Editing Death by burning (section)

===Antiquity===
====Ancient Near East====

====Old Babylonia====
The 18th-century BCE law code promulgated by [[Babylonian King]] [[Hammurabi]] specifies several crimes in which death by burning was thought appropriate. Looters of houses on fire could be cast into the flames, and priestesses who abandoned cloisters and began frequenting inns and taverns could also be punished by being burnt alive. Furthermore, when a man committed [[incest]] with his mother after the death of his father, both mother and son could be ordered to be burned alive.<ref>''Roth'' (2010), [https://books.google.com/books?id=awrOHv-gtqQC&pg=PA5 p. 5]</ref><ref>''Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative'' (2024), [https://cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts/464358]</ref>

====Ancient Egypt====
In [[Ancient Egypt]], several incidents of burning perceived rebels alive are attested to. [[Senusret I]] (r. 1971–1926&nbsp;BC) is said to have rounded up the rebels in campaign, and burnt them as human torches. Under the civil war flaring under [[Takelot II]] more than a thousand years later, the [[Osorkon III|Crown Prince Osorkon]] showed no mercy, and burned several rebels alive.<ref>''Wilkinson'' (2011): Senusret I incident, [https://books.google.com/books?id=P07rgiJjsk4C&pg=PA169 p. 169] Osorkon incident, [https://books.google.com/books?id=P07rgiJjsk4C&pg=PA412 p. 412]</ref> On the statute books, at least, women committing adultery might be burned to death. [[Jon Manchip White]], however, did not think capital judicial punishments were often carried out, pointing to the fact that the [[pharaoh]] had to personally [[Ratification|ratify]] each verdict.<ref>''White'' (2011), [https://books.google.com/books?id=GVhQ_lDWq0EC&pg=PA167 p. 167]</ref>

====Assyria====
In the [[Middle Assyrian period]], paragraph 40 in a preserved law text concerns the obligatory unveiled face for the professional prostitute, and the concomitant punishment if she violated that by veiling herself (the way wives were to dress in public):
{{blockquote|A prostitute shall not be veiled. Whoever sees a veiled prostitute shall seize her ... and bring her to the palace entrance. ... they shall pour hot [[Pitch (resin)|pitch]] over her head.<ref>''Schneider'' (2008), [https://books.google.com/books?id=4hHLe60cYBcC&pg=PA154 p. 154]</ref>}}

For the [[Neo-Assyrian Empire|Neo-Assyrians]], mass executions seem to have been not only designed to instill terror and to enforce obedience, but also as proof of their might. Neo-Assyrian King [[Ashurnasirpal II]] (r. 883–859 BC) was evidently proud enough of his executions that he committed them to monument as follows:<ref>''Olmstead'' (1918) [https://www.jstor.org/stable/1946342 p. 66]</ref>{{blockquote|I cut off their hands, I burned them with fire, a pile of the living men and of heads over against the city gate I set up, men I impaled on stakes, the city I destroyed and devastated, I turned it into mounds and ruin heaps, the young men and the maidens in the fire I burned.}}

====Hebraic tradition====
In [[Book of Genesis|Genesis]] 38, [[Judah (biblical person)|Judah]] orders [[Tamar (Genesis)|Tamar]]—the widow of his son, living in her father's household—to be burned when she is believed to have become pregnant via extramarital sexual relations. Tamar saves herself by proving that Judah is himself the father of her child. In the [[Book of Jubilees]], the same story is told, with some differences. In Genesis, Judah is exercising his patriarchal power at a distance, whereas he and the relatives seem more actively involved in Tamar's impending execution.<ref>''Reeder'' (2012), [https://books.google.com/books?id=PiNSpBdtsCgC&pg=PA82 p. 82]</ref>

In [[Halakha|Hebraic law]], death by burning was prescribed for ten forms of sexual crimes: the imputed crime of Tamar, namely that a married daughter of a priest commits adultery, and nine versions of relationships considered as incestuous, such as having sex with one's own daughter, or granddaughter, but also having sex with one's mother-in-law or with one's wife's daughter.<ref>Full list in ''Quint'' (2005), [https://books.google.com/books?id=2nEZQXWsXG4C&pg=PA257 p. 257]</ref>

In the [[Mishnah]], the following manner of burning the criminal is described:
{{blockquote|The obligatory procedure for execution by burning: They immersed him in dung up to his knees, rolled a rough cloth into a soft one and wound it about his neck. One pulled it one way, one the other until he opened his mouth. Thereupon one ignites the (lead) wick and throws it in his mouth, and it descends to his bowels and sears his bowels.}}

That is, the person dies from being fed molten lead.<ref>Quotation from ''Ben-Menahem, Edrei, Hecht'' (2012), [https://books.google.com/books?id=J-ZE_BJpJnIC&pg=PA111 p. 111]</ref>

====Ancient Rome====
[[File:Siemiradski Fackeln.jpg|thumb|300px|[[Nero's Torches]]]]
According to [[Christian legend]], [[Roman Empire|Roman]] authorities executed many of the early [[Martyr#Christianity|Christian martyrs]] by burning, including the [[military saint|warrior saint]] [[Theodore Tiron|Theodore]] and [[Polycarp]], the earliest recorded martyr.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf01.iv.iv.html|title=ANF01. The Apostolic Fathers with Justin Martyr and Irenaeus – Christian Classics Ethereal Library|website=ccel.org}}</ref> Sometimes Roman immolation was carried out using the ''[[tunica molesta]]'',<ref>[[Juvenal]] has an extended description of the tunica molesta, the punishment as meted out by Emperor [[Nero]] as contained in [[Tacitus]] matches the concept. See ''Pagán'' (2012), [https://books.google.com/books?id=bHzMYrWHjVoC&pg=PA53 p. 53]</ref> a flammable tunic:<ref>''Miley'' (1843), [https://books.google.com/books?id=iSsLAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA223 pp. 223–224]</ref>

{{blockquote|... the Christian, stripped naked, was forced to put on a garment called the tunica molesta, made of papyrus, smeared on both sides with wax, and was then fastened to a high pole, from the top of which they continued to pour down burning pitch and lard, a spike fastened under the chin preventing the excruciated victim from turning the head to either side, so as to escape the liquid fire, until the whole body, and every part of it, was literally clad and cased in flame.}}

In 326, [[Constantine the Great]] promulgated a law that increased the penalties for parentally non-sanctioned "abduction" of their girls, and concomitant sexual intercourse/rape. The man would be burnt alive without the possibility of appeal, and the girl would receive the same treatment if she had participated willingly. Nurses who had corrupted their female wards and led them to sexual encounters would have molten lead poured down their throats.<ref>[[Codex Theodosianus]] [http://ancientrome.ru/ius/library/codex/theod/liber09.htm#24 9,24]. Law text found in ''Pharr'' (2001), [https://books.google.com/books?id=-ROBb7SIvYgC&pg=PA244 pp. 244–245] The full law was changed in context to the penalties just 20 years later by Constantine's son, [[Constantius II]], for free citizens aiding and abetting in the abduction, to an unspecified "capital punishment". The full severity of the law was to be kept, however, for slaves. [https://books.google.com/books?id=-ROBb7SIvYgC&pg=PA245 p. 245], ''ibidem''</ref> In the same year, Constantine also passed a law that said if a woman had sexual relations with her own slave, both would be subjected to capital punishment, the slave by burning (if the slave himself reported the {{nowrap|offense—}}presumably having been {{nowrap|raped—}}he was to be set free).<ref>Law text in [[Codex Justinianus]] [https://droitromain.univ-grenoble-alpes.fr/Anglica/CJ9_Scott.gr.htm#11 9.11.1], as referred to in ''Winroth, Müller, Sommar'' (2006), [https://books.google.com/books?id=4smZ4JjGJcsC&pg=PA107 p. 107]</ref> In 390 AD, Emperor [[Theodosius I|Theodosius]] issued an edict against [[male prostitute]]s and brothels offering such services; those found guilty should be burned alive.<ref>''Pickett'' (2009), [https://books.google.com/books?id=XH-SMq-NKf0C&pg=PR21 p. xxi]</ref>

In the 6th-century collection of the sayings and rulings of the pre-eminent jurists from earlier ages, the [[Digest (Roman law)|Digest]], a number of crimes are regarded as punishable by death by burning. The 3rd-century jurist [[Ulpian]] said that enemies of the state and deserters to the enemy were to be burned alive. His rough contemporary, the juristical writer [[Callistratus (jurist)|Callistratus]], mentions that arsonists are typically burnt, as well as slaves who have conspired against the well-being of their masters (this last also, on occasion, being meted out to free persons of "low rank").<ref>See ''Watson'' (1998) '''Ulpian''', section 48.19.8.2, p. 361. '''Callistratus''', sections 48.19.28.11–12, p. 366</ref> The punishment of burning alive arsonists (and traitors) seems to have been particularly ancient; it was included in the [[Twelve Tables]], a mid-5th-century BC law code, that is, about 700 years prior to the times of Ulpian and Callistratus.<ref>''Kyle'' (2002), [https://books.google.com/books?id=x4vekGBc_McC&pg=PA53 p. 53]</ref>

====Ritual child sacrifice in Carthage====
{{further|Tophet|Moloch}}
[[File:Bardo National Museum tanit.jpg|left|thumb|100px|Tanit with a lion's head]]

Beginning in the early 3rd century BC, Greek and Roman writers commented on the purported institutionalized [[child sacrifice]] the North African [[Carthaginians]] are said to have performed in honour of the gods [[Baal Hammon]] and [[Tanit]]. The earliest writer, [[Cleitarchus]], is among the most explicit. He says live infants were placed in the arms of a bronze statue, the statue's hands over a brazier, so that the infant slowly rolled into the fire. As it did so, the limbs of the infant contracted and the face was distorted into a sort of laughing grimace, hence called "the act of laughing". Other, later authors such as [[Diodorus Siculus]] and [[Plutarch]] say the throats of the infants were generally cut before they were placed in the statue's embrace<ref>On ritual description, Plutarch, and in general, see ''Markoe'' (2000), [https://books.google.com/books?id=smPZ-ou74EwC&pg=PA132 pp. 132–136] On Diodorus, see ''Schwartz, Houghton, Macchiarelli, Bondioli'' (2010), [http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0009177 Skeletal remains..do not support] on phrase "the act of laughing", see ''Decker'' (2001), [http://ancienthistory.about.com/library/bl/uc_decker_carthrel3.htm p. 3] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090315024147/http://ancienthistory.about.com/library/bl/uc_decker_carthrel3.htm |date=15 March 2009 }}</ref> In the vicinity of ancient Carthage, large scale graveyards containing the incinerated remains of infants, typically up to the age of 3, have been found; such graves are called "tophets". However, some scholars have argued that these findings are not evidence of ''systematic'' child sacrifice, and that estimated figures of ancient natural infant mortality (with cremation afterwards and reverent separate burial) might be the real historical basis behind the hostile reporting from non-Carthaginians. A late charge of the imputed sacrifice is found by the North African bishop [[Tertullian]], who says that child sacrifices were still carried out, in secret, in the countryside at his time, 3rd century AD.<ref>'''Generally accepting''' the tradition of child sacrifice, see ''Markoe'' (2000), [https://books.google.com/books?id=smPZ-ou74EwC&pg=PA132 pp. 132–136] '''Generally skeptical''', see ''Schwartz, Houghton, Macchiarelli, Bondioli'' (2010), [http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0009177 Skeletal remains..do not support]</ref>

====Celtic traditions====
[[File:The Wicker Man of the Druids crop.jpg|thumb|right|267px|An 18th-century illustration of a wicker man. Engraving from ''A Tour in Wales'' written by [[Thomas Pennant]]]]
According to [[Julius Caesar]], the ancient [[Celts]] practised the burning alive of humans in a number of settings. In Book 6, chapter 16, he writes of the [[Druid]]ic sacrifice of criminals within huge [[Wicker man|wicker frames shaped as men]]:
{{blockquote|Others have figures of vast size, the limbs of which formed of [[Salix viminalis|osiers]] they fill with living men, which being set on fire, the men perish enveloped in the flames. They consider that the [[oblation]] of such as have been taken in theft, or in robbery, or any other offence, is more acceptable to the immortal gods; but when a supply of that class is wanting, they have recourse to the oblation of even the innocent.}}

Slightly later, in Book 6, chapter 19, Caesar also says the Celts perform, on the occasion of death of great men, the funeral sacrifice on the pyre of living slaves and dependents ascertained to have been "beloved by them". Earlier on, in Book 1, chapter 4, he relates of the conspiracy of the nobleman [[Orgetorix]], charged by the Celts for having planned a ''coup d'état'', for which the customary penalty would be burning to death. It is said Orgetorix committed suicide to avoid that fate.<ref>''Julius Caesar, McDevitt, Bohn'' (1851) '''On penalty for conspiracy''', [https://books.google.com/books?id=7FsIAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA4 p. 4] '''On criminals in large wicker frames''', [https://books.google.com/books?id=7FsIAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA149 p. 149] '''On funeral human sacrifice''', [https://books.google.com/books?id=7FsIAAAAQAAJ&pg=P150 pp.&nbsp;150–151]</ref>

====Baltic====
Throughout the 12th–14th centuries, a number of non-Christian peoples living around the Eastern [[Baltic Sea]], such as [[Old Prussians]] and [[Lithuanians]], were charged by Christian writers with performing human sacrifice. [[Pope Gregory IX]] issued a [[papal bull]] denouncing an alleged practice among the Prussians, that girls were dressed in fresh flowers and wreaths and were then burned alive as offerings to evil spirits.<ref>This case, and a number of others in ''Pluskowski'' (2013), pp.[https://books.google.com/books?id=-8NykshHHesC&pg=PA77 77–78]</ref>