Torture in the Era

Torture was rife in all areas of the world. Emperor Basil the Magnificent, the most noted emperor of Byzantium, is known for bring Byzantium to glory. yet he was not against the use of torture.

Not everyone tortured by the Byzantines was able to survive. The above picture shows Admiral Nicetas Oryphas, (sitting on the left), one of Basil's favorites, overseeing the hanging of one Arab sailor, the flaying alive of another, the shooting full of arrows of a third, and the boiling in tar of a fourth. This was done to dissuade Arabs of plying the Gulf of Corinth.

The emperor himself was not immune to torture. A full 29 Byznatine had their reign end by violence. Andronicus I Comnenus was tortured to death in 1185. First he was chained to a pillar for days and beaten black-and-blue. His teeth were broken, and his hand was cut off. He was then tied to the back of a sick camel and paraded through the streets of Constantinople. He had boiling water thrown in his face and an eye plucked out. He was then taken to the Hippodrome for additional torture where he cried out, "Lord have mercy on me. Why do you strike a broken reed?" He was at last killed by a sword thrust.

Torture was not limited to Europe. The Comanche in what is now the US were known to force prisoners to eat their own flesh. New Englanders used pressing and dunking in their infamous witch trials. The Aztecs, Mayans, Toltecs, and other Central American peoples practiced ritualized torture of captured prisoners, especially of captured royalty. Asian cultures developed exquisite methods of torture, perhaps the most famous being the Chinese Water Torture. And many African tribes also used torture against their enemies.