The seven great monarchies of the ancient eastern world: or, The history, geography and antiquities of Chaldæa, Assyria, Babylon, Media, Persia, Parthia, and Sassanian or New Persian empire . fragment of a sing ioivoiy (MmrudJ, Koj-al attendant (Koyanjik).. CH. VII.] TREATMENT OF PRISONmiS. 279 cases the criminal, it would seem, stood upright, or beinlin,!; alittle forwards, and the executioner, taking him by a lock ofhair with his left hand, struck his head from his shoulders witha short sword, which he held in his right. [PI. CXII., Fig. 5. J It is uncertain whether a punishment even more ba
The seven great monarchies of the ancient eastern world: or, The history, geography and antiquities of Chaldæa, Assyria, Babylon, Media, Persia, Parthia, and Sassanian or New Persian empire . fragment of a sing ioivoiy (MmrudJ, Koj-al attendant (Koyanjik).. CH. VII.] TREATMENT OF PRISONmiS. 279 cases the criminal, it would seem, stood upright, or beinlin,!; alittle forwards, and the executioner, taking him by a lock ofhair with his left hand, struck his head from his shoulders witha short sword, which he held in his right. [PI. CXII., Fig. 5. J It is uncertain whether a punishment even more barbarousthan these was not occasionally resorted to. In two or threebas-reliefs executioners are represented in the act of flayingprisoners with a knife. The bodies are extended upon theground or against a wall, to which they are fastened by meansof four pegs attached by strings or thongs to the two wristsand the two ankles. The executioner leans over the victim,and with his knife detaches the skin from the flesh.^ Onewould trust that this operation was not performed until lifeMas extinct. We know that it was the practice of the Per-sians,- and even of the barbarous Scythians,?^^ to flay thecorpses, and not the living fonns, of criminals and of ene
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, bookp, booksubjecthistoryancient
