Damnatio ad bestias
Under damnatio ad bestias ( Latin "condemnation to the wild animals") one understands a method of execution used in the Roman Empire . It was particularly cruel and dishonorable, as death often did not occur immediately when the animals were attacked, but only when the animals were torn to death.
According to the prevailing opinion, the condemned had made themselves equal to wild animals in their deeds and should now come to an end through "their own kind".
Pompey had in the decade 50 BC Trample convicted criminals for the first time by elephants , a procedure that originated in India . The fact that the damnatio ad bestias was used in the persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire can be proven by contemporary sources, although the number of deaths remains disputed.
The convict was often, but not always, tied to a stake and then given up to be eaten by starving predators, usually in the context of gladiator fights and animal baiting . The animals were imported at great expense.
Trivia
In the second half of the 20th century, the practice of damnatio ad bestias became known to a wide audience through the Asterix comics by French authors René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo . The method of execution is always part of threats there. This culminates in volume 19 of Asterix (“ The Laurels of Caesar ”), where the damnatio ad bestias is downright caricatured.
Web links
- http://www.the-colosseum.net/games/adbestias.htm - descriptions and pictures
- The Passion of Saints Perpetua and Felizitas (March 7, 202 or 203) s. 19th and 20th of the Acts of Martyrs