Voilence and Punisments in Ancient Rome

Introduction

This paper discusses the acts of capital punishment, civil violence, psychological torture, and physical cruelty found in the ancient Roman society. The Romans did not establish a very balanced system of civil law; hence inhumane treatment was a common act to be seen. The torturous treatments ranged from whippings for local criminals to death penalty or crucifixion for the foreigners and slaves. The law of ancient Rome, at least primarily, provided that suffering could be imposed only for slaves and foreigners. Then, during the Imperial Age, the prohibition of torture to free men did not include foreigners declined for crimes against the authority, of false and counterfeit coin, magic and adultery. The paper first synchronically explores the states of capital punishment, torture, prisons and exile as they existed in Ancient Rome and then presents an overview of the criminal law of Rome. Finally, the paper reflects on violence and torture of Romans during the Punic wars and the famous battle of Cannae.

Discussion and Analysis

The standard Roman punishments for many crimes were death or exile, with death being common for noncitizens or slaves and, from the second century B.C, for the poor citizens. Capital punishment was cruel, because the extended suffering of the condemned was desired and the most common penalties such as crucifixion or death in the arena, took considerable time to complete. Public executions were frequent and popular and were often protracted events. The suffering of excruciating pain over an extended period was an integral part of the punishment. There are no dissenting voices preserved in the law codes arguing that the legal punishments were in any way extreme or questioning the assumption that the condemned should suffer before dying.

Capital punishment

Depending upon the status and severity of the crime, capital punishment took various forms in Roman society. A condemned person could be crucified, beheaded, burned alive, and thrown to wild animals. Lighter capital punishment included fines, beatings, forced work, proscription to gladiator training schools property confiscation. There was a distinction between the punishment of the free upper class (called bonestiores) and the free lower class (bumiliores), while slaves could be punished in any way by their owners (Wiedemann 1981 167). The Roman forms of capital punishment were similar to Greeks. The Greeks included the beheading as capital punishment, such as poisoning, crucifixion, beatings with sticks, strangulation, stoning, being thrown off a cliff and buried alive. The Romans however, prohibited the poisoning and strangulation and reserved crucifixion for slaves and despicable criminals (Wiedemann 1981 172).

Torture

In Roman practices, torture was commonly used to extract information from slaves during criminal proceedings or trials. A slave required to give evidence in court was tortured on the ground that he would not otherwise tell the truth. From the 1st century B.C., Roman emperors are known to restrict torture for most crimes, though the Tiberius torture still prevailed on free people (Livius 2004 93). Torture gradually became more widespread, eventually being employed in civil as well as criminal ...