_Torn by Horses_ (Vol. ii., p. 522.).--This cruel mode of execution was
practised both in antiquity and the middle ages. Livy, speaking of Tullus
Hostilius, says:--
"Exinde, duabus admotis quadrigis, in currus earum distentum illigat
Mettum; deinde in diversum iter equi concitati, lacerum in utroque
curru corpus, qua inhaeserant vinculis membra, portantes. Avertere omnes
a tanta foedidate spectaculi oculos."--L. i., c. 28.
Livy adds, that this was the first and last example of so savage a
punishment among the Romans. The punishment, however, must have been
well-known in antiquity, as it is alluded to by Seneca among the tortures
which accompanied death.
"Cogita hoc loco carcerem, et cruces, et equleos, et uncum; et adactum
per medium hominem, qui per os emergat, stipitem; _et distracta in
diversum actis curribus membra_."--Epist. xiv. 4.
Grimm (_Deutsche Rechtsalterthuemer_, p. 692.) quotes the following instance
of this punishment from Gregory of Tours, _Hist. France_, iii. 7.:
"Puellas crudelinece interfecerunt ita ut ligatis brachiis super
equorum cervicibus, ipsique acerrimo moti stimulo per diversa petentes
diversas in partes feminas diviserunt"
He adds that it occurs frequently in the legends of the Carolingian period.
Thus Turpin, c. 26., describes as follows the punishment of the traitor
Gannalon:--
"Jussit illum Carolus quatuor equis ferocissimis totius exercitus
alligari, et super eos quatuor sessores agitantes contra quatuor plagas
coeli, et sic digna morte discerptus interiit."
Almost all cruel punishments have been used in the East, and it is not
improbable that execution by means of horses may be mentioned in some
oriental narrative.