Falling (execution)
Encyclopedia
Throwing or dropping people from great heights has been used as a form of execution
since ancient times. People executed in this way die from injuries caused by hitting the ground at high velocity.
In ancient Delphi
the sacrilegious were hurled from the top of the Hyampeia
, the high crag of the Phaedriades
to the east of the Castalian Spring
.
In pre-Roman Sardinia
, elderly people who were unable to support themselves were ritually killed
. They were intoxicated with a neurotoxic
plant known as the "sardonic herb
" (which some scientists think is hemlock water dropwort
) and then dropped from a high rock or beaten to death.
During the Roman Republic
, the Tarpeian Rock
, a steep cliff at the southern summit of the Capitoline Hill
, was used for public executions. Murderers and traitors
, if convicted by the quaestores parricidii, were flung from the cliff to their deaths. Those who had a mental or significant physical disability also suffered the same fate as they were thought to have been cursed by the gods.
Later, during the Roman Empire
, the Gemonian stairs
were used for this purpose. Their use as a place of execution is most closely associated with the later part of the reign of the emperor Tiberius
. The condemned were usually strangled
before their bodies were bound and thrown down the stairs. Occasionally the corpses of the executed were transferred here for display from other places of execution in Rome
. Corpses were usually left to rot
on the staircase for extended periods of time in full view of the Forum
, scavenged by dogs or other carrion
animals, until eventually being thrown into the Tiber
. Death on the stairs was considered extremely dishonourable and dreadful, yet several senators and even an emperor met their demise here.
According to Suetonius
, during the later part of his reign while he was living at Capri
, Tiberius would execute people by having them thrown from a cliff into the sea while he watched. These people were tortured before being executed and if they survived the fall, men waiting below in boats would break their bones with oars and boathooks.
In pre-colonial South Africa
several tribes including Xhosa
and Zulu
had named Execution Hills, from which miscreants were hurled to their deaths. These societies had no form of imprisonment. so punishment was corporal, capital or expulsion. It is believed that during the Namibian war of independence numerous SWAPO troops were dropped from South African helicopters over the sea.
Iran
may have used this form of execution for the crime of sodomy. According to Amnesty International
in 2008, two men were convicted of raping two university students and sentenced to death. They were to be thrown off a cliff or from a great height. Other men involved in this incident were sentenced to lashes, presumably because they did not engage in penetrative sex with the victims. European Union
condemned Iran for this action in a declaration against Iran's use of the death penalty.
During the regime of Augusto Pinochet
, political prisoners were executed by being thrown from helicopters.
Capital punishment
Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...
since ancient times. People executed in this way die from injuries caused by hitting the ground at high velocity.
In ancient Delphi
Delphi
Delphi is both an archaeological site and a modern town in Greece on the south-western spur of Mount Parnassus in the valley of Phocis.In Greek mythology, Delphi was the site of the Delphic oracle, the most important oracle in the classical Greek world, and a major site for the worship of the god...
the sacrilegious were hurled from the top of the Hyampeia
Hyampeia
Hyampeia is a mountain peak above the Castalian Spring in Delphi, Greece. Its modern name is Flemboukos. It is the eastern peak of the Phaedriades, the western peak was known as Nauplia. According to Herodotus, there was a sacred precinct at the foot of Hyampeia dedicated to the Delphic hero...
, the high crag of the Phaedriades
Phaedriades
In Greece, the Phaedriades were the pair of cliffs, ca 700 m high on the lower southern slope of Mt. Parnassos, which enclose the sacred site of Delphi, the center of the Hellenic world...
to the east of the Castalian Spring
Castalian Spring
The Castalian Spring, in the ravine between the Phaedriades at Delphi, is where all visitors to Delphi — the contestants in the Pythian Games, and especially suppliants who came to consult the Delphic Oracle — stopped to wash their hair; and where Roman poets came to receive poetic...
.
In pre-Roman Sardinia
Sardinia
Sardinia is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea . It is an autonomous region of Italy, and the nearest land masses are the French island of Corsica, the Italian Peninsula, Sicily, Tunisia and the Spanish Balearic Islands.The name Sardinia is from the pre-Roman noun *sard[],...
, elderly people who were unable to support themselves were ritually killed
Human sacrifice
Human sacrifice is the act of killing one or more human beings as part of a religious ritual . Its typology closely parallels the various practices of ritual slaughter of animals and of religious sacrifice in general. Human sacrifice has been practised in various cultures throughout history...
. They were intoxicated with a neurotoxic
Neurotoxin
A neurotoxin is a toxin that acts specifically on nerve cells , usually by interacting with membrane proteins such as ion channels. Some sources are more general, and define the effect of neurotoxins as occurring at nerve tissue...
plant known as the "sardonic herb
Sardonicism
Sardonicism is the expression of derision, cynicism or skeptical humor variously through comment, gesture or writing.- Origin :...
" (which some scientists think is hemlock water dropwort
Water dropwort
The water dropworts, Oenanthe , are a genus of plants in the family Apiaceae. Most of the species grow in damp ground, in marshes or in water....
) and then dropped from a high rock or beaten to death.
During the Roman Republic
Roman Republic
The Roman Republic was the period of the ancient Roman civilization where the government operated as a republic. It began with the overthrow of the Roman monarchy, traditionally dated around 508 BC, and its replacement by a government headed by two consuls, elected annually by the citizens and...
, the Tarpeian Rock
Tarpeian Rock
The Tarpeian Rock was a steep cliff of the southern summit of the Capitoline Hill, overlooking the Roman Forum in Ancient Rome. It was used during the Roman Republic as an execution site. Murderers, traitors, perjurors, and larcenous slaves, if convicted by the quaestores parricidii, were flung...
, a steep cliff at the southern summit of the Capitoline Hill
Capitoline Hill
The Capitoline Hill , between the Forum and the Campus Martius, is one of the seven hills of Rome. It was the citadel of the earliest Romans. By the 16th century, Capitolinus had become Capitolino in Italian, with the alternative Campidoglio stemming from Capitolium. The English word capitol...
, was used for public executions. Murderers and traitors
Treason
In law, treason is the crime that covers some of the more extreme acts against one's sovereign or nation. Historically, treason also covered the murder of specific social superiors, such as the murder of a husband by his wife. Treason against the king was known as high treason and treason against a...
, if convicted by the quaestores parricidii, were flung from the cliff to their deaths. Those who had a mental or significant physical disability also suffered the same fate as they were thought to have been cursed by the gods.
Later, during the Roman Empire
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
, the Gemonian stairs
Gemonian stairs
The Gemonian Stairs were a flight of steps located in the ancient city of Rome. Nicknamed the Stairs of Mourning, the stairs are infamous in Roman history as a place of execution.- Location :...
were used for this purpose. Their use as a place of execution is most closely associated with the later part of the reign of the emperor Tiberius
Tiberius
Tiberius , was Roman Emperor from 14 AD to 37 AD. Tiberius was by birth a Claudian, son of Tiberius Claudius Nero and Livia Drusilla. His mother divorced Nero and married Augustus in 39 BC, making him a step-son of Octavian...
. The condemned were usually strangled
Strangling
Strangling is compression of the neck that may lead to unconsciousness or death by causing an increasingly hypoxic state in the brain. Fatal strangling typically occurs in cases of violence, accidents, and as the auxiliary lethal mechanism in hangings in the event the neck does not break...
before their bodies were bound and thrown down the stairs. Occasionally the corpses of the executed were transferred here for display from other places of execution in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
. Corpses were usually left to rot
Decomposition
Decomposition is the process by which organic material is broken down into simpler forms of matter. The process is essential for recycling the finite matter that occupies physical space in the biome. Bodies of living organisms begin to decompose shortly after death...
on the staircase for extended periods of time in full view of the Forum
Roman Forum
The Roman Forum is a rectangular forum surrounded by the ruins of several important ancient government buildings at the center of the city of Rome. Citizens of the ancient city referred to this space, originally a marketplace, as the Forum Magnum, or simply the Forum...
, scavenged by dogs or other carrion
Carrion
Carrion refers to the carcass of a dead animal. Carrion is an important food source for large carnivores and omnivores in most ecosystems. Examples of carrion-eaters include vultures, hawks, eagles, hyenas, Virginia Opossum, Tasmanian Devils, coyotes, Komodo dragons, and burying beetles...
animals, until eventually being thrown into the Tiber
Tiber
The Tiber is the third-longest river in Italy, rising in the Apennine Mountains in Emilia-Romagna and flowing through Umbria and Lazio to the Tyrrhenian Sea. It drains a basin estimated at...
. Death on the stairs was considered extremely dishonourable and dreadful, yet several senators and even an emperor met their demise here.
According to Suetonius
Suetonius
Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, commonly known as Suetonius , was a Roman historian belonging to the equestrian order in the early Imperial era....
, during the later part of his reign while he was living at Capri
Capri
Capri is an Italian island in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the Sorrentine Peninsula, on the south side of the Gulf of Naples, in the Campania region of Southern Italy...
, Tiberius would execute people by having them thrown from a cliff into the sea while he watched. These people were tortured before being executed and if they survived the fall, men waiting below in boats would break their bones with oars and boathooks.
In pre-colonial South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
several tribes including Xhosa
Xhosa
The Xhosa people are speakers of Bantu languages living in south-east South Africa, and in the last two centuries throughout the southern and central-southern parts of the country....
and Zulu
Zulu
The Zulu are the largest South African ethnic group, with an estimated 10–11 million people living mainly in the province of KwaZulu-Natal. Small numbers also live in Zimbabwe, Zambia and Mozambique. Their language, Zulu, is a Bantu language; more specifically, part of the Nguni subgroup. The...
had named Execution Hills, from which miscreants were hurled to their deaths. These societies had no form of imprisonment. so punishment was corporal, capital or expulsion. It is believed that during the Namibian war of independence numerous SWAPO troops were dropped from South African helicopters over the sea.
Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
may have used this form of execution for the crime of sodomy. According to Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
in 2008, two men were convicted of raping two university students and sentenced to death. They were to be thrown off a cliff or from a great height. Other men involved in this incident were sentenced to lashes, presumably because they did not engage in penetrative sex with the victims. European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
condemned Iran for this action in a declaration against Iran's use of the death penalty.
During the regime of Augusto Pinochet
Augusto Pinochet
Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte, more commonly known as Augusto Pinochet , was a Chilean army general and dictator who assumed power in a coup d'état on 11 September 1973...
, political prisoners were executed by being thrown from helicopters.