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Authors: Daniel Diehl
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ended the interrogation, but Nabis enjoyed his little jokes.
The Greeks, like the Babylonians and Assyrians before them, eventually went into decline, to be replaced by a newer and more efficient culture; in this particular case, it was the Romans who became the dominant power in the area. Roman civilisation, and its associated views on torture, must be divided into two distinct categories; the first being the Roman Republic and the second the Roman Empire (the periods before, and after, Julius Caesar).
While we do not have an actual depiction of Apega, this image of the Iron Maiden of Nuremburg should serve to illustrate the dangerous result of her cold embrace. There were various versions of this device. Some of which were designed to be lethal, and some were merely intended to be injurious.
Early Romans, like the Greeks whose culture they co-opted, tried to construct a relatively ecumenical society. As early as the fifth century BC, Servius Tullius, the sixth king of Rome, distinguished civil crimes from criminal offences. Under this new, more enlightened approach to justice, capital punishment and the horrible pain that so often accompanied it, were reserved for offences such as murder, treason, arson, perjury and temple virgins who engaged in sex. In some cases, such as arson, the punishment remained ‘an eye for an eye’ – arsonists being burnt to death. Perjurers were thrown from a cliff and non-virgin virgins were buried alive. Even serious civil crimes, such as physical assault or robbery, were usually punishable only by heavy fines, although theft of a farmer’s crops was occasionally punishable by hanging. Exempt from all forms of torture were priests, children under fourteen years of age and pregnant women. Throughout this period – that is to say, during the days of the Roman Republic – justice was relatively even-handed and free citizens of Rome had no more fear of random acts of judicial violence than most of us do today. All that changed around 50 BC.
Julius Caesar was no saint, but as he only held power for about six months, he had little opportunity to change things for better or worse. What he did do, however, was pave the way for a string of emperors who were, to say the very least, less than pleasant people. Immediately after Caesar’s assassination, power fell into the hands of three men: Mark Anthony, Octavius Caesar and Marcus Lepidus. Partly due to the fact that this was a time of civil war, and partly due to their natures, none of these men trusted anyone, including each other. For the first time in Roman history it became a crime to speak out against the government. When the philosopher Cicero denounced Mark Anthony, he was summarily arrested, tried and executed. Not a good start for the new Roman Empire and things swiftly went from bad to worse. As with almost all dictatorships, the Roman Empire was governed by men who doubted their ability to retain power and feared anyone and everyone who might conceivably snatch that power away from them. The only way for such men to maintain power is to establish a climate of terror: all plots, both real and imagined, must be uncovered and examples must be made of any suspected conspirators. And as we discussed in the first chapter, it is precisely within this paranoid climate of fear and suspicion that tortures proliferate.
In this scene we are shown a man who is being flogged by two other men using what appear to be knotted ropes or perhaps chains with weights. To their right a victim is having molten lead dripped onto the skin of his back while in the background we see a man being lowered into a hole for some unknown reason and another man is on fire and being beaten with a club.
The first group to come under the harsh boot of Imperial tyranny was the Roman army. Not surprising, really, it was Julius Caesar’s legions which had overthrown the old Republic and it simply would not do to have soldiers thinking they could change
The Greeks, like the Babylonians and Assyrians before them, eventually went into decline, to be replaced by a newer and more efficient culture; in this particular case, it was the Romans who became the dominant power in the area. Roman civilisation, and its associated views on torture, must be divided into two distinct categories; the first being the Roman Republic and the second the Roman Empire (the periods before, and after, Julius Caesar).
While we do not have an actual depiction of Apega, this image of the Iron Maiden of Nuremburg should serve to illustrate the dangerous result of her cold embrace. There were various versions of this device. Some of which were designed to be lethal, and some were merely intended to be injurious.
Early Romans, like the Greeks whose culture they co-opted, tried to construct a relatively ecumenical society. As early as the fifth century BC, Servius Tullius, the sixth king of Rome, distinguished civil crimes from criminal offences. Under this new, more enlightened approach to justice, capital punishment and the horrible pain that so often accompanied it, were reserved for offences such as murder, treason, arson, perjury and temple virgins who engaged in sex. In some cases, such as arson, the punishment remained ‘an eye for an eye’ – arsonists being burnt to death. Perjurers were thrown from a cliff and non-virgin virgins were buried alive. Even serious civil crimes, such as physical assault or robbery, were usually punishable only by heavy fines, although theft of a farmer’s crops was occasionally punishable by hanging. Exempt from all forms of torture were priests, children under fourteen years of age and pregnant women. Throughout this period – that is to say, during the days of the Roman Republic – justice was relatively even-handed and free citizens of Rome had no more fear of random acts of judicial violence than most of us do today. All that changed around 50 BC.
Julius Caesar was no saint, but as he only held power for about six months, he had little opportunity to change things for better or worse. What he did do, however, was pave the way for a string of emperors who were, to say the very least, less than pleasant people. Immediately after Caesar’s assassination, power fell into the hands of three men: Mark Anthony, Octavius Caesar and Marcus Lepidus. Partly due to the fact that this was a time of civil war, and partly due to their natures, none of these men trusted anyone, including each other. For the first time in Roman history it became a crime to speak out against the government. When the philosopher Cicero denounced Mark Anthony, he was summarily arrested, tried and executed. Not a good start for the new Roman Empire and things swiftly went from bad to worse. As with almost all dictatorships, the Roman Empire was governed by men who doubted their ability to retain power and feared anyone and everyone who might conceivably snatch that power away from them. The only way for such men to maintain power is to establish a climate of terror: all plots, both real and imagined, must be uncovered and examples must be made of any suspected conspirators. And as we discussed in the first chapter, it is precisely within this paranoid climate of fear and suspicion that tortures proliferate.
In this scene we are shown a man who is being flogged by two other men using what appear to be knotted ropes or perhaps chains with weights. To their right a victim is having molten lead dripped onto the skin of his back while in the background we see a man being lowered into a hole for some unknown reason and another man is on fire and being beaten with a club.
The first group to come under the harsh boot of Imperial tyranny was the Roman army. Not surprising, really, it was Julius Caesar’s legions which had overthrown the old Republic and it simply would not do to have soldiers thinking they could change
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