Death by sawing is the act of sawing or cutting a living person in half, either sagittally (usually midsagittally), or transversely.
Methods Different methods of death by sawing have been recorded. In cases related to the Roman Emperor Caligula, the sawing is said to be through the middle (transversely).Scott (1995), p.142 This method is similar to the ancient Chinese execution method of waist chopping. In the cases of Morocco, it is stated that the sawing was lengthwise, both from the groin upwards and from the skull downwards (midsagittally).Busnot (1717), pp.167–70
In only one case, the story about Simon the Zealot, the person is explicitly described as being hanged upside-down and sawn apart vertically through the middle, starting at the groin, with no mention of fastenings or support boards around the person, in the manner depicted in illustrations.Geyer (1738) p.631 In other cases where details about the method beyond the mere sawing act are explicitly supplied, the condemned person was apparently fastened to either one or two boards prior to sawing.
Ancient history and classical antiquity Ancient Persia The legend of Jamshid Jamshid was a legendary shah of Persia, whose story is told in the Shahnameh by Ferdowsi. After 300 years of blessed reign, Jamshid forgot the blessings came from Ahura Mazda, and began demanding that he be revered as a god himself. The people rebelled, and Zahhak had him sawn asunder.Osborne (1744), p.179
Parysatis Parysatis, wife and half-sister of Darius II (r. 423–405 BC) was the real power behind the throne of the Achaemenid Empire; she instigated and became involved in a number of court intrigues, made several enemies, yet had an uncanny knack for dispatching them at an opportune time. At one point, she decided to have the siblings of her daughter-in-law Stateira killed, and only relented from killing Stateira as well due to the desperate pleas of her son, Artaxerxes II. Stateira's sister Roxana was the first of her siblings to be killed, by being sawn in half. When Darius II died, Parysatis moved quickly, and was able to have the new queen Stateira poisoned; Parysatis still remained a power to be reckoned with for years after.Osborne (1747), p.266
Hormizd IV Hormizd IV (), son of Khosrow I, was the twenty-first King of Persia from AD 579 to 590.Dignas; Winter (2007) p.42 He was deeply resented by the nobility due to his cruelties. In 590, a palace coup was staged in which his son, Khosrow II, was declared king. Hormizd was forced to watch his wife and one of his sons sawn in two, and the deposed king was then blinded. After a few days, the new king is said to have killed his father in a fit of rage.Osborne (1742), p.535
Thracians Thracians were regarded as warlike, ferocious, and bloodthirsty by Romans and Greeks.Head; Heath (1982), p. 51, Webber; McBride (2001): "Perhaps the prospect of getting to the spoils explains Thucydides VII, 29: 'For the Thracian race, like all the most bloodthirsty barbarians, are always particularly bloodthirsty when everything is going their own way", p.1 One of the most notorious was the king Diegylis, possibly only topped by his son Ziselmius. According to Diodorus Siculus, Ziselmius sawed several people to death and commanded their families to eat the flesh of their murdered relatives. The Thracians eventually rebelled, captured him and sought to inflict every conceivable torture upon him prior to his death.Diodorus Seculus (1840), p.2450
Ancient Rome The Twelve Tables Promulgated about 451 BC, the Twelve Tables is the oldest extant law code for the Romans. Aulus Gellius, whose work "Attic Nights" is partially preserved, states that death by the saw was mentioned for some offenses in the tables, but that the use of which was so infrequent that no one could remember ever having seen it done.For Gellius' statement, see, Rosenmüller (1820), p.95 Of the retained laws in the Twelve Tables, the following concerning how creditors should proceed with debtors is found in Table 3, article 6: "On the third market-day they [the creditors] shall cut pieces. If they shall have cut more or less [than their shares], it shall be with impunity." The translator notes the ambiguity of the original text, but says that later Roman writers understood this to mean that creditors were allowed to cut their shares from the body of the debtor. If true, that would constitute dismemberment, rather than sawing.Coleman-Norton (1948))The Twelve Tables
Caligula This method of execution was uncommon throughout the time of the Roman Empire, though common during Caligula's reign,Suet. Calig. 27: multos [...] medios serra dissecuit - , Vita Caligulae "Many..had them sawn asunder" Life of Caligula when the condemned, including members of his own family, were sawn across the torso rather than lengthwise down the body. It is said that Caligula would watch such executions while he ate, stating that witnessing the suffering acted as an appetiser.
The Kitos War The Kitos War occurred 115–117 AD, and was a rebellion by the Jews within the Roman Empire. Major revolts happened several places, and the main source by Cassius Dio claims that in Cyrene, 220,000 Greeks were massacred by the Jews; in Cyprus, 240,000. Dio adds that many of the victims were sawn asunder, and that the Jews licked up the blood of the slain, and "twisted the entrails like a girdle about their bodies".Gibbon (1776), Appendix, p.lxxvi
Valens In 365 AD, Procopius declared himself emperor, and moved against Valens. He was defeated in battle, and due to the treachery of his two generals Agilonius and Gomoarius (they had been promised they would be "shown favour" by Valens), he was captured. In 366, he was fastened to two trees bent down with force; when the trees were released, Procopius was ripped apart in the manner of the legendary execution of the bandit Sinis. The "favour" Valens showed to Agilonius and Gomoarius was to have them both sawn asunder.Sozomen (1846), p.262
Jewish tradition Death of Isaiah The prophet Isaiah was, according to some traditional rabbinic texts, sawn apart on orders of King Manasseh of Judah.Warnekros (1832), p.368 One tradition states that he was put within a tree, and then sawn apart; another says he was sawn apart by means of a wooden saw.Du Pin (1699), p.115
Christian martyrs Simon the Zealot
Several early Christians are credited with being martyred by means of a saw. The earliest, and most famous, is the obscure apostle of Jesus, Simon the Zealot. He is said to have been martyred in Persia, and that the express mode by which he was executed was to be hanged up by the feet, as in the woodcut illustration.
Conus and his son According to the Acta Sanctorum, after his wife's death in the age of Domitian, Conus went with his 7-year-old son into a desert. He destroyed several pagan idols in Cogni, Asia Minor (Anatolia). When caught, he and his son were tortured by starvation and fire, and were finally put to the saw, praying while they died.Schmauss (1719), p.69 Symphorosa and her seven sons
According to the 16th-century Foxe's Book of Martyrs, Symphorosa was a widow with seven sons living in the age of emperor Trajan (98–117) or Hadrian (117–138). Refusing a command to pray at a heathen temple, Symphorosa was scourged, and then thrown in the river Aniene with a large stone fastened to her. The six eldest sons were all killed by stab wounds, and the youngest, Eugenius, was sawn apart.Foxe (1840), p.5Symphorosa at the Catholic Encyclopedia
The 38 monks and martyrs on Mount Sinai According to the Martyrologium Romanum, during the reign of Diocletian "wild barbarians" decided to rob a community of monks living at Mount Sinai. There was nothing of material wealth there, and in their rage, the Arabs slaughtered them all, several by flaying, others by sawing them with dull saws.Deinl (1850), p.42
St. Tarbula Accused of practising witchcraft and causing the sickness of the wife of the ardently anti-Christian Persian king Shapur II, Tarbula was condemned and executed by being sawn in half in the year 345.St. Tarbula
North Africa Egypt The monk from Montepulciano In the 1630s, there are several reports from the Levant and Egypt that monks were killed. One of them, Brother Conrad d'Elis Barthelemy, a native of Montepulciano is said to have been sawn in two, from the head downwards.Chateaubriand (1812), p.143
The renegade Coptic governor Writing in 1843, William Holt Yates speaks of a governor under Muhammad Ali (r.1801–1849), Abd-ur-Rahman Bey, who was said to be particularly cruel and avaricious. He was a renegade Copt, and abused his position to gain hold of wealth. He is even credited with having sawn people in two. Yates further supplies the detail: "This fellow has since been assassinated-report says, with sanction and approval of the Government"Yates (1843), p.123 More on this governor and his assassination in 1840 in Gliddon (1841), p.70-72, footnote
Morocco 1705 The sawing of Alcaide Melec One of the most notorious cases of sawing as execution is that of the Alcaide (castellan/governor) Melec under Sultan Moulay Ishmael (r. 1672–1727). The fullest description of this execution is found in 1714 work , although a brief notice of the event can be found in the January 1706 edition of Present state of Europe.Rhodes (1706), p.46 In the following, the tale as told by Busnot will be given.
Melec was judged as the chief rebel to be punished in a rebellion instigated by one of the Sultan's sons, Mulay Muhammad. In particular, according to Busnot, the Sultaness was incensed that Melec had personally beheaded one of her cousins, Ali Bouchasra.Busnot (1716), p.66–67 In September/October 1705, Mulay Ismail sent for his chief carpenter and asked if his saws were capable of sawing a man in two. The carpenter answered "Sure enough". He was then given the grisly task, and before he left, he asked him whether Melec should be sawn across or along the length. The emperor said the sawing should proceed lengthwise, from the head downwards. He told Boachasra's sons they should follow the carpenter and decide for themselves how best to take revenge upon the murderer (i.e., Melec) of their father. Taking with him eight of the public executioner's assistants, the master carpenter went to the prison where Melec was held, two of his brand new saws packed in cloth, in order to keep from Melec information of the intended manner of execution. Melec was now placed on a mule, bound with an iron chain, and led to the public square, where some 4000 of his relatives and members of his tribe were assembled. These made a "terrifying" spectacle through screaming, and clawing their faces in a public display of grief. Melec, on the other hand, seemed unperturbed, calmly smoking from his tobacco pipe. When taken down from the mule, Melec's clothes were removed and damning letters "proving" his treason were cast into the fire.
Then, he was strapped onto a board, and placed upon a saw-bench, his arms and legs fastened. The executioner's team then sought to start by sawing him from the head downwards, but Boucasra's sons intervened, and demanded that one began between Melec's legs instead, because otherwise, he would die too quickly. Under the terrible screams of Melec and his relatives, thus began his execution. Once they had sawn him up to the navel, they pulled out the saw in order to commence from the other side. Melec is said to have been still conscious, asking for some water. His friends, though, thought it best to hasten his demise and shorten his sufferings, and the executioners went on, sawing him from skull to navel so he fell apart. In the process, chunks of flesh were ripped out by the saw's teeth, causing blood to splatter everywhere, thus making the execution quite unbearable to watch.