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The article on the brazen bull (link in wiki article) is simultaneously one of the most entertaining and most horrific articles I've ever come across on Wikiped

The article on the brazen bull (link in wiki article) is simultaneously one of the most entertaining and most horrific articles I've ever come across on Wikipedia

JabavuAdams 10y ago
No school like the old school. Every so often when I'm dismayed by our savagery, it's uplifting to look back and realise that we are making progress.
- ceejayoz 10y ago
  Maybe, maybe not. Now instead of roasting people alive we just put them in solitary for years at a time and destroy their minds as a result.
  - stephancoral 10y ago
    We still roast people alive using the electric chair
- stephancoral 10y ago
  In Alabama, Florida, South Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia they literally can fry a man to death using Victorian-era electric technology. But sure, we are making progress.
  - knz 10y ago
    I was going to make a comment about the context of this being Europe but then remembered the current state of the Middle East/cradle of civilization!
StavrosK 10y ago
The "five punishments" article is weird. At 200 crimes, you got punished by execution, but at 1,000 crimes, you got the number of your crimes tattooed on your face. It's like supermarket loyalty points, except they make more sense.
- tass 10y ago
  The '200 crimes' refers to the number of different crimes which carried this punishment, not the number committed before receiving the punishment.
  - StavrosK 10y ago
    Ah, that makes sense, thanks. I was kinda wondering how many people they got committing 1,000 crimes in a row. I figured maybe they criminalized "stepping on an ant" or something.
StavrosK 10y ago
I can never figure out people's motivations in ancient texts. The brazen bull article goes like this: King: Design me a bull that I can roast people in and that will smell of incense and make people's screams sound like a bull's roaring. Inventor: Lo, I have designed precisely such a beast: the bellowings of the roasted man are converted into melodious roars. King: Fuck me that's disgusting. Put him in the bull and roast him, I kinda want to hear. I guess I browse /r/watchpeopledie too much. Inventor: Alas, I'm burning! King: Wait wait, take him out before he dies. I'm gonna put in the extra 10% and throw him off a cliff instead. NO sense.
- empath75 10y ago
  The original source seems to be here: http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/9*.html#18 http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_S... Keep in mind that this was written several centuries after the fact, and the author seemed to be telling the story to make the following point: > For, in general, those who plan an evil thing aimed at others are usually snared in their own devices. Ancient historians rarely made truth a priority when telling stories like these.
  - StavrosK 10y ago
    That makes sense, thanks.

The article on the brazen bull (link in wiki article) is simultaneously one of the most entertaining and most horrific articles I've ever come across on Wikipedia

JabavuAdams 10y ago

No school like the old school. Every so often when I'm dismayed by our savagery, it's uplifting to look back and realise that we are making progress.

ceejayoz 10y ago
Maybe, maybe not. Now instead of roasting people alive we just put them in solitary for years at a time and destroy their minds as a result.
- stephancoral 10y ago
  We still roast people alive using the electric chair
stephancoral 10y ago
In Alabama, Florida, South Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia they literally can fry a man to death using Victorian-era electric technology. But sure, we are making progress.
- knz 10y ago
  I was going to make a comment about the context of this being Europe but then remembered the current state of the Middle East/cradle of civilization!

StavrosK 10y ago

The "five punishments" article is weird. At 200 crimes, you got punished by execution, but at 1,000 crimes, you got the number of your crimes tattooed on your face. It's like supermarket loyalty points, except they make more sense.

tass 10y ago
The '200 crimes' refers to the number of different crimes which carried this punishment, not the number committed before receiving the punishment.
- StavrosK 10y ago
  Ah, that makes sense, thanks. I was kinda wondering how many people they got committing 1,000 crimes in a row. I figured maybe they criminalized "stepping on an ant" or something.

StavrosK 10y ago

I can never figure out people's motivations in ancient texts. The brazen bull article goes like this: King: Design me a bull that I can roast people in and that will smell of incense and make people's screams sound like a bull's roaring. Inventor: Lo, I have designed precisely such a beast: the bellowings of the roasted man are converted into melodious roars. King: Fuck me that's disgusting. Put him in the bull and roast him, I kinda want to hear. I guess I browse /r/watchpeopledie too much. Inventor: Alas, I'm burning! King: Wait wait, take him out before he dies. I'm gonna put in the extra 10% and throw him off a cliff instead. NO sense.

empath75 10y ago
The original source seems to be here: http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/9*.html#18 http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_S... Keep in mind that this was written several centuries after the fact, and the author seemed to be telling the story to make the following point: > For, in general, those who plan an evil thing aimed at others are usually snared in their own devices. Ancient historians rarely made truth a priority when telling stories like these.
- StavrosK 10y ago
  That makes sense, thanks.