Historians say that the origin of this form of execution is not documented , it can be traced back to the ancient Persians and beyond , the Greek historian Herodotus reported that the king Dareios I , having conquered the City of Babylon after besieging it for months in 521 BC , had 3000 of the inhabitants crucified . Crucifixion has been considered as the form of execution practised by barbaric people in ancient times , such as the Indians , the Scythians , even the Celts , which are said to have offered their enemies to the gods in this way . The Romans used it regularly , specifically to execute rebels , not common criminals . They probably have taken it from the Carthaginians , Cicero calls it the most cruel and terrible way of death . There are also reports that some executed people who were already dead were crucified and presented to the public as a form of deterrent . One argument for the death penalty has always been that it was a deterrent , in Germany only during the 19 th century the public was excluded from executions , but it is quite clear especially from the reports of the French Revolution , that executions were there for the entertainment of the people , and executions were like a fete to be celebrated .
Even the tourist industry sports a kind of ‘ tourism of catastrophes ’, in 1921 an advert appeared in a paper in Basel , Switzerland , which promised visits to the battlefields of the First World War . To us this is something very ordinary , but then it was seen as rather frivolous to go on a package tour with good food and accommodation to view the places were only a few years previously young men have suffered and died . One critic , the writer Karl Kraus , summed up the purpose of the business with those words :” They experience that 1.5 million have shed their blood on the spot where wine and coffee can now be consumed , and everything is included in the price , they travel in comfort by car to the battlefield , where as those young men were taken there by cattle truck ”. Social media can call up large crowds these days to witness catastrophes like floods or suicide bombings , the crowds have one thing in common : they hinder the emergency services , and the more people are gathered , the fewer are prepared to help , unless they consider the danger for those around them .
Some time ago there was a film , called ‘ the Gathering ’ which focussed on those who went to look at the execution of Jesus for entertainment . In the film those people were condemned to watch such events for ever and ever .
This sounds like the medieval legend of ‘ Ahasver , the Eternal Jew ’, who denied Jesus , on his way to the crucifixion , a moment of rest on his doorstep .
For this he was condemned to eternal wandering . The point of ‘ The Gathering ’ was , that those condemned to gaping didn ’ t think it as a punishment and were annoyed , when one of them tried to deprive them of their pleasure by reversing that fate .
Brigitte Williams
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