Ruthless Romans

[mwilson603]

Hi All,
Interesting little finding/report about Romans potentially executing a young woman.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-13211331
regards
Mark

[Mat]

Very cool but also very sad

Thanks for the post.

[Will Hooton]

 I wonder what crime she was convicted of before being executed? Attempted murder ? A run away slave? Any crime at all? Unfortunately, Archeology can never tell us these things.

Perhaps members with medical training can tell us about the effectiveness of a Gladius down the back of the neck as an execution method? I would assume it severs the spinal cord, causing instant death?

[Lloyd Taylor]

As Terry Jones might say: Who was the barbarian? A sad distant echo of the brutality of the times.

[Robert_Brenchley]

If she was stabbed squarely in the back of the head it would probably either have severed the spinal chord or mashed up the medulla oblongata, depending on exactly where the wound was. Either way it would have killed her instantly. If it was a little higher, it would have mashed the cerebellum, which isn't necessarily instant, but I doubt whether you'd know too much about it.