Naturally, you should not expect to find as many references to the scourging of women as to that of men. Save in exceptional cases (e.g., the Spartans, Boudicca), women did not fight in armies, practice piracy, actively join in military forces during revolutions or constitute an armed power threat to male leaders. These crimes carried with them the danger of punishment by scourging and crucifixion. So only a few women had to fear it. After a defeat women and children were normally sold into slavery.
Preparations for the scourging are carried out. The victim is stripped of its clothing and its hands are tied to a post above its head. It is doubtful whether the Romans made any attempt to follow the Jewish law in this matter of scourging. The Jews had an ancient law prohibiting more than forty lashes. The Pharisees, always making sure that the law was strictly kept, insisted that only thirty-nine lashes be given. (In case of a miscount, they were sure of remaining within the law.) The Roman legionnaire steps forward with the flagrum (or flagellum) in his hand. This is a short whip consisting of several heavy, leather thongs with two small balls of lead attached near the ends of each.
The heavy whip is brought down with full force again and again across the victimís shoulders, back and legs. At first the heavy thongs cut through the skin only. Then, as the blows continue, they are cut deeper into the subcutaneous tissues, producing first an oozing of blood from the capillaries and veins of the skin, and finally spurting arterial bleeding from vessels in the underlying muscles.
The small balls of lead first produce large, deep bruises which are broken open by subsequent blows. Finally the skin of the back is hanging in long ribbons and the entire area is an unrecognizable mass of torn bleeding tissue.
When it is determined by the centurion in charge that the prisoner is near death, the beating is finally stopped.
And here an addition: ...
It is interesting to note that scourging and the sack*) were both generally reserved for the lower class, except when parricidium was the crime, because the murdering of a parent was considered one of the worst crimes a man could commit. When the rich were found guilty of parricidium, even they were punished by scourging and the sack. When upper-class citizens committed this most atrocious of crimes, they, in a sense, forfeited their upper-class status for that of the lower-class, which made them subject to the lower-class punishments of scourging and the sack. Only when the rich were at their worst, were they punished and treated like the poor.
*) The poena cullei (penalty of the sack) was a very gruesome capital punishment. It involved sewing a criminal into a sack made of leather; also sewn into the sack were a dog, a monkey, a snake, and a rooster. The sack was then hurled into a body of water.
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