Falling (execution)

Falling is <a href="/facts/Capital_punishment/4pbmeUIb">execution</a> by throwing or dropping a person from a great height. It has been used since ancient times. People executed in this way die from injuries caused by hitting the ground at high speed.
In ancient <a href="/facts/Delphi/IsyNrtAj">Delphi</a>, the <a href="/facts/Sacrilege/PGAycfUG">sacrilegious</a> were hurled from the top of the <a href="/facts/Hyampeia/QVfTr2yH">Hyampeia</a>, the high crag of the <a href="/facts/Phaedriades/FgJaVNKH">Phaedriades</a> to the east of the <a href="/facts/Castalian_Spring/BGBMKpsn">Castalian Spring</a>.
In pre-Roman <a href="/facts/Sardinia/7GGJNHCx">Sardinia</a>, elderly people who were unable to support themselves were <a href="/facts/Human_sacrifice/a5D1u7y1">ritually killed</a>. They were <a href="/facts/Substance_intoxication/LRnMxrKd">intoxicated</a> with a <a href="/facts/Neurotoxin/I7nLuFE7">neurotoxic</a> plant known as the "<a href="/facts/Sardonic_herb/MnlgpAyF">sardonic herb</a>" (which some scientists think is <a href="/facts/Oenanthe_crocata/pqvHzIN0"> hemlock water-dropwort</a>) and then dropped from a high rock or beaten to death.
During the <a href="/facts/Roman_Republic/Han0FRLT">Roman Republic</a>, the <a href="/facts/Tarpeian_Rock/o8tp35vL">Tarpeian Rock</a>, a steep cliff at the southern summit of the <a href="/facts/Capitoline_Hill/RGCg0xY8">Capitoline Hill</a>, was used for public executions. <a href="/facts/Murderer/GV3zvVYY">Murderers</a> and <a href="/facts/Treason/lqT6ECtV">traitors</a>, if convicted by the <a href="/facts/Quaestores_parricidii/B7oxse5p">quaestores parricidii</a>, were flung from the cliff to their deaths.
<a href="/facts/Suetonius/djJaFVvM">Suetonius</a> records the rumours of cruelty by <a href="/facts/Tiberius/oQzd7AvQ">Tiberius</a> during the later part of the <a href="/facts/Roman_emperor/sT4nFc67">emperor's</a> reign while the latter was living at <a href="/facts/Capri/HBwfnBQf">Capri</a>. Tiberius was said to execute people, most notably boys whose sexual company he had grown tired of, by having them thrown from a cliff into the sea while he watched. Some were <a href="/facts/Torture/oTCUxY3x">tortured</a> before being executed, and if they survived the fall, men waiting below in boats would break their bones with oars and boathooks.
In pre-colonial <a href="/facts/South_Africa/vvXQpLgq">South Africa</a>, several tribes including the <a href="/facts/Xhosa_people/QzUmjyyV">Xhosa</a> and the <a href="/facts/Zulu_people/WmaPw6Rb">Zulu</a> had named execution hills, from which miscreants were hurled to their deaths. These societies had no form of imprisonment; thus, legal penalties necessarily consisted of <a href="/facts/Corporal_punishment/3Fub5D16">corporal punishment</a>, <a href="/facts/Capital_punishment/4pbmeUIb">capital punishment</a>, or <a href="/facts/Banishment/ktcKzckQ">expulsion</a>. It is alleged that during the <a href="/facts/Namibian_war_of_independence/z3dhUMXD">Namibian war of independence</a> numerous, <a href="/facts/SWAPO/alykXCEN">SWAPO</a> rebels were dropped from South African helicopters over the sea.
During the <a href="/facts/Spanish_Civil_War/YykcMvC5">Spanish Civil War</a>, partisans were sometimes executed by being thrown off of cliffs at <a href="/facts/Sardinero/vN1wrWly">El Sardinero</a>.
During Argentina's <a href="/facts/Dirty_War/WP373D9c">Dirty War</a> of the late 1970s, those <a href="/facts/Forced_disappearance/9hKI94ns">secretly abducted</a> were often thrown from aircraft, in what were known as <a href="/facts/Death_flights/rhA7XPzK">death flights</a>.
<a href="/facts/Iran/24yukge8">Iran</a> may have used this form of execution for the <a href="/facts/Capital_punishment_in_Iran/YUXsw9R0">crime of sodomy</a>. According to <a href="/facts/Amnesty_International/ouGBgSdS">Amnesty International</a>, in 2008 two men were convicted of <a href="/facts/Rape/7RLDwHCN">raping</a> two university students and sentenced to death. 
In 2015, members of the <a href="/facts/Islamic_State_of_Iraq_and_the_Levant/agpVzR4K">Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant</a> executed men who were accused of being <a href="/facts/Homosexuality/gNy8Nvl0">gay</a> by pushing them off towers.

Falling (execution) open-in-new

Falling (execution)