roman scourges whip slavery torture cat nine tails A scourge (from Italian scoriada, from Latin excoriare = "to flay" and corium
A scourge (from Italian scoriada, from Latin excoriare = "to flay" and corium = "skin") is a whip or lash, especially a multi-thong type used to inflict severe corporal punishment or self-mortification on the back. The typical scourge (Latin: flagrum; English: flagellum) has several thongs fastened to a handle; Scottish tawse (usually two or three leather thongs without a separate handle); cat o' nine tails: naval thick-rope knotted-end scourge, the army and civil prison versions usually are leather. The scourge, or flail, and the crook, are the two symbols of power and domination depicted in the hands of Osiris in Egyptian monuments; they are the unchanging form of the instrument throughout the ages; though, the flail depicted in Egyptian mythology was an agricultural instrument used to thresh wheat, and not for corporal punishment. The priests of Cybele scourged themselves and others, and such stripes were considered sacred. From a Biblical quotation, scorpio 'scorpion' is Latin for a Roman flagrum. Hard material was affixed to multiple thongs to give a flesh-tearing 'bite' [1 Kings 12:11: ...My father scourged you with whips; I will scourge you with scorpions]. The name testifies to the pain caused by the arachnid. To its generous Roman application testifies the existence of the Latin words Flagrifer 'carrying a whip' and Flagritriba 'often-lashed slave'. Scourging played a famous role as the punishment inflicted in the Flagellation of Christ during the Passion on Jesus Christ before crucifixion. Scourging was the first step in the traditional Roman punishment for parricide. Scourging was soon adopted as a sanction in the monastic discipline of the fifth and following centuries. Early in the fifth century it is mentioned by Palladius of Galatia in the Historia Lausiaca, and Socrates Scholasticus tells us that, instead of being excommunicated, offending young monks were scourged.
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