أبشع العقوبات في تاريخ البشر — Transcript

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1. 0:00Imagine committing a crime 500 years
2. 0:02ago. Today, you might go to prison for
3. 0:04years and get out. But back then,
4. 0:05prison itself wasn't always the
5. 0:07punishment. Sometimes, it was just the
6. 0:09place where you waited for the real
7. 0:11punishment. And the worst part is that
8. 0:13a quick death wasn't always the worst
9. 0:14thing that could happen to you. Because
10. 0:16throughout history, humans weren't just
11. 0:18trying to punish the criminal. They
12. 0:20were trying to invent a punishment that
13. 0:22others would see. And say, "No matter
14. 0:24what happens, I don't want to be in his
15. 0:25place." So let's start with something
16. 0:27bad. And then we'll go step by step.
17. 0:29Until we reach a punishment so strange
18. 0:31that historians still disagree today.
19. 0:34Did it really happen in the way we've
20. 0:35been told? Or did humans exaggerate its
21. 0:38story over time? In the beginning, they
22. 0:40didn't have to torture you for hours to
23. 0:42scare people. Sometimes it was enough
24. 0:44to turn you into a warning sign. And
25. 0:47that is exactly what happened with a
26. 0:48punishment called gibbetting. Imagine a
27. 0:51narrow iron cage made roughly in the
28. 0:53shape of a human body. And hanging on a
29. 0:55pole on a public road or by a harbor.
30. 0:57The person passing by doesn't need
31. 0:59anyone to explain what happened. They
32. 1:01see the cage, see what's inside, and
33. 1:02understand the message immediately. And
34. 1:04in England, especially in the
35. 1:06eighteenth century. A person could be
36. 1:08executed first. And then their body
37. 1:09would be displayed inside one of these
38. 1:11cages for a long time. Meaning that
39. 1:13even after death, the punishment didn't
40. 1:15end. The body itself becomes a warning.
41. 1:17Imagine traveling into a town. And the
42. 1:20first thing that greets you isn't a
43. 1:21sign with the name of the place. But a
44. 1:23corpse hanging over the road. Telling
45. 1:25you very clearly, there are laws here,
46. 1:27so don't try to break them. But after a
47. 1:30while, humans discovered that
48. 1:31punishment could do more than just
49. 1:33scare people. It could make the person
50. 1:35themselves talk. And here we come to a
51. 1:37device that looks very simple. But its
52. 1:40idea is much worse. The rack looks
53. 1:42roughly like a long wooden bed. The
54. 1:45person lies down on it. Their hands are
55. 1:47tied on one side. And their feet on the
56. 1:49other. And then the ropes begin to be
57. 1:50tightened slowly. Not all at once. A
58. 1:52little, then a little more, then a
59. 1:54little more. And every time they refuse
60. 1:56to give information or a name, they
61. 1:58increase the tension. And here is the
62. 1:59real problem. The goal is not to kill
63. 2:02you. The goal is for you to reach a
64. 2:04stage where you say anything just so
65. 2:05they stop. And if you know information,
66. 2:07you will tell it. And if you don't know
67. 2:09, you might start making it up. And
68. 2:10this is one of the biggest problems
69. 2:12with torture in the first place. Pain
70. 2:13doesn't necessarily make a person tell
71. 2:15the truth. It makes them say what they
72. 2:17expect their torturer wants to hear.
73. 2:19And one of the most famous people
74. 2:21subjected to the rack was a woman named
75. 2:23Anne Askew in England in the 16th
76. 2:24century. The authorities were trying to
77. 2:27find out from her the names of other
78. 2:28people who shared her religious beliefs
79. 2:30. But she refused. The torture
80. 2:32continued to the point that her
81. 2:34injuries became very severe, and then.
82. 2:35Then, when it was time for her
83. 2:37execution, she wasn't able to walk by
84. 2:38herself. Meaning the device achieved
85. 2:40its goal of destroying her body. But it
86. 2:42couldn't get the names they wanted from
87. 2:44her. But at least all of this was
88. 2:46happening while you were on solid
89. 2:48ground. Because after that, humans took
90. 2:50the punishment to the sea. Imagine that
91. 2:52you are a sailor on a ship hundreds of
92. 2:53years ago. And you break the crew's
93. 2:55laws. They tie a rope to you and pass
94. 2:57it under the ship to the other side.
95. 2:59Then they throw you into the sea. At
96. 3:01first, you might expect them to just
97. 3:03pull you alongside the ship. But no.
98. 3:05They start pulling you under the ship.
99. 3:08The punishment is called keelhauling.
100. 3:10You go under the water's surface and
101. 3:12move beneath the entire ship's hull.
102. 3:14You try to hold your breath. And you
103. 3:15don't know exactly when you'll emerge
104. 3:17on the other side. The problem isn't
105. 3:19just drowning. The bottom of old ships
106. 3:21can be rough and covered in harsh
107. 3:23marine growth. And you are already tied
108. 3:25up and cannot protect yourself. And
109. 3:27this isn't just a pirate story from the
110. 3:28movies. We have documentation of its
111. 3:30use, especially in the Dutch Navy.
112. 3:32There is a case from 1652 where a
113. 3:34sailor deserted his post for several
114. 3:37days. He was punished with keelhauling
115. 3:39in addition to other penalties. Imagine
116. 3:41surviving being dragged under the ship.
117. 3:42You surface only to discover that the
118. 3:44punishment didn't even end. But all
119. 3:46these previous punishments required
120. 3:48tools made by humans. A cage, a wooden
121. 3:50device, a ship. The next punishment
122. 3:52didn't need a device. It needed an
123. 3:54animal weighing several tons. The
124. 3:57elephant. In parts of South Asia and
125. 3:59Southeast Asia, trained elephants were
126. 4:01used for executions, and the idea. The
127. 4:04idea was terrifying. Not just because
128. 4:05the elephant is huge. What made it even
129. 4:07stranger is that the elephant itself
130. 4:09could be trained to follow precise
131. 4:11commands from its rider. So the ruler
132. 4:13wasn't just telling people, "Look at
133. 4:14what happens to the criminal." He was
134. 4:17also saying, "Look, I can even control
135. 4:19this massive animal." In some
136. 4:21historical accounts, the process was
137. 4:23over quickly. In other accounts, they
138. 4:25could stop the elephant or direct it in
139. 4:27a way that made the punishment last
140. 4:29longer. And this is what gives the
141. 4:31punishment a meaning greater than just
142. 4:32execution. It was a display of power.
143. 4:35The audience sees one person capable of
144. 4:37controlling an animal stronger than
145. 4:38dozens of men. And at the same time,
146. 4:40they see what can happen to anyone who
147. 4:42opposes authority. But the Romans took
148. 4:44this idea of spectacle in a completely
149. 4:46different direction. Instead of a huge
150. 4:48animal, they said, "Why not put
151. 4:50everything inside a bag?" The
152. 4:52punishment is called Poena Cullei, or
153. 4:53the punishment of the sack. It was
154. 4:55associated specifically with the crime
155. 4:56of killing. One's parents or a close
156. 4:59relative. The basic idea: the convicted
157. 5:01person is placed inside a sack. It is
158. 5:03sealed, and then it is thrown into the
159. 5:04water. If the story stopped here, it
160. 5:06would be enough. But later Roman
161. 5:08sources show a much stranger version.
162. 5:11Instead of the person being in the sack
163. 5:13alone, they put animals in with them.
164. 5:15The most famous list included a dog, a
165. 5:16rooster, a snake, and a monkey. Imagine
166. 5:18the situation: a very cramped space,
167. 5:20total darkness. You can't move, and
168. 5:22four terrified animals are inside the
169. 5:24same sack with you. And everyone is
170. 5:26trying to escape, not understanding
171. 5:27what is happening. Then the sack is
172. 5:29sealed and thrown into the water. But
173. 5:31here, a very important problem in the
174. 5:32history of punishments begins. Not
175. 5:34every terrifying description we
176. 5:35received means it was applied the same
177. 5:37way every time. The form of Poena
178. 5:39Cullei changed over the centuries. Some
179. 5:41of the oldest accounts don't mention
180. 5:42all these animals at all. Meaning, the
181. 5:44further back we go in history. It
182. 5:46becomes harder to know where the truth
183. 5:48ends and where the later additions
184. 5:50begin, and this leads us to the final
185. 5:52punishment because it is perhaps the
186. 5:53best example of something very
187. 5:55terrifying, but we are not sure to what
188. 5:57extent it was real. It is called
189. 5:59Scaphism, or the boat punishment, and
190. 6:00it is attributed to the ancient Persian
191. 6:02Empire. According to the story, a
192. 6:05person is fixed between two boats or
193. 6:06wooden structures so that their head
194. 6:08and limbs remain exposed, after which
195. 6:10they are given milk and honey in large
196. 6:11quantities and their body is smeared
197. 6:13with sweet substances. Then they are
198. 6:15left in an open area. If you only hear
199. 6:17the beginning, you might say: Where is
200. 6:19the punishment? A boat, honey, and milk
201. 6:21? The problem starts after a few hours.
202. 6:23Insects begin to gather—flies,
203. 6:24mosquitoes, and various bugs—all
204. 6:26attracted by the scent and the sweet
205. 6:28substances, and the person cannot move
206. 6:30or shoo them away. Even worse,
207. 6:32according to the account, they would
208. 6:33not let them die quickly; they would
209. 6:35return to them and repeat the process
210. 6:37because the goal was essentially to
211. 6:38prolong the punishment for as long as
212. 6:40possible. In the most famous story
213. 6:42about this punishment, a person named
214. 6:44Mithridates is said to have survived
215. 6:46for many days before dying. But here we
216. 6:48must pause, because the story of
217. 6:49Scaphism does not have the same kind of
218. 6:51evidence that we have, for example, for
219. 6:53the rack. Most of the details we know
220. 6:55have reached us from ancient writings,
221. 6:57the most famous being Plutarch, who
222. 6:58himself was quoting an older writer
223. 7:00named Ctesias. Some historians doubt
224. 7:02that the punishment was actually
225. 7:04carried out with all these details. It
226. 7:06could be one of the most gruesome
227. 7:07punishments in human history, and it
228. 7:09could be one of the most gruesome
229. 7:10stories humans ever wrote about their
230. 7:12enemies. This is perhaps the most
231. 7:14important thing in the whole subject:
232. 7:16when we hear about history, it is very
233. 7:18easy to believe any story as long as it
234. 7:20is terrifying enough. And the stranger
235. 7:22it is, the more it spreads. An iron
236. 7:24cage. Perhaps a device that stretches
237. 7:25the body. We have evidence of pulling.
238. 7:27A person under a ship. We have
239. 7:29documentation of an elephant carrying
240. 7:30out a sentence. We have many historical
241. 7:32accounts. But the further back we go,
242. 7:34and the stranger the story becomes, we
243. 7:36must ask: did this actually happen, or
244. 7:38did someone add a detail? And then
245. 7:40someone else added another detail. And
246. 7:42after 1,000 years, the story began to
247. 7:44seem like an established fact. The
248. 7:45common thread between most of the
249. 7:47punishments we have seen is not the
250. 7:48pain itself. The common thread is the
251. 7:50audience. The cage. Hung up for people
252. 7:53to see. The rack used to make someone
253. 7:55talk. The elephant displays the ruler's
254. 7:57power. Some executions. Were carried
255. 7:59out in front of people deliberately
256. 8:00because punishment in the past was not
257. 8:02just a message to the criminal; it was
258. 8:04a message to everyone standing there
259. 8:05watching. And that is perhaps the
260. 8:07ugliest thing in the history of
261. 8:09punishment: not that humans knew how to
262. 8:10...Hurt each other, but the uglier
263. 8:11thing is that humans knew how to turn
264. 8:13one person's pain into a message for
265. 8:14thousands of people. That’s it.