Roman Capital Punishment

Capital punishment which is always referred to as a death sentence is the practice that is passed by the government or by the state as a form of punishment by death for people that have committed crimes. The sentence passed for a person to be punished through capital punishment is known as death sentence while the process of carrying out the sentence is known as execution. Crimes that can lead to capital punishment or death sentence are referred to as capital offenses or crimes (Seale, 2012). Capital punishment was used in the medieval age and is still being practiced in some countries. Some other countries abolished the use of this form of punishment. Capital can be traced back before the 400BCE and was used to castigate criminals and also silence those with opposing views concerning the politics of the time. In most countries, the punishment is reserved for crimes like murder, treason while in some other countries; it has been used to punish criminals who have committed adultery, rape, sodomy and incest. France was and is still one of the countries that commonly use capital punishment. This paper will discuss the forms of capital punishment used by the Romans from 400BCE through to 1700.

Forms of Capital Punishment among the Romans

Crimes and the criminal laws were extreme during ancient Rome than they are currently. Crimes such as adultery which are lightly handled currently by civil suit were corporally punishable among the ancient Jews and Romans. Capital punishment in ancient Rome took various forms which included: criminal or offender being thrown in a river or sea which was known as projectio in profluentem in Latin, beheading the criminal was a form of death punishment commonly known as percussio secure . The third form of death punishment was strangling the criminal in prison commonly referred to as strangulation. Furthermore, criminals were also thrown from a rock which known as Tropeian. This form of punishment was also common among the ancient Romans. The fifth form of capital punishment among the ancient romans was burying the criminal alive and lastly crucifixion, which, was referred to as in crucem action in Latin (Scott, 1932).

Other methods that were used as forms of capital punishment in Rome were boiling the criminal in water, tar and other forms of liquid, burning the criminal alive, use of the electric chair, stoning the criminal to death, killing the criminal by use of animals ( damnatio ad bestias ) like elephants and lions, use of witch hunts, impalement though it was rarely used among the Romans and when used, it was for women who had killed their husbands in order to be with other men, the firing squad was also used in executing criminals where at times single firing was used. The gas chamber was also used where the criminal was asked to breathe in the gas and this was dependent on the participation of the criminal (Scott, 1932).

Throwing the criminal in to the river ( projectio in profluentem)

This punishment was given to individuals who had committed murder and to be specific, those who had killed their fathers or parents. Immediately a person was found guilty of killing the father, they were blindfolded because the Roman Emperor believed they were not worthy to see the light. Furthermore, they were taken to a place outside the city of Rome, known as Mars. While there, they were stripped off their clothes and whipped with rods. The criminal was then stacked inside a sack known as Culeus and left to drown in to the river or sea. Later on, live animals including a snake, cock, a monkey and a dog were added in to the sack.200 years later, Justinian who was the emperor of the Romans modifiedthis type of execution and instructed the exclusion of animals and instead the criminal or offender had to be burnt alive. However, drowning the criminal in to the river or sea was carried on in to the 18th century and there were reported cases of this form of punishment in other parts of the world for example Germany (Stott, 1932).

Concerning this punishment of drowning in the river, a law was passed which stated that an individual who would be found guilty for murder of his or her parents was to be put in a sack and drowned. One criminal known as Malleolus was found guilty of murder. He had killed his mother and hence was sentenced to death by drowning. After the death sentence was passed, his head was wrapped in a bag or sack made out of the hide of the wolf and the feet put in shoes made out of wood and escorted to exclusion to await the day of the execution. In another example of this form of punishment, Lucius Hostius killed his father in 753BCE and he was later drowned in the stream for the crime. On the contrary, in 535 to 509BCE the punishment was also placed on Marcus Atilius who had been bribed in order to give out information concerning the books of sacred rituals and prophecy among the Romans. He gave out information that was regarded very important and sacred and was not to be shared with other people. Due to the breach of the law put in place to guard the books, the leader, Tarquinius ordered that he be put in to a sack and be drowned in the river (Scott, 1932).

Crucifixion ( crucem action )

Crucifixion has been known to be a historical form of capital punishment especially in ancient Rome. In Rome, it was commonly used on pirates, state enemies and mostly the servants. This form of punishment brought with it so much embarrassment and disgrace. Citizens of the Roman Empire were excluded from this punishment unless they had performed some crimes especially treason at very high levels. The criminal or victim was nailed or tied up using ropes on to a large beam of wood or piece of wood and was left hanging there for a few days until the day he or she dies. Leaving a person there to die was to serve as a lesson to other people who might want to commit crimes. The crucifixion of Jesus Christ is the commonly known form of this punishment and the cross remains to be a very significant symbol of religion among Christians. Furthermore, this form of punishment demonstrated a slow and painful death. The methods varied depending on the time of execution and the location of execution (Kelly, 2012).

The words used by the Greek and the Romans to refer to crucifixion had different meanings. They collectively meant a painful death while being fixed on a tree. On the other hand, they meant being fixed on a pole that is upright or being fixed on a pole that was both upright and crossbeam. The criminal or the person who had been condemned was meant to carry the cross which was about 300lb or carry the crossbeam which was about 100lb. The Romans had a specific place where the executions were carried out and more specifically, there was a place where the slaves were executed through crucifixion. There were upright posts that had been permanently put in place and the cross bearing the criminal would be nailed to the permanent pole in place. There were different forms of fixing a person on to the cross, they included; using ropes and nails. Crucifying a person was so humiliating during the times and no one could wish for such. The criminals were stripped before being fixed to the cross and some even had sticks forced upwards through their groins (Kelly, 2012). 

This form of punishment was so common among the Romans .Furthermore, criminals legs were broken using a tool made out of iron. This process hastened the death of the criminal and further acted as warning to other people as it was so humiliating and extremely painful. The other form that the Romans used to harsen the death was stabbing the heart, having sharp blows on the chest or having fire with smoke at the base of the cross to make the victim die out of the smoke. Burial was not allowed among the Romans and hence the body was left to rot on the cross (Kelly, 2012).

Beheading ( percussio secure )

This was another form of capital punishment among the Romans where the head of the criminal was cut off the body. It was regarded as the most honorable form of death among the people and especially among criminals. Before being executed, the criminal was tied up to a piece of tree and whipped using rods before being beheaded. An ax was used during the early years but later on, a sword was used to cut off the head. This form of punishment was also used in Japan from the 11th to 17th century, it was known as Seppuku. The French revolution was marked with the beheading of people who had been originally born in France by use of a method known as Guillotine. This method was seen as being honorable by the Romans (Welch, n.d).

William the conqueror introduced the method of beheading criminals to England in the 11th century. Death by the sword was carried out while a victim was kneeling or standing straight and the head being supported by block and the neck impeded for ease of performance. This killing by the sword was reserved for criminals of the highest rank because it was associated to a person being killed in the field of battle. In 1747, Simon, Lord Lovat was the last person to be beheaded in England.

Use of the ax to behead criminals was mainly used on traitors who were slaves. The victim had to be dragged by horses up to the place where the execution was to take place. While there, the person was tied up and beheaded. Furthermore, the person was cut into four pieces or was tied up to four horses and they were made to run in to different directions tearing up the person in to four pieces. Arthur Thistlewood was the last person to be beheaded by ax in England in 1820. On the other hand, there was a block that was made to support the neck of the criminal so that it was easier for the executer to perform the execution. Many people in ancient Rome were executed through beheading either through the ax or through the sword (Harding, 2012).

Strangling the criminal (strangulation)

This was a common method among the Romans and even among many more other countries where a criminal was hanged and left to die. The method is still being used up to date. There are different methods that were used to strangle or hang the victims. One of the methods was known as short drop. This is whereby the victim was made to walk up a ladder, then a rope tied around the neck and eventually the ladder pulled away. In other cases, the ladder was replaced by a stool, a vehicle or a cart. This death was meant to be slow and painful and would take between 10 to 25 minutes for the victim to die (Harding, 2000). 

The other method of strangulation used was the standard drop. It was the commonly used method of strangulation among the Romans. It was similar to the short drop but here the rope was made to a length of 6feet. This method was also quicker as it led to breaking of the neck and hence immediate unconsciousness of the victim. The long drop was also used where the length of the rope was determined by the weight of the victim. The length was to be enough to allow the neck of the victim to break. The last from of strangulation used was the suspension method. This method was similar to the short drop with a slight difference in the duration of death. The rope was made to tighten the trachea of the victim using the victim’s weight and the victim struggled for a shorter time before dying.

Burning alive

Burning the criminal alive was another form of capital punishment that was used among the Romans. The form of punishment was devised by a Babylonian King to punish people who looted burning houses, priestesses who abandoned their duties and also to punish sons who committed incest with their mothers when their father had died. Ancient Egypt and Rome also used this form of punishment on individuals who rebelled against the ruling government. In Rome, enemies of the state were burned alive. Despite this gruesome form of punishment, the rule of Constantine the Great saw a lot of crimes take place in Rome. Due to the increased levels in crime, other crimes like a woman marrying a person working for her, that is, the slave was to be burned alive. This method was adopted in Rome and was widely used in executing criminals (Scott, 1932).

A criminal being thrown from theTarpeian Rock ( dejectio e rupe Tarpeia )

The Tarpeian rock was situated in the Roma Forum in the ancient Rome and was used to execute criminals during the Roman Republic. The cliff was about 80ft high and criminals including murderers, traitors, slaves and perjurors were flung from the top of the cliff and left to succumb to death at the bottom of the cliff. For a person to be hurled down the rock, it was a situation that everyone at the time feared so much because it was humiliating and carried with it the shame that led to stigma especially with the criminal. Though strangulation was commonly used among the Romans, execution by the Tarpeian Rock was reserved for the extremely stubborn traitors like Gius Marcius Coriolanus (Scott, 1932).

Burying the Criminal Alive

This form of punishment was not so common among the Romans. Offenses constituting of rape and theft were punishable by live burying in the Holy Roman Empire in the 13th Century. The rape of a virgin was punishable by live burial while the rapist of a non-virgin was to be beheaded according to the Roman laws. Furthermore, people who killed their own employers were also executed through live burials. In another case concerning a Vestal Virgin in ancient Rome where she was convicted of violating her celibacy vows and was later executed through live burial. A woman buried alive in Rome was later impaled through the heart but the practice was later abolished in 1515 because it was regarded so cruel and was replaced by drowning (Harding, 2000).

In conclusion, the Romans had so many forms of execution by death, that is, capital punishment between 400BCE to 18th Century. Some of these methods are being practiced up to date. With the advancement in technology, there are also modern methods of execution like the lethal injection, use of electric chair and gas chambers which are being used currently especially in the United States. The lethal injection was meant to be less painful as compared to the other forms of capital punishment. Some of the forms of capital punishment have since been abolished in Rome because of the strict religious beliefs held by the Romans.

References

Donald, K.G. (1998). Spectacles of Death in Ancient Rome

Harding, M. R. (2000). Capital Punishment as Human Sacrifice: A Societal Ritual as Depicted in George Eliot’s Adam Bede. Law Faculty Scholarly articles . Vol 48: 175-300

Kelly, B. (2012). The Roman Death Penalty. Biblical Illustrator: 6-10

Scott, S.P. (1932). The Civil Law, including the Twelve Tables, The Institutes of Gaius, The Rules of Ulpian, The Opinions of Paulus, The Enactments of Justinian and The Constitution of Leo. Central Trust Company

Seale, N. (2012). Crime and Punishment in the Roman Empire. Retrieved November 16, 2016 from https://prezi.com/m/v5952oding/crime-and-punishment-in-the-roman-empire/

Welch, E.K. The Roman Amphitheatre- From its Origins to the Colosseum. Retrieved November 16, 2016 from http://m.tibunesandtriumphs.org/roman-life/roman-punishment.htm