The video discusses various ancient methods of execution, highlighting their brutality and the evolution of capital punishment. It begins with an advertisement for Audible and then delves into historical execution practices, including crucifixion, boiling alive, the brazen bull, flaying, impalement, and rat torture. The video also touches on the psychological impact of public executions on society and concludes with a reflection on modern-day execution methods. The sponsor Audible is mentioned again before the video ends.
Here are the key facts:
1. The death penalty has been used as the ultimate punishment for as long as nations have existed.
2. Methods of execution have evolved dramatically over the course of human history.
3. Many rulers felt that painful and brutal executions would deter potential wrongdoers from repeating the same offenses.
4. Crucifixion was a standard method of execution throughout much of the old world for several thousand years.
5. The ancient Romans were the most famous practitioners of crucifixion.
6. The biblical story of Jesus Christ's crucifixion includes many details of a typical Roman execution.
7. Crucifixion involved forcing the condemned person to carry the cross's beam to the high ground, where they would be nailed or tied to the structure.
8. 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.
9. In some societies, the victim would be hung upside down or the cross would be placed near the shores so that the waves crashed into the body hanging from the crucifix.
10. The length of time required for death by crucifixion could range from a few hours to several days.
11. The cause of death by crucifixion varied, including blood loss, infection of wounds, cardiac failure, asphyxia, or other painful means.
12. Boiling alive was a method of execution that involved lowering the criminal into a boiling vat of water, oil, or even molten lead.
13. The molten liquids would burn through layers of skin, sometimes causing the condemned person to be placed in the liquid before it was heated up to prolong mental agony.
14. Boiling was a prevalent form of execution in ancient Rome, the Holy Roman Empire, and medieval Europe.
15. The most elaborate fire-based method of execution was the Brazen Bull, used in ancient Greece.
16. The Brazen Bull was a bronze life-size bull with a hollow interior and a wide door on its torso, where the criminal would be placed and the fire would be lit beneath the bull's stomach.
17. The screams of the person inside the bull would be filtered into the sound of a bull's call through an acoustic device.
18. The wicked tyrant Phalaris condemned the creator of the Brazen Bull, Perillos, to die inside his own invention.
19. Flaying, or skinning a person alive, was a graphic method of execution that involved removing the skin by shaving it with the edge of a sharp blade.
20. Flaying was used in various civilizations, including the Neo-Assyrian Empire, ancient China, and medieval Europe.
21. The New Assyrians would remove the skin intact, while ancient Chinese emperors would start by slicing the skin from the face and working downward.
22. Medieval Europeans would begin at the other end, using razor-sharp knives to make incisions around the feet and up the legs and torso.
23. Impalement was a uniquely graphic method of capital punishment that involved shoving a spear or sharpened stick into the victim's anus.
24. The point would slowly rip through the victim's internal organs, eventually protruding through the neck or the head.
25. Impalement was used in various civilizations, including the Babylonians, ancient Rome, and Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages.
26. The most notorious practitioner of impalement was Vlad the Impaler, who inspired the legend of Dracula.
27. Death by rat was a method of execution that involved placing rats in a bucket or bowl with the open end set against the criminal's stomach, chest, or behind.
28. The rats would eat through the person's body, causing pain and eventually death from blood loss or damage to vital organs.
29. Death by rat was used in England during the Tudor period and was also used by Latin American military governments in the 20th century.
30. The ancient Persian method of execution called Scafism, or "the boats," involved stripping the criminal naked and placing them in a tight wooden space.
31. The person was force-fed obscene amounts of honey and milk until they were forced to defecate and vomit all over themselves.
32. The body was then covered in honey and the ship was pushed out into a stagnant pool of water, attracting insects that would eat the victim's body.
33. The victim would eventually die of infection, although one particularly resilient man took more than two weeks to die.
34. Execution has come a long way over the years, and most of the brutal methods mentioned in the video are no longer used today.
35. Criminologists and philosophers often found that the opposite effect of brutal punishments is perhaps even more true, where a society that normalizes the visible and public mutilation of their own people creates a de-civilizing process.
36. Execution still continues in dozens of countries throughout the world, but thankfully, except for crucifixion, none of the methods mentioned in the video have been publicly used in decades.