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Document Details :

Title: Suplicios dobles en las condenas capitales romanas
Author(s): MATEO DONET, María Amparo
Journal: Latomus
Volume: 77    Issue: 1   Date: 2018   
Pages: 177-190
DOI: 10.2143/LAT.77.1.3284728

Abstract :
This study examines some passages referring to capital executions where two different lethal methods were used, in that two capital punishments were applied at the same time. In all such cases, the procedure at hand combined crucifixion or cremation with damnatio ad bestias, i.e. two capital punishments belonging, in the Roman penal system, to the category of the summa supplicia, the most cruel and humiliating forms of lethal torture. This was an uncommon measure, not contemplated in the well-established Roman penal code; judges arbitrarily resorted to it in particular situations that almost always involved Christians. The only example of a judge explicitly condemning a defendant to a double capital punishment occurs in the relation of Ignatius of Antioch’s martyrdom, which is generally considered inauthentic. It should be noted, in addition, that Martial Sp. 7 documents the double punishment of a pagan, viz. a thief who suffered both crucifixion and damnatio ad bestias.

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