It seems easy to believe that the world is becoming progressively more violent, immoral, and just plain weird. However, going back throughout the history of the world, it becomes quite evident that no historic period was perfect. In fact, most historic periods, if not all, have had some pretty strange practices, including beheading people and boiling them alive. This goes to show that it’s quite possible that humans aren’t becoming more violent as time progresses, but they’ve actually always been that way. History, and the world in general, is a terrifying place, and this list proves it!
5. Urine
5. Urine
For some strange reason, in ancient Rome, people thought that using urine as a cleaner was a great idea. It was used to clean teeth, wash clothing, and many other uses.
4. Burning Cats
4. Burning Cats
During the 17th and 18th centuries, in France, they believed in was good luck to burn a sack full of cats. They often placed a dozen-or-so cats in a net and burn them alive.
3. Beheadings
3. Beheadings
One might think that being beheaded was a quick and painless form of execution. However, with the lack of technology in medieval Europe, sometimes multiple blows were used to sever a person’s head, resulting in a very painful death.
2. Pedophilia
2. Pedophilia
In ancient Rome, being a pedophile was apparently very normal. Some emperors had young boys as concubines, and some even had toddlers to nibble at their inner thighs while bathing.
1. Bastinando
1. Bastinando
Bastinando was the practice of beating a person on the bottoms of their feet with a stick. The bottoms of the feet are incredibly vulnerable, so this punishment was particularly painful. This practice occurred in Asia, mainly during the 1800’s.
