Throughout history Man has shown extraordinary imagination in inventing penalties and sentences for crimes committed by fellow man.
The Romans in particular had an almost theatrical quality in the way these punishments were dolled out.
But sometimes there was, and still is, a moral pretext: the defense of society.
A 1560 sketch showing capital punishment.
But this legislative corpus was made in the middle of the 5th century B.C.
and, with time, the section referring to this bang out of crime was expanded.
For example, Lucius Cornelius Sulla, consul between 88 and 80 BC.
(with a period of dictatorship from 81 to 80 B.C.
), extended the possible liability to other relatives in addition to offspring.
Once the crime has been clarified, how does the corresponding punishment arise?
It is possible that the origins of thepoena culleidate back to the monarchic period.
Consequently, Atilius was condemned to be thrown into the sea inside a sewn sack.
Now, what does that have to do with patricide?
Nothing really, unless we believe Dionysius of Halicarnassus, according to whom Atilius was also condemned for parricide.
This must have begun towards the end of the third century B.C.
Cicero speaks several times ofpoena culleiin his writings.
(Let him kill me as long as he reigns!).
But you deserve the sack!"
Thepoena culleiwas not only a form of execution.
It constituted a whole ritual full of symbols, although not all were incorporated at the same time.
The extra element of the animals inside the sack did not arrive until imperial times.
It is possible that this was to make things easier if there was no body of water nearby.
This did not prevent it from being briefly resurrected in the Middle Ages.
This meant shortening the suffering, something that was sometimes sought and sometimes not.
But the sack burst open when it hit water, and the animals were able to escape.
The condemned, however, presumably tied, drowned and got his punishment.
The last time this punishment was meted out in 1734, somewhere in Saxony.
In 1761 thepoena culleiwas definitively abolished.
This article was originally published inLa Brujula Verde.
It has been translated from Spanish and republished with permission.
