That was very christian of them :rolleyes:

The moral of the story is "don't diss the Christ" ;)

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Most brutal that I know of it Persian scaphism.

Scaphism, also known as the boats[1], was an ancient Persian method of execution designed to inflict torturous death. The name comes from the Greek word skaphe, meaning "scooped (or hollowed) out".

The intended victim was stripped naked and then firmly fastened within a face-to-face pair of narrow rowing boats (or hollowed-out tree trunks), with the head, hands and feet protruding. The condemned was forced to ingest milk and honey to the point of developing severe diarrhea, and more honey would be rubbed on his body to attract insects to the exposed appendages. He would then be left to float on a stagnant pond or be exposed to the sun. The defenseless individual's feces accumulated within the container, attracting more insects, which would eat and breed within his exposed flesh, which—pursuant to interruption of the blood supply by burrowing insects—became increasingly gangrenous. The feeding would be repeated each day in some cases to prolong the torture, so that dehydration or starvation did not kill him. Death, when it eventually occurred, was probably due to a combination of dehydration, starvation and septic shock. Delirium would typically set in after a few days.

In other recorded versions, the insects did not eat the person; biting and stinging insects such as wasps, which were attracted by honey on the body, acted as the torture.

Death by scaphism was painful, humiliating and protracted. Plutarch writes in his biography of Artaxerxes that Mithridates, sentenced to die in this manner for killing Cyrus the Younger, survived 17 days before dying.[2]

The Persians outvie all other Barbarians in the horrid cruelty of their punishments, employing tortures that are peculiarly terrible and long-drawn, namely the ‘boats’ and sewing men up in raw hides. But what is meant by the ‘boats,’ I must now explain for the benefit of less well informed readers. Two boats are joined together one on top of the other, with holes cut in them in such a way that the victim’s head, hands, and feet only are left outside. Within these boats the man to be punished is placed lying on his back, and the boats then nailed together with bolts. Next they pour a mixture of milk and honey into the wretched man’s mouth, till he is filled to the point of nausea, smearing his face, feet, and arms with the same mixture, and so leave him exposed to the sun. This is repeated every day, the effect being that flies, wasps, and bees, attracted by the sweetness, settle on his face and all such parts of him as project outside the boats, and miserably torment and sting the wretched man. Moreover his belly, distended as it is with milk and honey, throws off liquid excrements, and these putrefying breed swarms of worms, intestinal and of all sorts. Thus the victim lying in the boats, his flesh rotting away in his own filth and devoured by worms, dies a lingering and horrible death.

—Zonaras, Annals[3]

[The king] decreed that Mithridates should be put to death in boats; which execution is after the following manner: Taking two boats framed exactly to fit and answer each other, they lay down in one of them the malefactor that suffers, upon his back; then, covering it with the other, and so setting them together that the head, hands, and feet of him are left outside, and the rest of his body lies shut up within, they offer him food, and if he refuse to eat it, they force him to do it by pricking his eyes; then, after he has eaten, they drench him with a mixture of milk and honey, pouring it not only into his mouth, but all over his face. They then keep his face continually turned towards the sun; and it becomes completely covered up and hidden by the multitude of flies that settle on it. And as within the boats he does what those that eat and drink must needs do, creeping things and vermin spring out of the corruption and rottenness of the excrement, and these entering into the bowels of him, his body is consumed. When the man is manifestly dead, the uppermost boat being taken off, they find his flesh devoured, and swarms of such noisome creatures preying upon and, as it were, growing to his inwards. In this way Mithridates, after suffering for seventeen days, at last expired.

—Plutarch, Life of Artaxerxes[4]

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Seven days on bread and water with Barry Manilow on full volume is still considered by some to be the most horrific death.Many have been known to hang themselves before the end of the first Album. :whistle:

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I'm cautiously going to enter this discussion as a means to keep an eye on it. I just hope it doesn't get out of hand, so let's try to keep it PG rated.

My first thought on this topic was the brazen bull, which was used by Phalaris in Sicily to execute people. It was a large, hollow bull made of bronze with a hatch on the side. The condemned was forced to enter the bull, and the hatch was closed and locked behind him. Then, a fire was set on the ground below the bull, and stoked so that the metal bull itself got hotter and hotter. In effect, the condemned person inside the bull was slowly cooked to death.

Depraved, I'd have to say.

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I'm cautiously going to enter this discussion as a means to keep an eye on it. I just hope it doesn't get out of hand, so let's try to keep it PG rated.

My first thought on this topic was the brazen bull, which was used by Phalaris in Sicily to execute people. It was a large, hollow bull made of bronze with a hatch on the side. The condemned was forced to enter the bull, and the hatch was closed and locked behind him. Then, a fire was set on the ground below the bull, and stoked so that the metal bull itself got hotter and hotter. In effect, the condemned person inside the bull was slowly cooked to death.

Depraved, I'd have to say.

Bad, bad, but the Sumerians had a nastier one, they put the delinquent in a water proof barrel up to the neck and kept feeding him and giving him water, after a time the bacteria in his own excrement would dissolve the body slowly.

Edited by questionmark
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Bad, bad, but the Sumerians had a nastier one, they put the delinquent in a water proof barrel up to the neck and kept feeding him and giving him water, after a time the bacteria in his own excrement would dissolve the body slowly.

From where did you get this?

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Bad, bad, but the Sumerians had a nastier one, they put the delinquent in a water proof barrel up to the neck and kept feeding him and giving him water, after a time the bacteria in his own excrement would dissolve the body slowly.

Lol, that made me think of a scene in Bruce Lee's movie "Circle of Iron (1978)".

Start at 0:36:30 :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7bN__mCUko

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Oh my one is more gruesome than the other .. :cry:

However, this one makes makes the hair on my neck stand up:

Sawing:

In Execution by sawing, the criminal would be hung upside-down and a large saw would be used to cut their body in half, starting with the groin, all the way to the head. Because the person was hanging upside-down, the brain received sufficient blood to keep them alive until the saw finally reached the main blood vessels in the abdomen. In the Asian version of this execution, the victim would stand upright and the sawing would begin at the top of the head.

This method of execution was used in the Middle East, Europe, and parts of Asia. It was also used in the Roman Empire and was considered to be the favorite punishment dished out by Emperor Caligula.

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I do not remember the source for this method of torture but i found it to be very gruesome.

The eyelids of the captive are cut of carfully and he/she is exposed to sunlight everyday coupled with leeches on the body to suck the blood.I found this method to be a very painful and slow way to die,since there is no major physical pain inflicted but the victim is tortured psychologically and eventually ends up mad and psychotic before dying.

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And let's not forget about the Spanish Inquisition.

Here the tortures are described in detail:

The Spanish Inquisition

http://h2g2.com/dna/h2g2/alabaster/A620083

This site gives more general information:

How the Spanish Inquisition Worked

http://history.howstuffworks.com/historical-figures/spanish-inquisition.htm

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From where did you get this?

History books, you don't read that in alternate reality stuff.... does not contain any aliens.

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I'm astounded by the brutality mankind is capable of. The middle ages was a creative time for tortuous devices and means and often combined punishment with public entertainment. You might be hanged until half dead... ( YAY!!!) then have your private parts removed.. (HaHaHa!*) then be disemboweled (Yes!) .. then drawn and quartered and your quarters put on display in four different public locations , or any number of arrangements and combinations of punishments deemed commensurate to the offense .

But fines were , and still are, the favorite form of "justice".

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I believe that St.Juliana,or another early martyer saint was sawn in half.Seem to recall seeing in a book a photo of an old fresco of the saint. No limit to the insanity of the human mind to create such horros.

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Really discusting stories people.. Maybe this wasnt a good idea afterall.. But then again, it is part of our history. And if were are ever to learn and not repeat history, we must know our history.

Edited by whitegandalf
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Well, there was the Chinese 'Death by a Thousand Cuts' where the 1000 mark was probably never reached. Also the boringly famous crucifixion in it's many variations.

But reall any wound that allows you to live for a few days is immensly painful.

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In current day America, the most horendous tourture imaginable is being exposed to the bizillion political ads.

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That was very christian of them :rolleyes:

That wasn't a true Christian, Bling.

True Christian's actually listen to what Jesus mentions about loving your enemy, love thy neighbor, thou shalt not murder, and so on.

And for the record, the Pope isn't a Christian, either. He's blessed wars and told soldiers to kill people in the name of God.

Think, before you mock Christian's. The evil ones are not Christian, regardless of what they tell you.

Peace.

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That wasn't a true Christian, Bling.

True Christian's actually listen to what Jesus mentions about loving your enemy, love thy neighbor, thou shalt not murder, and so on.

And for the record, the Pope isn't a Christian, either. He's blessed wars and told soldiers to kill people in the name of God.

Think, before you mock Christian's. The evil ones are not Christian, regardless of what they tell you.

Peace.

I was not mocking Christians. If you took it that way then that's your issue. Yes there are good and bad Christians, but if someone chooses the title of 'Christian' then they have to realise they are aligning themselves with the bad part as well as the good. If someone said to me I'm a Christian' am I supposed to ask 'are you a good Christian or bad Christian'? No one is going to say they are bad Christian! Christianity is a faith which follows the god of the bible and Jesus, I should know as I was one once- but you can't expect society to be able to tell which is a bad or good Christian, they take the label then they take the consequences, and many like the martyrdom than comes with it as suffering for Christ is considered a good thing.

And the Pope is considered to be of a Christian denomination, be careful not to mock him or you might offend Catholics. ;)

Edited by Bling
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Oh my one is more gruesome than the other .. :cry:

However, this one makes makes the hair on my neck stand up:

Sawing:

In Execution by sawing, the criminal would be hung upside-down and a large saw would be used to cut their body in half, starting with the groin, all the way to the head. Because the person was hanging upside-down, the brain received sufficient blood to keep them alive until the saw finally reached the main blood vessels in the abdomen. In the Asian version of this execution, the victim would stand upright and the sawing would begin at the top of the head.

This method of execution was used in the Middle East, Europe, and parts of Asia. It was also used in the Roman Empire and was considered to be the favorite punishment dished out by Emperor Caligula.

Of Course this would be Caligula's favorite, he like the most humiliating and gruesome killings, ughh. Kinda interesting how they come up with all these ways though.

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That was very christian of them :rolleyes:
I was not mocking Christians. If you took it that way then that's your issue. Yes there are good and bad Christians, but if someone chooses the title of 'Christian' then they have to realise they are aligning themselves with the bad part as well as the good. If someone said to me I'm a Christian' am I supposed to ask 'are you a good Christian or bad Christian'? No one is going to say they are bad Christian! Christianity is a faith which follows the god of the bible and Jesus, I should know as I was one once- but you can't expect society to be able to tell which is a bad or good Christian, they take the label then they take the consequences, and many like the martyrdom than comes with it as suffering for Christ is considered a good thing.

And the Pope is considered to be of a Christian denomination, be careful not to mock him or you might offend Catholics. ;)

This isn't about getting even, however this post is *not* aimed directly at you.

Now, If the Pope is a Christian, why does he tell people to do the things Jesus told us not to do? He's been accused of molesting altar boys, which I don't believe Jesus would agree with. True Christianity isn't hypocritical.

This part of the most is aimed at you, because I love you to pieces: I'd love for you to experience God's love as it seems you haven't encountered God's presence before: the feeling of heavy, tangible, all-consuming, unconditional love. I came into contact with it at a Kingom Hall for Jehovah's Witnesses.

Evil people, cannot truly be Christian's, because their works are wicked, and go against God's very nature of loving kindness.

There is no middle-ground. One either is living for Good or living for Evil. It may not be obvious, but it's there.

I think I've made it clear. People who do wicked & evil things, cannot, by nature, be a Christian. They can be liar's and claim they're Christian, but thats it.

Also, It's not only unkind, disrespectful, and hurtful to insult, but it's also against forum rules, so next time, think before you decide to rip on Christian's. ^ ^

p.s. Before you try to note I'm insulting people with this post, I'm not. It is a seperate thing to tell a negative truth about somebody, than to flat-out try to insult someone.

Peace.

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