A terrible history of how the breaking wheel were used for execution, largely reserved for the worst criminals,

A terrible history of how the breaking wheel were used for execution, largely reserved for the worst criminals,

The exEcutioner secured the condemned to a bench, and placed an iron-flanged wheel on their body, They then used a hammer to smash the wheel into the victim, starting at their ankles and working their way up.

The breaking wheel stands as one of the most gruesome methods of exEcution.

Largely reserved for the worst criminals, its purpose was to inflict maximum pain and suffering, often before a large and jeering crowd.

Use of the wheel as a form of exEcution, dates as far back as the Roman Empire, to the time of the emperor Commodus, son of Marcus Aurelius.

The exEcutioner secured the condemned to a bench, and placed an iron-flanged wheel on their body.

They then used a hammer to smash the wheel into the victim, starting at their ankles and working their way up.

The Romans typically used the wheel as a punishment for slaves and Christians, in the belief that it would prevent resurrection.

They soon came up with new embellishments, for the breaking wheel.

Victims were sometimes suspended vertically, facing the wheel, or bound to the wheel itself or around its circumference.

In the latter example, exEcutioners would sometimes light a fire beneath the wheel.

One of the most infamous moments in the history of the breaking wheel, however, came in the fourth century C.E. when the Romans attempted to use the torture device on St. Catherine of Alexandria.

Catherine was a Christian who refused to renounce her faith.

Catherine was fixed to the wheel by her exEcutioners, but then the breaking wheel fell apart.

Enraged by this apparent act of divine intervention, Emperor Maxentius ordered Catherine to be b-headed.

At this point milk, not blood, allegedly flowed out of her body.

Afterward, the breaking wheel came to be sometimes known as the wheel of Catherine - or the Catherine Wheel.

As time passed, the use of the breaking wheel continued.

No longer reserved for slaves or Christians, it came to be used as punishment for crimes ranging from treason to murder.

During the Middle Ages, scores of people across Europe and parts of Asia, were condemned to die by the breaking wheel.

 Those condemned to this punishment, were either broken by the wheel or broken on the wheel.

In the first, an exEcutioner dropped a wheel on the victim to break their bones.

In the second, the victim was tied to a wheel so that an exEcutioner could systematically break their bones with a cudgel.

Afterward, the victim would often be left on the wheel for hours, or even days, their broken limbs gruesomely intertwined in the wheel’s spokes.

It frequently took them a long time to die.

Though it seems archaic and even primitive, the breaking wheel actually had a long run as far as exEcution methods go.

It was used up until the 19th century.

One of the most savage and cruel methods of exEcution, its legacy stands as a reminder of the darkest days of human history.

The breaking wheel has existed in many forms, some lying flat, others stood upright. Each is uniquely brutal.

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