Romans didn't set limits when it came to flogging. In fact it would have been quite possible for a Roman executioner to kill a person with fewer than 40 lashes with the flagrum. The flagrum was a long handled whip with 3 to 12 strands of stiffened oxen hide embedded with lead wieghts, bone, and or iron/brass hooks. The flagrum was designed to tear skin, muscle, and bone right off the body to bring about a slow very painful death.
In the Roman Empire, flagellation was often used as a prelude to crucifixion, and in this context is sometimes referred to as scourging. In addition to causing severe pain, the victim would be made to approach a state of hypovolemic shock, due to loss of blood.
The Romans reserved this torture to non-citizens, as stated in the lex Porcia and lex Sempronia, dating from 195 and 123 BC. Typically, the one to be punished was bound to a low pillar so that he could bend over it. Two lictors (some reports indicate scourgings with 4 or 6 lictors) alternated blows. There was no limit to the number of blows inflicted - this was left to the lictors to decide, though they were normally not supposed to kill the victim. Nonetheless, Livy, Suetonius and Josephus report cases of flagellation victims who died while still bound to the post. Flagellation was referred to as "half death" by some authors, and apparently, many died shortly thereafter. Cicero reports in In Verrem, "pro mortuo sublatus brevi postea mortuus" (taken away for a dead man, shortly thereafter he was dead). Often the victim was turned over to allow flagellation on the chest, though this proceeded with caution, as the possibility of inflicting a fatal blow was much greater.
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