Comments on: Rats, Racks, and Rippers: Torture Devices of the Middle Ages

By: Ed-M

Ed-M — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 22:56:34 +0000

Jedakk, I didn’t say everyone who was crucified was crucified the standard way. In wartime, hardly anybody was crucified in the standard manner. And there were concessions to local custom (at least in Egypt and Judea). I’ve read Consolatium Ad Marcium – translating from the original Latin – and Seneca mentions what he considered three valid methods of crucifixion: suspending upside-down [from an overhead beam or a stake], impaling through the rear end, and the well-known method of combined racking and suspending from an overhead beam. There were probably other ways as well. But if you read Seneca Epistulae Morales ad Lucullum 101:10-14 he talks about at length the combination of the second and third method and called the whole sorry business a “carminis effeminati turpitudo:” ritual of effeminizing turpitude, or ritual of enervating hideousness and repulsiveness, indicating to me that that was the ‘standard’, i.e., the executioners’ most popular method.

By: Jedakk

Jedakk — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 12:48:03 +0000

Ed-M, you can’t possibly make definitive statements like that about crucifixion. Even Seneca wrote in his “Consolation ad Marcium” about how he saw victims crucified in many different ways. Josephus wrote about how the Romans crucified thousands of Jews in a multitude of ways at the seige of Jerusalem, just to amuse themselves. Although there is certainly a possibility that there might have been a case such as you describe, there was no standard practice. And I’ve been researching this too for close to fifty years now.

By: Ed-M

Ed-M — Mon, 24 May 2010 00:49:09 +0000

Natalina, it floored me when I first realised it too. Even my bowels protested at the prospect of being penetrated by a point (I hope they shaped it like a penis!). And that’s the standard way the Romans did it. The traditional Christian conception of Jesus’ crucifixion is tame by comparison: he’s just nailed to a cross and lifted up with his legs together, like a god. I’m already telling Christians, it didn’t happen the way you think; like everybody else who was crucified, he was utterly humiliated and terrorised.

By: natalina

natalina — Sun, 23 May 2010 08:13:25 +0000

No no Ed. It takes a LOT to offend me, trust me. I was just floored by the description of crucifixion as you described it. Yowza!

By: Ed-M

Ed-M — Sun, 23 May 2010 06:24:42 +0000

Natalina, I hope I didn’t offend you… you are right: crucifixion was not nice at all, it was HORRIBLE. And though my description sounds crazy, I found it out by doing research, even translating Latin and Greek. Reality can be a LOT crazier than fiction!

By: natalina

natalina — Sat, 22 May 2010 12:20:22 +0000

Ed, that is literally one of the CRAZIEST things I’ve ever heard! Damn. Crucifixion. Not nice… not nice at all.

By: Ed-M

Ed-M — Sat, 22 May 2010 10:01:58 +0000

… Once the ropes were all the way out to his wrists…

By: Ed-M

Ed-M — Sat, 22 May 2010 09:58:18 +0000

Don’t forget crucifixion! The Romans of course “perfected” this method of painful, humiliating execution. Already stripped naked, scourged and bound to the crossbeam with ropes round his biceps, the condemned was led to a public execution spot in a busy place, thrown down, nailed by his wrists to the crossbeam and lifted into position. Then his feet were nailed to the upright in a manner that spread his legs wide. Finally they added a seat they called the crucem subdas (nicknamed sedile, cornu or skolops). It wasn’t just a horizontal timber or plank; it projected out and up like a horn. When the condemned couldn’t stand on the nails in his feet, he hanged from the beam by the nails and ropes. The ropes would work their way out to his wrists and he would soon be penetrated by the seat. Once the ropes were all the way, the condemned would hang with his arms, shoulders, spine, buttocks and even his thighs stretched, all at the same time he is penetrated for the full height of the seat and his anus dilated, possibly to the point of bursting. The most humiliating aspect of this, even for men who enjoyed receiving anal sex, was the way the condemned’s body involuntarily responded to this by becoming aroused, sometimes to the point of having nonstop full-body orgasms for hours until total exhaustion.

By: i;o.ul,kjmhnbf

i;o.ul,kjmhnbf — Mon, 03 May 2010 10:25:09 +0000

wow!! thats crazy!!!!!!

Dismembering could be worse though

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 22:15:46 +0000

i really like how you put your words, very well in detail my friend and the photos also, and i really enjoy the articles you write about and i enjoy them very much, and teach me somethings i never knew, keep up the great work, and thanks for sharing

By: Lily

Lily — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 04:27:49 +0000

Goes to show just how bad us humans were back in those days. It’s pretty much disgraceful but somewhat interesting… And I thought guns were bad…

By: Wesley .H

Wesley .H — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 13:57:21 +0000

wow, despite being so… primitive, i guess, these torture methods are pretty well thought up. good job people of the dark ages, good job. I’m still not an advocate of torture, but there are some people i would like to see have their knees crushed.

By: Susan Spandex

Susan Spandex — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 04:58:32 +0000

Hi Natalina, Excellent post. It kind of made me sick how extreme these forms of torture are. Perhaps the times we are living in know are much better than what I sometimes beleve. When I learn about things like this, it amazes me how human minds can come up with such devices. But then again if you come from a perspective of love in life, then this would be a normal response.

By: natalina

natalina — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 22:50:18 +0000

Wow thanks Bryn! I’ve been working on this one for a while. I had to pick my “favorites” from quite an impressive gallery of devious devices!

The very concept of the Thumb Screw makes me shiver. No no no no thank you! I’ve never heard of the Scaphism Legend until now, but sir.. I do not like the sound of it! I’m surprised there weren’t more methods of torture involving insects.

I am well aware that I am such a weenie, that regardless of the nature of the information I was attempting to withhold, I would buckle under the pressure of the mere sight of these nasty things. LOL I would tell them anything they wanted to know, even if it wasn’t true! Which I guess is why I feel that torture is so ineffective in the first place.

Thanks again dear. Your praise has saved you from an encounter with the Pear of Anguish! I keep one in my back pocket

By: Bryn

Bryn — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 22:29:50 +0000

Excellent post! I shall make a link to it from Horrorphile!
These kinds of contraptions and devices make Water Boarding and Chinese Water Torture look positively affectionate!
The Iron Maiden is still one of my “favourites” … The Pear of Anguish (sounds like a thrash metal band!) is a doozy indeed! And I remember first hearing about a version of the Rat Torture and grimacing most violently.
Although not an execution, but more just nasty punishment, and possibly used to extract information: The Thumb Screw. Used on that most sensitive area of flesh directly below the thumb nail at the base of the nail. Have you ever had someone press down on that bit just slightly?? OMG you KNOW how excruciating the Thumb Screw would be ….
My favourite is and execution called Scaphism Legend (not sure of its origins). Desert soldiers found guilty of treason or the like would be buried up to their necks in the sand in the extreme heat of the day, then honey would be poured over their head. They were left to the mercy (or none to be precise) of the desert insects.