Execution

[I ate Bob]

when was the first public execution?

[jno]

pretty much back at the dawn of time, I should think. They occasionally find bodies from thousands of years ago that have ropes round their neck. Took them a long long time to decide that this was uncivilised - and they still do it in some Arab countries.

[Grunty]

The first one that we know the details of was 2005 years and a few days ago.

[graemer]

Grunty there are details of executions well before that one.

[Octavius]

Often labelled as 'sacrifices' they have pretty much gone back to the days of men with clubs.  Perhaps even pre-humans would kill (execute) a group member for food.

Grunty, the romans were crucifying and beheading people long before that, and the greeks before them, the egyptians before them, the mesopotamians before them.....

[Grunty]

Sorry about that.  Having seen some wrong answers on these pages, I wondered how far it was possible to go.  Somewhere I have a list of executions, obviously a tiny percentage of the real number, but it does demonstrate the points you make.

[Fitzburger]

The crucifixions the Romans had were public executions, but it will go back much further than that into the stone age an beyond.

The further back it goes its hard to tell if its an execution or a sacrifice.