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Art reviews by Zephyros

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Like crucifying yourself, it's easy enough to nail both your feet,
possible to nail one wrist, but how do you complete the job?
Likewise, how did he get his right hand free so he could free the left one?

if you had driven a nail from the backside through the crossbeam it would jut out at the front. Now take a deep breath and blow your wrist against this horrible spike. when it´s done push your pierced wrist along the spike to it´s end at the beam.....
 
if you had driven a nail from the backside through the crossbeam it would jut out at the front. Now take a deep breath and blow your wrist against this horrible spike. when it´s done push your pierced wrist along the spike to it´s end at the beam.....
You go first. Just so I can see how it's done.:devil:
 
Ad Supplicium Ducere

Death on the furca

Constantine admitted probable Christian influence in his penal policy when he abolished branding on the face, because the face was created in the image of heavenly beauty, although he allowed branding on the hands or legs. Whether or not it was also Constantine who formally abolished crucifixion in favor of hanging – the change over time to the more humane penalty is certain; the furca, on which death was instantaneous, replaced the protracted agonies of the cross.

The furca was a device for hanging slaves in ancient Rome and refers to the gallows for hanging men. The gallows took its form from the Roman Furca when Constantine abolished crucifixion.

Dig. 48.19.28.15. Famosos latrones in his locis ubi grassati sunt furca Wgendos compluribus placuit, ut et consectu deterrentur alii ab iisdem facinoribus. It is possible that ‘furca’, the gallows, where death was quick, has been substituted by the Justinianic compilers for »patibulo«, or some other word for »cross«.

I discovered an interesting historical wooden work of art in the »Skulpturensammlung und Museum für Byzantinische Kunst« in Berlin / Germany. It is from the time of 4th cent. CE.

furca.jpg furca.2.jpg t2_p2_dagr_page_0467_image_0001.jpg

Pic is displaying the execution of King Gai on the furca. Graphic related to Cod. Vat. Pal. gr. 431, f. 11r (the rope for getting up is missing here).
Pic is displaying the execution of Magyaren Boulousoudes.
 Graphic related to Cod. Cod. Matrit. Vitr. 26-2, f. 135r



The Skulpturensammlung is one of the largest collections of ancient sculpture in the world and is housed in the Bode-Museum on the Museumsinsel Berlin.
(http://www.smb.museum/en/museums-institutions/skulpturensammlung/home.html)

But there exist a lot of other information related to furca. The furca, which in later language means a gibbet, was, in older dialect, used to denote a wooden fork or collar, which was made to bear upon their shoulders, or around their necks, as a mark of disgrace, as much as an uneasy burden.

Unsigned article on pp562‑563 of William Smith, D.C.L., LL.D.:
A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, John Murray, London, 1875.
FURCA, which properly means a fork, was also p563 the name of an instrument of punishment. It was a piece of wood in the form of the letter A, which was placed upon the shoulders of the offender, whose hands were tied to it. Slaves were frequently punished in this way, and were obliged to carry about the furca wherever they went (Donat. ad Ter. Andr. III.5.12; Plut. Coriol. 24; Plaut. Cas. II.6.37); whence the appellation of furcifer was applied to a man as a term of reproach (Cic. in Vatin. 6).a The furca was used in the ancient mode of capital punishment among the Romans; the criminal was tied to it, and then scourged to death (Liv. I.26; Suet. Ner. 49).b The patibulum was also an instrument of punishment, resembling the furca; it appears to have been in the form of the letter Π (Plaut. Mil. II.4.7, Mostell. I.1.53). Both the furca and patibulum were also employed as crosses,c to which criminals were nailed (in furca suspendere, Dig. 48 tit. 13 s.6; tit. 19 s.28 §15; tit. 19 s.38). See Lipsius, de Cruce.
 
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Thanks Zephyros, erudite and enlightening as ever! :)
I've copied your post into the 'Roman Resources' thread.
Looking at dictionary citations, a few thoughts occur to me -
  • It seems a furca, in the sense of a tall, upright, forked stake, was used throughout much of the Roman era to display 'spectacula', things for crowds to gawp at and be impressed by (Livy: furcis spectacula sustinentibus 'spectacular things on supporting forks') - including, quite possibly, criminals - i.e. a form of crucifixion;
  • another sense, as you say, was a wooden yoke , used as an instrument of punishment for slaves, resting on the neck with the arms tied to the two prongs - often in Livy: per circum furcam ferens ductus est:'he was led around bearing the yoke' servus sub furcā caesus 'a slave beaten under the yoke', sub furcā vinctus 'bound under the yoke': it was common enough for Horace to use it figuratively, ibis sub furcam 'you'll go under the yoke';
  • I wasn't aware that hanging (by the neck) immediately replaced crucifixion (as a means of execution for non-citizens - beheading certainly continued for free Romans), but it seems likely enough, and a furca could have been used as a convenient, low-cost gallows; the Anglo-Saxons certainly hung criminals (even at the former royal burial site at Sutton Hoo); in later English Latin I see Furce judicales 1206, 1305 for 'gallows', and even a verb
    Furcillo c1440 'I hang (a criminal)' (it's worth noting that gallows were commonly located at road-junctions, so they were furcae in more senses than one).
 
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Death At The Tarpeian Rock

The law:
Twelve Tables are generally seen as the beginning of European law and are hence seen as a milestone in history. In the midst of a perennial struggle for legal and social protection and civil rights between the privileged class (patricians) and the common people (plebeians) a commission of ten men (decemviri) was appointed (ca. 455 BC) to draw up a code of law which would be binding on both parties and which the magistrates (the 2 consuls) would have to enforce impartially.

Table Two...

... If the thief however was a slave he was flogged and then thrown to his death off the cliff of the Capitoline Hill known as the Tarpeian Rock.

Table Eight...

... The penalty for perjury was to be hurled from the Tarpeian Rock.


In the late republican period, however, it was not any longer a punishment for slaves, only for freedman or citizens. So, if a slave had to be punished by this way, first s/he had to be freed and then hurled down:


... yet another slave who was detected while serving as a praetor was hurled down the rocks of the Capitol, having first been freed, that his punishment might take on the proper dignity.

Cassius Dio, Historiae Romanae (48.35.1)

But Cassius Dio reports more about being hurled down from the Tarpeian Rock: Knights, women as well as men …

... For all who incurred any such charge, senators as well as knights, and women as well as men, were crowded together in the prison, and upon being condemned either paid the penalty there or were hurled down from the Capitol by the tribunes or even by the consuls, after which the bodies of all of them were cast into the Forum and later thrown into the river.

Cassius Dio, Historiae Romanae (58.15.3)

... The decisions of the senate were made public in the usual way, but when any persons were condemned by Gaius, their names were published, as if he feared people might not learn of their fate otherwise. So these were punished, some in prison and others by being hurled down from the Capitoline.

Cassius Dio, Historiae Romanae (59.18.3)

The last one being hurled down from the Capitoline is reported in 43 CE

... Also at this time one of the knights, who was charged with having conspired against Claudius, was hurled down from the Capitoline by the tribunes and the consuls.

Cassius Dio, Historiae Romanae (60.18.4)

The Tarpeian Rock was the infamous execution place for traitors (and criminals). They would be led to its top and then hurled down. The cliff takes its name from the tale of the Vestal Virgin Tarpeia, who betrayed the Romans by letting the Sabines in through the gates after being promised to receive what they 'bore on their arms'. Naturally she hoped for their golden bracelets, instead she was crushed to death between their shields. Her body was buried atop the cliff, giving it its name.

The Tarpeian Rock is a steep 75-foot cliff of the southern summit of the Capitoline Hill, overlooking Rome. Murderers, traitors, perjurors, and larcenous slaves, if convicted, were flung from the cliff to their deaths. Those who had a mental or significant physical disability also suffered the same fate as they were thought to have been cursed by the gods.

To be hurled off the Tarpeian Rock was, in some sense, a fate worse than death, because it carried with it a stigma of shame. The standard method of execution in ancient Rome was by strangulation in the Tullianum. Rather, the rock was reserved for the most notorious traitors, and as a place of unofficial, extra-legal executions.

agostino-tofanelli-the-tarpeian-rock-1833.jpg chucked_off_the_tarpeian_rock.jpg rupe-tarpea.jpg tarpeian-01.jpg tarpeian-rock-01.jpg tarpeian-rock.jpg

agostino-tofanelli-the-tarpeian-rock-1833 ( A photo at the base of the rock from the early 20th century)
chucked_off_the_tarpeian_rock ( A sketch from 1833, by Agostina Tofanelli)
rupe-tarpea
tarpeian-01
tarpeian-rock-01
tarpeian-rock
 

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In "Asterix and the Laurel Wreath", the Romans tell Asterix that those thrown to the Lions are given all sorts of delicacies to eat, to fatten them up, while those thrown from the Tarpeian Rock are given "solid, heavy food". :D
I learned a lot of pseudo-facts about Roman society from Asterix. :rolleyes::doh:
 
In "Asterix and the Laurel Wreath", the Romans tell Asterix that those thrown to the Lions are given all sorts of delicacies to eat, to fatten them up, while those thrown from the Tarpeian Rock are given "solid, heavy food". :D
I learned a lot of pseudo-facts about Roman society from Asterix. :rolleyes::doh:
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Death In Carcere Mamertino (carcer Tullianum)

The Carcere Mamertino aka Carcer Tullianum is one of the most important and fascinating monuments of the Roman Republic at the time. It holds a great historical and archaeological wealth for over 3,000 years. The first signs of the place date back to the ninth century BC

It is located below the Church of St. Joseph ‘‘the Carpenter’’ – dated sixteenth century – it faces at the Roman Forum, one of the most impressive views of the city. The complex consists of two distinct parts: the Carcer, the upper level, which dates from the seventh century. B.C. and Tullianum, the lower level, which dates back to the sixth century.a.C. The Tullianum waters were left to die the enemies of the Roman people, including some major historical figures, like Vercingetorix, the prince and leader of Gallia (Gaul) and Jugurtha, a king of Numidia, born in Cirta.

On the Tullianum, an ancient tradition tells of the miraculous action of St. Peter, the first of the apostles of Jesus, which with a stick struck the rock and made water spring which used to baptize inmates and jailers;

The Tullianum has a circular hole in the roof, with 7 meters of diameter. This was the death cell, where convicted enemies of the state awaited execution and were strangled or decapitated.

Death of Lucius Aelius Sejanus and his 3 children

Drusus was poisoned by his wife, Livilla, and her lover, Lucius Aelius Sejanus. This was done so skillfully that it would be eight years before their plot was uncovered. When it was, Livilla was forced to commit the slow death of suicide by starvation. Sejanus’s death was far more gruesome. He had assumed great power in Rome, thanks to Tiberius’s self-imposed exile to Capri. On October 18 of a.d. 31, upon learning that Sejanus had murdered Drusus by poisoning his wine, Tiberius ordered his arrest. Sejanus was strangled that night in Rome and his body was thrown to a crowd of onlookers, who tore his corpse to pieces. After this, they conducted a manhunt for all his friends and relatives and killed them, too. Sejanus’s son and daughter were arrested in December of that year and killed by strangulation. When Tiberius was informed that the girl was a virgin, and thus not able under the law to be killed for a capital offense, he ordered the executioner to place the rope around her neck, rape young Junilla, and then, only after the young girl had been deflowered, pull the rope tight.

Tacitus Annales 5.9:

[5.9] Placitum posthac ut in reliquos Seiani liberos adverteretur, vanescente quamquam plebis ira ac plerisque per priora supplicia lenitis. igitur portantur in carcerem, filius imminentium intellegens, puella adeo nescia ut crebro interrogaret quod ob delictum et quo traheretur; neque facturam ultra et posse se puerili verbere moneri. tradunt temporis eius auctores, quia triumvirali supplicio adfici virginem inauditum habebatur, a carnifice laqueum iuxta compressam; exim oblisis faucibus id aetatis corpora in Gemonias abiecta.

V. 9. It was then determined that the surviving children of Sejanus should pay the penalty, though the anger of the populace was nearly spent and the majority of men had been placated by the earlier executions. They were therefore carried to the dungeon, the boy conscious of the fate in store for him, the girl so completely ignorant that she asked repeatedly what her offence had been and to what place they were dragging her: she would do wrong no more, and she could be cautioned with the usual childish beating. It is recorded by authors of the period that, as it was considered an unheard-of thing for capital punishment to be inflicted on a virgin, she was raped by the executioner with the halter beside her: they were then strangled, and their young bodies thrown on to the Gemonian Stairs.

And C. Suetonius Tranquillus, Tiberius Suet. Tib. 61

... quibusdam custodiae traditis non modo studendi solacium ademptum, sed etiam sermonis et conloqui usus. citati ad causam dicendam partim se domi uulnerauerunt certi damnationis et ad uexationem ignominiamque uitandam, partim in media curia uenenum hauserunt; et tamen conligatis uulneribus ac semianimes palpitantesque adhuc in carcerem rapti. nemo punitorum non in Gemonias abiectus uncoque tractus, uiginti uno die abiecti tractique, inter eos feminae et pueri. [5] immaturae puellae, quia more tradito nefas esset uirgines strangulari, uitiatae prius a carnifice, dein strangulatae.

Many persons, when summoned to trial, stabbed themselves at home, to avoid the distress and ignominy of a public condemnation, which they were certain would ensue. Others took poison in the senate-house. The wounds were bound up, and all who had not expired, were carried, half-dead, and panting for life, to prison. Those who were put to death, were thrown down the Gemonian stairs, and then dragged into the Tiber. In one day, twenty were treated in this manner; and amongst them women and boys. Because, according to an ancient custom, it was not lawful to strangle virgins, the young girls were first deflowered by the executioner, and afterwards strangled.

carcer-mamertino-reconstruction.png carcer-mamertino.jpg carcer-tullianum.jpg Jugurtha-imprisoned.jpg Vercingetorix-imprisoned.jpg xec_1.png xec_symb.boy.png xec_symb.girl.png

Stairs of Mourning

The Gemonian Stairs were a flight of steps located in the ancient city of Rome. Nicknamed the Stairs of Mourning, the stairs are infamous in Roman history as a place of execution.

The condemned were usually strangled before their bodies were bound and thrown down the stairs. Occasionally the corpses of the executed were transferred here for display from other places of execution in Rome. Corpses were usually left to rot on the staircase for extended periods of time in full view of the Forum, scavenged by dogs or other carrion animals, until eventually being thrown into the Tiber.

Death on the stairs was considered extremely dishonourable and dreadful, yet several senators and even an emperor met their demise here. Among the most famous who were executed on this spot were the prefect of the Praetorian Guard Lucius Aelius Sejanus and the emperor Vitellius. Sejanus was a former confidant of emperor Tiberius (Caligula’s uncle) who was implicated in a conspiracy in 31AD. According to Cassius Dio, Sejanus was strangled and cast down the Gemonian stairs, where the mob abused his corpse for three days. Soon after, his three children were similarly executed in this place.

Vitellius was a Roman general who became the third emperor in the so called Year of the Four Emperors in 69AD. He succeeded Otho upon his suicide on April 16, but lived to be emperor for only eight months. When his armies were defeated by those of Vespasian, he agreed to surrender but the Praetorian Guard refused to let him leave the city. On the entrance of Vespasian’s troops into Rome he was dragged out of his hiding-place, driven to the Gemonian stairs and struck down.

C. Suetonius Tranquillus, Tiberius, chap. 75

Morte eius ita laetatus est populus, ut ad primum nuntium discurrentes pars: 'Tiberium in Tiberim!' clamitarent, pars Terram matrem deosque Manes orarent, ne mortuo sedem ullam nisi inter impios darent, alii uncum et Gemonias cadaueri minarentur, exacerbati super memoriam pristinae crudelitatis etiam recenti atrocitate. [2] nam cum senatus consulto cautum esset, ut poena damnatorum in decimum semper diem differretur, forte accidit ut quorundam supplicii dies is esset, quo nuntiatum de Tiberio erat. hos implorantis hominum fidem, quia absente adhuc Gaio nemo extabat qui adiri interpellarique posset, custodes, ne quid aduersus constitutum facerent, strangulauerunt abieceruntque in Gemonias. [3] creuit igitur inuidia, quasi etiam post mortem tyranni saeuitia permanente. corpus ut moueri a Miseno coepit, conclamantibus plerisque Atellam potius deferendum et in amphitheatro semiustilandum, Romam per milites deportatum est crematumque publico funere.

The people were so much elated at his death, that when they first heard the news, they ran up and down the city, some, crying out "Away with Tiberius to the Tiber;" others exclaiming, "May the earth, the common mother of mankind, and the infernal gods, allow him no abode in death, but amongst the wicked." Others threatened his body with the hook and the Gemonian stairs, their indignation at his former cruelty being increased by a recent atrocity. It had been provided by an act of the senate, that the execution of condemned criminals should always be deferred until the tenth day after the sentence. Now this fell on the very day when the news of Tiberius's death arrived, and in consequence of which the unhappy men implored a reprieve, for mercy's sake; but as Caius had not yet arrived, and there was no one else to whom application could be made on their behalf, their guards, apprehensive of violating the law, strangled them, and threw them down the Gemonian stairs. This roused the people to a still greater abhorrence of the tyrant's memory, since his cruelty continued in use even after he was dead. As soon as his corpse was begun to be moved from Misenum, many cried out for its being carried to Atella, and being half burnt there in the amphitheatre. It was, however, brought to Rome, and burnt with the usual ceremony.

827400041_84b83f82a6_b.jpg or better ... Symbol_Stairs_of_Mourning.jpg (sorry - no org. pics found)
 
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Is it there that Vercingetorix was strangled after 6 or 7 years of confinement ?

I appreciate your work, Zephyros : it's an island of knowneldge among more and more twaddles ...

Yes. The tale of Vecingatorix is in my story (which may be twaddles, as you so elegantly put it), but it was twaddle that I did research:p. If there is so little of interest here, no one forces you to be here.
 
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