Horrific Ancient Methods of Execution

today's video is brought to you by audible star listening with a 30-day audible trial visit audible.com sign projects or text side projects to 500-500 more on them in a bit as well as an audiobook recommendation from me hi everybody welcome back to another episode of slide projects a cheery one today ancient methods of execution let's jump in [Music] as long as nations have existed the death penalty has been used as the ultimate punishment over the course of human history the methods of execution have evolved dramatically today many countries try to make death quick and relatively painless but that hasn't always been the case in fact it was often the exact opposite many rulers felt that painful and brutal executions would deter potential wrongdoers from repeating the same offenses while this wasn't always the outcome it at least seemed to serve as some sort of perverted form of entertainment satisfying the depraved tastes of wicked rulers today we're going to discuss a handful of the most brutal and unusual ancient execution methods let's start with perhaps the most infamous form of ancient execution crucifixion this method was standard throughout much of the old world for several thousand years but the most famous practitioners were the ancient romans the biblical story of jesus christ's crucifixion includes many details of a typical roman execution the ceremony would take place on top of a large hill with the condemned person being forced to carry the cross's beam which could weigh over a hundred pounds to the high ground the town's citizenry would line the streets heckling and following the criminal up the hill to witness their death once there the cross was constructed and the person's hands and feet would either be nailed or tied to the structure but that was just the beginning of the suffering as if the nails through the hands wasn't painful enough executioners would sometimes break the condemned person's legs stab a spear into their side or slice their torso with a knife to ensure maximum suffering before death in some societies the victim would be hung upside down or the cross would be placed near the shores that the waves crashed into the body hanging from the crucifix of course despite all of these variations the only essential component of crucifixion is a cross-shaped frame to which the criminal is bound other aspects simply determine the amount of suffering before that person's demise the length of time required for death could range from a few hours to several days depending on the severity of the injuries inflicted the cause of death also varied whether by blood loss infection of wounds cardiac failure asphyxia or other painful means after death bodies were often left on display until the next crucifixion serving as a constant reminder of the consequences of disobedience crucifixion is fortunately quite rare nowadays but it is still used sparingly in a couple of countries saudi arabia no surprises seems to be the most recent government crucifier person though the methods are much less torturous than they once were the cross is more commonly used to display the body of criminals who have been executed by more conventional means crucifixion is the only entry on this list that is still legal anywhere in the world today and that'll give you a clue that it's about to get a lot more brutal [Music] far has played a leading role in executions probably since cavemen discovered it all those years ago but as painful as it must be to be burned alive it just doesn't feel that creative the typical burning of a stake lacks the flair of other methods but ancient civilizations while they did their best to incorporate fire into more complex executions a typical example is boiling alive this method traditionally involved lowering the criminal into a boiling vat of water oil or even molten lead where they were killed with slow agonizing pain the molten liquids would burn through layers of skin sometimes the condemned were placed in the liquid before it was heated up to prolong mental agony as they felt their death sentence slowly warming despite the common use of boiling across many civilizations it has always been used for very specific types of criminals in ancient rome emperor nero preferred to only use it to execute christians about a millennial later in the holy roman empire boiling was reserved exclusively for coin forgers meanwhile king henry viii used it only for criminals who commit murder with poison while boiling was a prevalent form of execution the most elaborate fire based method was used in ancient greece it was called the brazen bull the brazen bull was built by a man named perilous for the sicilian tyrant falaris valeris sought a more effective method of capital punishment so perilous constructed a bronze life-size bull with a hollow interior and a wide door on its torso the criminal would be placed inside and the fire was lit beneath the ball's stomach creating an oven-like space that would slowly extinguish the person's life an acoustic device attached to the contraption would filter the man's screams into the sound of a bull's call in a cruel twist of fate the wicked tyrant follaris condemned the ball's creator perilous to die inside his own invention game of thrones fans will recognize this brutal means of torture and execution as the symbol of house bolton playing is the act of skinning a person alive until they die of blood loss or shock this graphic method of execution was remarkably common for such a violent and time-consuming procedure flying seems to have been first used in the neo-assyrian empire around 300 bc and continued across numerous civilizations for over 2500 years over time the techniques became more precise and brutal the new assyrians would remove the skin by essentially shaving it with the edge of a sharp blade but this seemed not to satisfy the depraved desires of future regimes it became a mark of an excellent flyer to remove the skin intact ancient chinese emperors would have executioner's start by slicing the skin from the face and working downward on the other hand the medieval europeans would begin at the other end using razor-sharp knives to make incisions around the feet and up the legs and torso the process became a favorite subject of european artists who depicted the practice in countless paintings most victims of this method died somewhat quickly of blood loss and shock however an expert player would work slowly and meticulously limiting blood loss and potentially keeping the played person alive for days how about a little breather thanks to today's sponsor audible or not with the audiobook recommendation i've got in a moment you may have heard me talk about audible before it has the largest selection of audiobooks in the world bar none it's a great resource for absorbing a good book without having to sit down in front of the hearth and read it cover to cover i've recently been listening to the book principles by 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advantage of audible's current holiday offer and grab a six month audible plus membership for just 4.95 a month with this amount of content it really is a bit of a steal audible is the best so just go try it now visit audible.com side projects or text side projects to 500 500 and let's get back to it [Music] though simple in practice impalement was a uniquely graphic method of capital punishment for the weak stomachs if you haven't already we suggest plugging your ears for the next few moments impairment involved shoving a spear or sharpened stick into the victim's anus then hoisting up the criminal so that gravity slowly pulled their body further down onto the sharpened barb the point would slowly rip through the victim's internal organs eventually protruding through the neck or the head impaling was not only gruesome and excruciating but like many of these methods it was meant to humiliate the perpetrator by emasculating them first the impaled were left in public for weeks until the body sunk all the way to the ground the babylonians were the first impalers in history as the famed king hammurabi ruled that a woman who killed her husband should die in this way the method was used well into the 20th century in prisoner of war camps during both world wars impaling would become heavily associated with eastern europe in the middle ages as countless brutal wars led rulers to choose this grotesque form of punishment of course the most notorious practitioner was the romanian rule of vlad the impaler who was so dark and evil that he inspired dracula the wicked ruler preferred using a flat-ended stick so that the impaled person wouldn't die of blood loss instead their death was even slower and perhaps even more painful than usual [Music] perhaps the favorite method of screenwriters rats were often used in a handful of different execution methods the rats were most commonly placed in some sort of bucket or bowl with the open end set against the criminal's stomach chest or behind then a lump of hot coal or flame of some sort was placed on the closed end so that the only way for the rats to escape the heat was to eat through the person's body rats have the most powerful jaws and teeth of any rodents and their bites can quickly eat through a human stomach besides the pain of having their flesh torn apart by rodent teeth the victim would feel the road and dig through their internal organs writhing around inside of them as they died from blood loss or damage to vital organs death by rat was especially prevalent in england during the tudor period though it's unclear when the method was first used however unlike most examples here rat-based torture and execution has been used as recently as the 1980s it was a favorite of latin american military governments during much of the 20th century and it sometimes took on even more graphic qualities in chile general pinochet took things up to the next level by reportedly placing rats in a tube that was then inserted up the person's rectum so the rats literally had to eat their way from the inside out according to urban legends the chilean leader would sometimes use the same method but with poisonous spiders it's unclear whether inserting them into the body would actually work as effectively but we'd just prefer not to imagine it last but definitely not least is the ancient persian method called scafism commonly referred to as the boats in ancient texts this method began by stripping the criminal naked and placing them in some sort of tight wooden space sometimes a hollowed-out log or a boat with beams running across the person's body the hands and feet were bound and the person was force-fed obscene amounts of honey and milk until they were forced to defecate and vomit all over themselves then their body was covered in honey and the ship was pushed out into a stagnant pool of water like a pond or a swamp the scent of sugar and human waste would attract all sorts of insects who would then begin feasting on the spoils before long the crawlers would start eating the victim's body climbing into orifices and then laying eggs inside them if the victim survived long enough they were fed more milk and honey to continue calling back the insects often covered in ants from head to toe the victim suffered from the pain of being eaten from the inside out and having tiny creatures crawling all over every inch of skin as one particularly gruesome mentioned text put it they succumbed to tortured madness experiencing the agonizing nightmare crawl of thousands of insects on their skin burrowing into their eyes and ears and nose filling their mouth as well worms and parasites bred in the filth at the bottom of the boat and squirmed up into their bowels the victim would eventually die of infection though according to greek historian plutarch one particularly resilient man took more than two weeks to die thankfully this horror film method didn't seem to ever catch on outside of persia and it died off with the persian empire execution has come a long way over the years and for good reason while these brutal tactics were meant to scare other criminals from committing similar crimes the often desperate nature of pre-modern and ancient life meant that crime tended to carry on no matter how public and brutal the punishment was in fact criminologists and philosophers often found that the opposite effect is perhaps even more true a society that normalizes the visible and public mutilation of their own people even those who have committed heinous crimes creates a de-civilizing process where violence and chaos reign supreme execution still continues in dozens of countries throughout the world but thankfully except for crucifixion none of those we've mentioned today have been publicly used in decades so i'm not going to ask whether you enjoyed that video you'd be a bit of a weirdo if you did but i do hope you found it interesting if you did please do hit that thumbs up button below do not forget to subscribe and thank you for watching [Music] you

Channel: Sideprojects

Views: 1,775,428

Keywords: megaprojects, construction, engineering, projects

Id: B4t1DjT9jBI

Length: 12min 57sec (777 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 22 2020