Chapter 4 North Ame CAN I STROKE rica HIM? BETTER NOT Horses Asia The hands and legs of the DO YOU LIKE ANIMALS? DO YOU convict were tied to four hor- HAVE PETS AT HOME? AND DO ope ses, each of which was com- YOU KNOW HOW ALL KINDS OF ur E manded to run in a different CREATURES WERE USED IN THE direction. The only possible PAST – THOUSANDS, SOMETIMES ONLY HUNDREDS OF YEARS AGO? outcome was the tearing of a ric the convict’s body into four Af pieces, known as quartering. South a Americ Dogs Bees To be thrown to the dogs was an igno- Beehive-thieves were Au minious punishment. And it was not left at the mercy of the strálie difficult to put into practice, as there bees' stings. were plenty of hungry dogs. Ashur- banipal, King of Assyria, was a ruler who liked to feed his dogs in this way. Rats The executioner placed a bucket containing a rat Elephants on the convict's belly. The executioner heated up There were two options. With the first, the elephants the bucket. The rat went crazy and did everything Ants stamped the convict to pulp; with the second, the it could to escape the bucket. In the end, its only elephants were specially trained to perform very An army of migratory ants can gnaw way out led into the poor convict’s belly, which effective acts of sadism. In Sri Lanka, an island that anything down to the bone, so a poor it bit into. In China, the heat was applied to the lies to the south of India, it was the custom for an criminal in chains poses no problem buttocks. It’s not hard to guess the way out in this elephant to toss the convict up in the air, catching for them. case. Or should that be the way in? him on its tusks as he fell. • 14 • • 15 • Chapter 5 Them es isto stid cl ri es A THE ELEGANCE OF THE ANCIENT GREEKS We think of the Ancient Greeks as wise Draco’s Code is the oldest known legal code philosophers, sensitive artists and fathers in Europe. It sentenced the perpetrators of of democracy. But not all was rosy in quite commonplace crimes to death, yet it their garden: life in antiquity, too, could made a new distinction between murder and be harsh. There was noise and commotion. involuntary manslaughter. There was unrest and defiance. There was crime and punishment. Do you happen to Fortunately, Draconian laws were not long in know how things were managed in Athens effect before they were abolished for being before democracy was born there? If you too harsh. What followed was the birth of have heard the word ‘draconian’, you will much-extolled Athenian democracy. But that, know that nothing good is meant by it… too, was not without its flaws. Bringer of the law Draco was an Athenian lawgiver in the 7th Graeco-Persian attracted the most could begin saying his good- century BCE. His laws were so strict that he byes – he was about to be sent into exile for ten shard paradox could have given Hammurabi a run for his years. Regrettably, ostracism was often abused money. It is said that they were written not in The military commander Aristides was in the political struggle as an instrument for ink but in human blood. a victim of ostracism. He was expelled from getting rid of opponents. The historian Thucydi- Athens after his conflict with Themistocles, des, for instance, was a victim of such treatment. another fine warrior. But Aristides was Shards of justice recalled to Athens to fight against the What’s your poison? Persians, whom the Athenians then defeated with Aristides and Themistocles fighting ‘Trial by shard’, better known as ostracism, side by side. A few years later, the situation was introduced around 500 BCE, as protec- One of the most common methods of execu- was reversed: the popularity of Themistocles tion against tyrants (so-called autocrats) who tion in Athens was forced poisoning. It would declined sharply, resulting in his ostracism. But Draco himself didn’t think up the laws. represented a threat to Athenian democracy. later reach other parts of Greece and even Unlike Aristides, Themistocles never retur- He simply wrote down the rules people were Every citizen was given a pottery shard, known the territory of today’s Spain and France. The ned; ironically, he settled in Persia for the used to. In this way, no one could claim that as an ostrakon, on which he would write his first poison used was a decoction of hemlock. rest of his life. they didn’t know the law, nor could anyone name for the purposes of a vote. If at least Later, a more reliable mixture of poppy and take advantage of the ignorance of others. 6,000 such votes were cast, the person who other substances was used. • 16 • • 17 • Socrates THE QUESTION IS – IN A BAD WAY, ISN'T HE? HEMLOCK OR POPPY? We can read about how Socrates defended AND I SEE ATLAS IS STILL himself before the Athenian court in Plato's as WALKING AROUND WITH HIS Atl nt treatise The Apology of Socrates. gia HEAD IN THE CLOUDS. the resin and then set alight. Now human torches, S these people must have suffered terrible pain. i sy emlock ph h us red poppy Stoning Ea g P le r o m e t The punishment of stoning was mostly con- h e u Atlas led the Titans in battle against the nected with religion. In ancient times, it was s practised by Jews and Christians; later (in Olympian gods. After the Titans were defea- some places, even today), it was/is used by WOE IS ME! EVERY DAY ted, Atlas was sent by Zeus to the western Muslims. It was also much in favour in an- THE SAME! WELL, PECK IT OUT edge of the world to hold up the sky on his Death of Socrates cient Greece, as a means of revenge on AND GET IT OVER WITH. shoulders forever more. a group or to punish errant soldiers. The best-known case of death by poisoning in antiquity is probably that of the philoso- I TOLD YOU WE Mythological justice time; whenever the rock was about to reach the ne top, it would roll away from Sisyphus and back pher Socrates in 399 BCE. His philosophizing SHOULDN'T HAVE LISTENED sto in the street, which included criticism of the TO THAT ROMAN! down the hill. And so it went on, endlessly. For the ancient Greeks, just (sometimes un- government, was less than popular with Athe- Prometheus was a demigod who created man. just) retribution was so important that they nian politicians. Socrates was put on trial, His offence was to trick Zeus, who hid fire incorporated it into their numerous myths. charged with impiety and corrupting the from humans in retribution. Prometheus then Everyone knows about Sisyphus, Prome- young, and sentenced to death by poisoning. went to Mount Olympus, where he stole fire theus and Atlas the giant. We still don't know exactly what was in the and took it back with him. For this, he was mixture he was forced to drink. bound to a rock in the Caucasus, where each day an eagle would feed on his liver, which What does legend tell us? would then grow back overnight. He was freed Human torches at last by the hero Heracles. As a reminder of It is said that all inhabitants of the Greek According to legend, the famous King Sisy- his punishment, Prometheus kept a ring with city of Messene were stoned to death – for phus was one of the world’s cleverest men. a stone from the rock in the Caucasus. Burning was included in Draco's Code, and it having captured and executed the Greek But when he tried to outwit the gods – inclu- It is worth noting that the gods' strictest pu- continued as a punishment in later times. In general Philopoemen at the behest ding Zeus, the highest of all Greek gods – he nishments favoured eternity over death. For Greece, it sometimes took a particularly nasty of the Romans. got himself into big trouble. His punishment Sisyphus and Atlas, this meant endless work, turn: convicts' outer clothing was soaked in was to roll a huge boulder up a hill for all for Prometheus suffering without end. • 18 • • 19 • Chapter 6 APPARENTLY, THAT Chapter 7 LOAFER SOCRATES IS GOING AROUND TALKATIVE SOCRATES SAYING THAT WE'RE FOOLS! AT THE AGORA … AND YOU, ROMANS? YOU'RE A FOOL. The ancient Romans were perfectionists have been the Romans if they hadn't added BUT I'VE GOOD NEWS FOR YOU. by nature who tried to make the very best something of their own… THOSE WHO RULE YOU ARE STILL of everything. If they saw something they The guilty party was sewn up in a sack, which GREATER FOOLS. liked beyond their empire, they would was then thrown into a river. But he wasn't check it out and make improvements to it. alone in there – he was in the company of This was as much the case in certain fields a dog, a cat, a monkey, a cock and a viper. of art and culture as it was in the area of Just imagine the hellish scene in the sack WHAT ROT WELL, LET'S HEAR HIM crime and punishment. In the latter case, before the convict eventually drowned! HE SPEAKS! SAY IT TO OUR FACES.