Public Executions: From Ancient Rome to the Present Day

Nigel Cawthorne

Sep 2006 · Arcturus Publishing

About this ebook

'The sentence of this court is that you be taken from this place to whence you came, and from there to a place of lawful execution, there to be hanged by the neck till you be dead, and may the Lord have mercy on your soul'
-Extract from judicial death sentence, England c.16th-20th century

Societies throughout history have adopted many and varied methods of meting out the ultimate sanction of capital punishment to their more unruly members.

Although a number of countries across the globe still execute their own citizens, on occasion in public, the modern world in general views execution with distaste, and public execution doubly so. Public Executions documents the phenomenon of state-sanctioned killing from the ancient world to modern times, and in doing so, shows that although we regard the ancient practices with horror, they would have been equally bemused by our modern scruples, and would have regarded execution behind closed doors as little short of murder.

Public Executions is a gruesomely enthralling account of public executions down through the ages and from around the world.

Ratings and reviews

To think if u stole a bread roll , in days of past , you too ! Could die an agonising death !

So good. Concise quick read if you're into the subject

How things have changed, then people were put to death, now most criminals are let off!

About the author

Nigel Cawthorne studied at University College, London, where he gained an Honours degree in Physics, before turning to writing as a career. He has been a writer and editor for over 25 years, the last 21 freelance. He has written, contributed to and edited more than sixty books, including Fighting Them On The Beaches: D-Day, 6 June 1944, The Battle of Britain, Vietnam: A War Lost and Won, Stalin, and The Story of the SS. His work has also appeared in over a hundred and fifty newspapers, magazines and partworks on both sides of the Atlantic - from the Sun to the Financial Times, and includes contributions to Nam, Eyewitness Nam and The Falklands War. Nigel also visited Vietnam with the legendary Tim Page, where he researched the material for Nam, Eyewitness Nam, and The Bamboo Cage. He is also the creator of websites on the Battle of Hastings, and Pearl Harbor.