Since the time of Beccaria men have realized that the groans of a tortured wretch cannot recall the time past, or reverse the crime once committed,[2] so punishments are now provided for, not to torment a sensible being, nor to attempt to undo the crime committed, but to prevent the criminal from doing further injury to society and to deter others from committing similar offenses. But it was not always thus. Torture, of the worst kind, in the handling of criminals, has been consecrated as a time honored custom by most of the older nations of the world. Mankind, for centuries, seemed to forget that all men were brothers; that a man, after he is dead is good for nothing and since punishments were invented for the good of society, that they ought to be useful and not destructive, still they universally persecuted each other, even to the death. All mankind have ever detested the violence of which they may themselves possibly be the victim, but the criminal is so far regarded as an enemy to society, that they universally desire the punishment inflicted upon another which they would never want inflicted upon themselves. Viewing all other men as inconsequential in the sum total of the universe, but each individual believing himself the center of the social unit, men have been ever ready to play the tiger and make the alleged criminal the lamb, because it was the other individual whose life was sacrificed. Viewing the whole plan of society by the standards of the past, in the punishment of criminals, it is difficulty to determine whether the crimes against society or those of society against the alleged criminal, have been the greater. But with the idea of reforming the criminal, the barbarous tortures of the past have been eliminated and the trend of modern criminologists is to further limit all punishments, not in themselves wholly reformatory in their nature. Excessive punishments have always increased, rather than diminished crime, yet authority to inflict punishment has never been much concerned about the welfare of the race or of society, as a whole, and the humane law of the philosophers has been disregarded far too long to curb the ingenious cruelty that has inflicted penalties and pains upon alleged criminals, frequently wholly innocent of any crime. The object of this chapter, however, is not to moralize about crimes and punishments, but to contribute something to the vast fund of historical information upon the subject of ancient punishments, with a few illustrations of the pains and penalties inflicted during the past ages, in the name of law, upon the unfortunate victims falling into the vortex of the current of a past civilization and hopelessly borne on to their destruction.