Execution in the brazen bull from Phalaris of Sicily to Rus in the early modern era

Execution by roasting alive inside a brazen bull has been known since the 6th century BC. It was first introduced under the Sicilian dictator Phalaris. The dreadful irony is that the coppersmith Perilaus, who by tradition built the first brazen bull for executions, ended his own life in it. As, indeed, did the man who commissioned the invention. Subsequently, this form of execution was employed in Rome and in Byzantium, and even in Rus' and Eastern Europe in the modern era.