The Collector Explores Ten Brutal Execution and Torture Methods from History

Key facts

• The article lists ten execution methods: crucifixion, rat torture, the rack, keelhauling, the breaking wheel, impalement, the blood eagle, molten gold, flaying, and the Roman candle.
• Crucifixion was first introduced by the Assyrians and Babylonians, then copied by the Persians, Alexander the Great, and the Phoenicians, from whom the Romans learned it around the 3rd century BC.
• Rat torture was used during the 17th-century Dutch revolt by Diederik Sonay and by South American military dictatorships between 1964 and 1990 in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Uruguay.
• The rack was used in 1447 by British Constable John Exeter at the Tower of London and in 356 BC by the Greeks on Herostratus.
• Keelhauling was practiced by the Dutch between 1560 and 1853.
• The breaking wheel was used in 1348 on a Jew named Bona, who survived four days and nights, and a 2019 archaeological find in Milan uncovered a skeleton believed to have been tortured on it.
• The blood eagle was allegedly performed in 867 AD when Ivar the Boneless executed Aella, King of Northumbria, for killing Ragnar Lothbrok.
• Molten gold execution was suffered by Roman general Marcus Licinius Crassus and Manius Aquillius, and in 1599 a Spanish governor was killed by the Jivaro tribe using liquid gold.