Death Penalty

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AuthorTopic: Death Penalty
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I was recently reading up on old death penalties. They were from around the times of ancient Babylon and such. I wanted to know what some of you thought the goriest or most unpleasent of these were.

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Posts: 883 | Registered: Wednesday, October 19 2005 07:00
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I went with choking for two reasons:
Gory reason #1
Gory reason #2

[ Monday, April 24, 2006 05:58: Message edited by: radix malorum est cupiditas ]

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Posts: 883 | Registered: Wednesday, October 19 2005 07:00
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Goriest, as in involving the most blood? I'd say chopping off a person's head would spill a lot of it.

As for the most unpleasant, maybe the molten lead. I would imagine that method takes it's time to kill the victim, as well as inducing some quite unpleasant feelings.

The choking, even for all the reasons stated above, would probably not feel as bad for the chokee. This is obviously just guessing, since I have no experience in any of these.
Posts: 353 | Registered: Monday, January 9 2006 08:00
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What, no brazen bull? Sure, I suppose it'd go under the "fire" heading, but it's quite a bit more stylish.

[ Monday, April 24, 2006 06:12: Message edited by: Thuryl ]

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My personal favorite was the alledged method of Edward II's death. According to a history written by Sir Thomas More (the same one who was executed by Henry VIII, if I recall correctly), Edward III was killed by having a burning hot plumber's iron inserted into his anus, burning up his intestines. This was considered a fitting means of killing him, as he was alledgedly a homosexual. Note however, that this account of his death is doubted by many historians.

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Posts: 536 | Registered: Sunday, September 7 2003 07:00
Off With Their Heads
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Crucifixion was truly egregiously cruel. Crucifying thousands of slaves in response to a slave revolt was probably the single most gruesome thing the Romans ever did.

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The romans came into existence thousands of years after the time period I posted about.

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Posts: 883 | Registered: Wednesday, October 19 2005 07:00
Off With Their Heads
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Oh, you meant only Mesopotamian death penalties? I thought you meant only old death penalties. Never mind, then.

EDIT: WKS posted something from much, much later. Chastise him, too. :P

[ Monday, April 24, 2006 06:38: Message edited by: Kelandon ]

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Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens.
Smoo: Get ready to face the walls!
Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr.

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Well I expect a lot more from you than from WKS.

Also I assumed WKS was being obtuse on purpose.

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Posts: 883 | Registered: Wednesday, October 19 2005 07:00
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Speaking of being obtuse, "ancient Babylon" is a rather vague term. Babylon was a significant ancient city from the late third millenium B.C. until somewhat after the time of Alexander the Great. If you're going to be snotty about what is included and what isn't, you'd better specify whether you mean older Babylonian stuff, or all the way through Neo-Babylon (which is in fact contemporary with the early Roman Republic in Cato the Elder's time).

[ Monday, April 24, 2006 06:52: Message edited by: Kelandon ]

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Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens.
Smoo: Get ready to face the walls!
Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr.

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I was unfamiliar with the molten lead option... that's horribly unpleasant.

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Posts: 4130 | Registered: Friday, March 26 2004 08:00
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I was actually trying to remember the word mesopotamian. Unfortunately, since I could not, I went with what I remembered.

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Posts: 883 | Registered: Wednesday, October 19 2005 07:00
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"Ancient Mesopotamia" is even more vague, because there's no necessary dividing line between the civilizations that began almost ten thousand years ago and the civilization that was colonized and then divided by the British almost a century ago. Do you mean just pre-Islamic Mesopotamia (again, contemporary with the Romans)? Do you mean pre-foreign-conquest Mesopotamia, so maybe pre-Persian, which would be 500 B.C. and before? Do you mean the Sumerians and Akkadians and such?

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Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens.
Smoo: Get ready to face the walls!
Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr.

Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me
The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
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And that Ladies and Gentlemen is what happens when you try to chastise Kel.
The poll is horrible, it's too early to be thinking about such depressing things. I voted for stoning though

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quote:
Originally written by Kelandon:

"Ancient Mesopotamia" is even more vague, because there's no necessary dividing line between the civilizations that began almost ten thousand years ago and the civilization that was colonized and then divided by the British almost a century ago. Do you mean just pre-Islamic Mesopotamia (again, contemporary with the Romans)? Do you mean pre-foreign-conquest Mesopotamia, so maybe pre-Persian, which would be 500 B.C. and before? Do you mean the Sumerians and Akkadians and such?
Lets make it even more confusing:

do you mean third, second, or first millenium? and is there a specific folk you mean, or just from that point in time, no matter what folk?

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Heh... I thought this was going to be a discussion of the merits of the death penalty. Perhaps it would be more appropriately titled "Methods of Execution."

That said, I think the lead down the throat would be the worst, from a sheer pain perspective. The other methods would take care of things relatively more quickly, I would imagine.

As for whether there should be a death penalty, I say nay. There's too much uncertainty in the criminal justice system to insure that innocent people are not executed, and when an innocent person is executed, the system has failed, in my opinion. Furthermore, the large amount of time it takes between a person being sentenced to death and his actual execution limits the the impact of immediacy when considering the punishment's deterrant effect, and to top that off, almost no criminal who is likely eligible for the death penalty for his actions ever thinks that he'll get caught to begin with. So there you go. :)
Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00
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This poll lacks drowning: being thrown into the river, bound and shackled. And impalement was known as well. All from Hammurabi's laws.

Amazing: in Babylon women have been quite equal to men by law.

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Posts: 1420 | Registered: Wednesday, October 2 2002 07:00
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What do you think is worse: Boiling lead in your throat, or aqua regia in your throat? Just curious.

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Posts: 3029 | Registered: Saturday, June 18 2005 07:00
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I vote for death by pedantry.
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Gah. I was coming in all expectant, hoping to make my day by repeating my tireless anti-DP rant that I know by heart now, and the topic is something entirely else.

Now let's see. I'm going to argue from the viewpoint of the executee, not the onlookers - thus assuming "gory" is the one that gives you the longest/most intense experience of your death.

Beheading kills instantly. We'll assume it's done properly, with a sharp sword, right?

I've never heard of your variant of "stoning": In the Middle East and in biblical descriptions it refers to someone being pelted with rocks until death; no cliffs or big boulders involved (this is quite painful). However, the way you describe it is very quick - in fact, it's so quick that falling from a great height is a popular method of suicide.

Choking is very unpleasant, but it tends to render you unconscious before you feel more than a lot of pain in your throat. Some people derive sexual pleasure from near-asphyxiation, even.

That said, I'd argue for the fire being most unpleasant. If it's the burning-at-stake way, the thing is that the fire starts at your feet and doesn't immediately grow to reach up to your head That means you first feel the burning of extremities, before the heat from the fire cooks you. If it's the boiling-lead thing, I can absolutely not imagine how long it takes you to die - perhaps a few seconds up to half a minute. However, the agony will probably turn these seconds into hours.

Edit: I remember there was some historical warlord famed for puring molten silver down the throat of captives. Genghis Khan, or some Russian Czar?

I vividly remember the scene in "A Game of Thrones" where Drogo (the barbarian, not the hobbit) crowns Vyserys with molten gold.

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If I had to choose, I'd probably take either the sword or the cliff, depending on the sharpness of the former and the height of the latter. If I couldn't trust whoever was killing me not to draw it out deliberately, I'd take the cliff. Also, I've felt a macabre desire to try bungee-jumping once in my life.

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Wow. I wrote this post? I guess Mondays desensitize me or something.

[ Monday, April 24, 2006 09:23: Message edited by: Charles Le Sorcier ]

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Originally by Arancaytar:

quote:
Edit: I remember there was some historical warlord famed for puring molten silver down the throat of captives. Genghis Khan, or some Russian Czar?
My vote is on Genghis Khan. I think I remember watching a TV special on barbarians that featured that fact.

Dikiyoba's vote is on molten lead as the most unpleasant.
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Nero had a nasty one, where he'd have Christians impaled, covered in tar, set on fire, and used as lamps for his gardens.

The Assyrians skinned people alive, I'm told, which would really suck.

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On the Lyceum, in an old archived post (Yes, I spend my time digging through Lyceum archives) Measle said something about a bath of sesame oil triggering every pain nerve in the body at once.

That would really, really, really suck.

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Fire.

Choking is unpleasant, but fire is just unimaginable.

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Choking though relatively fast (in the sense that one would lose consciousness) is something that to me at least would be particularly disturbing, second only to drawing.

Edit: As an aside, I also thought this would be a discussion about the death penalty.

[ Monday, April 24, 2006 14:17: Message edited by: Dolphin. ]
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