Daily Mail
From being fed to flesh-eating fish to being bound in a sack and thrown into the sea, a new book reveals the bizarre and gruesome ways people were murdered in Ancient Rome.
In A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum: Murder in Ancient Rome, by Dr Emma Southon, explores how the perpetrator, victim and the act of murder itself was viewed by ordinary people.
‘Murder was not a crime in the Roman legal system for a surprising amount of its history,’ writes Dr Southon. ‘By this, I mean that the state of Rome had absolutely no interest in when, how or why its citizens were killing each other.
‘Actively disinterested if anything. But gradually, over centuries of social, cultural and legal change, it was forced to develop an interest.’
Alongside an examination of how the legal system and definitions developed, Dr Southon, who has a PhD in Ancient History from the University of Birmingham, explores how the attitude towards murder changed over time, and differed between the classes.
She also offers insight into the disturbing ways in which the Ancient Romans went about killing each other, with the most horrific methods, such as crucifixion, being reserved for slaves and the ‘lowest of the low’. Here, a look at some of the examples…
FED TO FLESH-EATING ‘VAMPIRE FISH’
One of the most horrifying stories centres around Vedius Pollio, who killed his slaves in such a ‘gruesome and sadistic manner that it shocked even the elite Romans’.
Exceedingly wealthy and known for his extravagant tastes, Pollio, specialised in punishing his slaves by feeding them to lampreys, sensationally nicknamed a ‘blood-sucking vampire fish’, which were a delicacy enjoyed by the upper classes.
The prehistoric fish, which have a circular disc of razor sharp teeth instead of jaws, feed on prey by attaching their mouth to the animal’s body and using their teeth and tongues to cut through surface tissues until they reach blood and body fluid.
At the same time they release a fluid that prevents their victim’s blood from clotting, making it a slow and excruciating death.
