Throughout the centuries, there were many execution methods used by different countries
to take the lives of criminals and those who were condemned to death.
Many of the worst methods include public humiliation, and some of the most savage include being
hanged, drawn and quartered or being beheaded.
Some Kings and Queens such as Henry VIII and Bloody Mary would get a terrible reputation
for being disturbing with their bloodthirst.
Bloody Mary would burn Protestants at the stake in huge public scenes, and also Henry
VIII would even order the beheading of two of his wives and would even boil alive a cook
suspected of poisoning.
But even since the dawn of time, people were being put to death.
One of the most shocking forms of execution was Damnatio ad Bestias, which translates
from Latin as Condemnation to beasts and this was used by the romans.
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Damnatio ad Bestias appeared during the Roman Republic around the 2nd century BC and was
part of other blood sports where people would take on creatures such as Lions.
But it was basically used as a method of execution where a person would be killed by different
wild animals who were encouraged to savagely maul and attack a condemned criminal or victim.
It was even used at the first games of the Flavian Ampitheatre in AD 80, and the actual
purpose of condemnation by beasts is disputed.
It could have been linked also to a religious sacrifice to gods, as well as being used as
a method of legal punishment.
In places where Lions were native, this was often the case in Africa and India and there
were accounts of humans being fed to lions and crocodiles in Egypt and Libya.
During Alexander the Great’s campaign in Asia, there were accounts of Condemnation
by beast, and it was said that a man who spoke before Alexander for someone who had been
sentenced to death, was themselves also thrown into a pit with a lion.
However this Macedonian man managed to actually defeat the Lion and because of this, he became
a favourite of Alexander and this won the Emperor over.
In Africa, a Cathaginian general named Hamilcar Barca threw many of his prisoners to beasts,
and Hannibal ordered Romans who were captured to fight each other, with the winner then
being forced to fight elephants.
Regarding the use of lions in Rome, they were actually rather rare but other animals were
used to kill prisoners and criminals such as bears, leopards and Tigers.
It was used alongside gladiators and there were two different variations.
The first was to be thrown to the beasts, where humans would be defenceless and would
have no weapons however the other type was where they would be thrown to the animals,
and would have been expected and prepared to fight, being given weapons, shields and
even possible armour.
Some of the best beast fighters were trained specifically, but often condemned criminals
would be thrown to beasts to just be killed.
Lions were used by two commanders in Rome who brought them to the city, and the execution
of criminals using the beasts were used initially as a method of military punishment for crimes
such as defection or desertion.
Often those who were condemned would be tied to columns and would be bound which left them
being defenceless, and would be eaten rather quickly.
There are some recorded accounts of Damnatio ad Bestias, for example in Rome Strabo a Greek
Geographer wrote how he saw a rebel slave leader Selerus being executed in the way.
Also it was recorded how a thief and bandit Laureolus was crucified but then he was eaten
by eagles and a bear whilst he was still alive.
Other executions took place over the years, and it was said that one man was thrown to
the beasts purely for entertainment and humour, as a crowd deemed he was so ugly that he should
be thrown into the animals.
So this man was killed as he was deemed ugly.
Caligula would force prisoners and condemned individuals to be fed to circus animals as
during his reign the price of meat went too high.
Another Roman General, Pompey would also put on huge spectacles using animals, in which
he would stage a fight between armed gladiators and 18 elephants.
But inside of Rome, the most common animal used for executions were tigers which were
used specifically the.
Kill.
Brown bears were also used but were less popular.
Damnatio ad Beasts was used heavily against Christians, and this began in the 1st Century.
Under the reign of Nero, Christians were persecuted and it was said that these men and women were
wrapped in animal skins and were then thrown to dogs who mauled them to death.
This was also used by other emperors who performed this sort of execution in the arenas and amphitheatres,
and they even used larger animals.
This persecution of Christians was meant to signal them as the worst criminals of Roman
society, and was meant to show the population that they were not to become Christian.
There has been no evidence found that suggests that Christians were executed in the grandest
stage of them all in the Colosseum in Rome.
But Christians were technically guilty of treason, were considered to have dissented
against the gods worshipped by the Romans, were classed as witches and followers of magic
and were also deemed confessors of a banned religion.
Because of these crimes, they were considered the worst criminals.
The Roman public would cry, ‘Away with them to the lions,’ referencing how they wanted
to shame the Christians in the theatres.
There were many other crimes in which people could be thrown to the lions for that haven’t
been mentioned.
One could have been for being a sorcerer to harm others, those who were guilty of poisoning
who were thrown to lions.
Also counterfeiters would be thrown to animals, but often were also burned alive.
Being a political criminal meant you could be killed by animals, and one of the most
shocking crimes of killing your father would often result in someone being placed in a
leather bag, and drowned but then the bag was filled with snakes to attack the condemned
person.
Rebels and also those who kidnapped children could be thrown to the beasts of executed
in other ways.
Following the death sentence, often the condemned would have no rights and their property and
wealth was confiscated.
But Damnatio ad Bestias was abolished in Rome in the year 681, but it was used 400 years
later in the Byzantine Empire when a number of disgraced generals were thrown to lions.
There were many accounts though of people who managed to survive the sentence of being
thrown to the beasts.
There was the account of Androcles, a slave during Caligula’s rule who was thrown to
a lion after he fled from his master.
But the lion spared him allegedly when he pulled a thorn from the lion’s paw when
in Africa and the Lion remembered him and left him alone.
Being executed by animals was not just exclusive to Rome, as in India they also used elephants
to execute condemned people.
Being slaughtered by animals would have been very brutal and barbaric, but to many people
it was a form of public entertainment and a spectacle.
This form of public entertainment would last for centuries, as people would flock to witness
executions.
But by Lions and Bears ripping a condemned person to bits must have been bloody, savage
and awful to have witnessed.
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