Regarding
Poena Cullei - This is a supplement to post #181.
I waited to give the punishment details, not to reveal what was coming up in the story. The usual animals listed (though it varied) were a snake, a cock, a dog, and a monkey. Most scholars doubt that the Romans even had monkeys in the early stages of the punishment. And I preferred using a fox to a dog.
In 1920, Max Radin of The University of California wrote an article, “The
Lex Pompeia and the
Poena Cullei,” in
The Journal of Roman Studies. It was one of my sources for the punishment. If you are interested in learning more, you will find a pdf below. The article begins this way:
“When the South Sea Bubble burst, a passionate member of the British Parliament called for the application of the
Lex Pompeia on Parricides to those who had defrauded the nation. Just as the Romans, he argued, face to face with a monstrous and unprecedented crime, devised for it a monstrous and unprecedented punishment, so the British were invited to tie the directors of the South Sea Company into sacks with a dog, a cock, a viper and an ape in each, and sink them in the Thames.
The statement then made is, it seems, the general belief about the origin of this famous Roman death-penalty. That belief is demonstrably wrong, although Seneca, who doubtless knew better, makes a rhetorical point by pretending to share it. Parricide did not first occur in Rome in the first pre-Christian century, nor was tying in a sack and subsequent drowning first introduced then. Both the offence and this particular mode of vindicating it were more ancient.”
Some readers here may have read my story,
Rebecca and the Bloody Codes, which was completed at Christmas over a year ago. The story began with a recitation of the events of the South Sea Bubble, the riots that followed, and the passing, in response, of the infamous "Bloody Codes." (
https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofEngland/South-Sea-Bubble/). The story then shows how these dominoes affected Rebecca's family in Kent and set her tragic story in motion.
I am always trying to plan ahead as I devise plot complications and surprise relationships. I enjoy planting the seeds of unusual coincidence. In this case, you can see that I chose to use the South Sea Bubble to plant a tiny hint in Rebecca’s story to connect to
Poena Collei and, in turn, to the Goth Girl.
So we can now see Gothic Barbara, and Kentish Rebecca tied together via a mystical cord of history and memory stretching over thirteen centuries.
Where will my next historical link take us?
Professor Radin's article: