This in photo is a painting by artist Henryk Siemiradzki, a Polish painter active two centuries ago. A classic nineteenth-century painting which, pursuing the fashion of the time, with its unmistakable somewhat realistic, somewhat narrative style, shows us glimpses of daily life in ancient Rome . We know well, however, how the Urbe sometimes became the protagonist of facts, or rather events, which in our eyes seem simply atrocious and violent (as in this case) . But a real tour guide doesn't miss anything, not even the opportunity to tell you about one of the bloodiest executions.

In this painting we notice a large crowd in the foreground, complete with an imperial box and senators in togas. A crowd is gathered near them, and in the background architectures that immediately refer us to antiquity and the city. What really strikes our eye, however, are the desperate condemned to death that we see on the right, completely immobilized and terrified. At their feet, men with a brazier are ready to carry out the sentence... we are witnessing the pictorial reinterpretation of the so-called damnatio ad flammas, a public execution and torture very popular in the imperial Rome. As you can deduce from the name, it is an execution based on fire, and on the burning of the bodies of the poor unfortunates (whether they are criminals, prisoners of war or Christians) using flammable material. There were different versions and modalities, but it is certain that the damnatio ad flammas was atrocious. Imagine for a moment that you are condemned to death, and that you are approached by men with a torch in their hand. You also know very well how you were clad in a tunic covered with flammable material, the so-called harassing tunic. In this way, the flames will envelop you without leaving you a chance. The excruciating pain and the sensation that their skin was burning must surely not be something to wish on anyone, although the Romans were still crazy for such scenes. Reason? A public execution, especially one as bloody as this one, brought moral order and justice back under control. Those who suffered a similar sentence were men or women who, by free choice, excluded themselves from the Roman community, infringing the rules or the founding social ties of society itself. A Christian who does not respect the emperor and does not pray to the gods, as well as a prisoner of war who attempted to defeat Rome must be punished for their efforts to destroy Roman social cohesion.

Another method of damnatio ad flammas consisted in covering the condemned man with a harassing tunic, setting him on fire and leaving him free to run around the arena, perhaps being chased by some wild beast. A truly atrocious torture which, irony of fate, was used above all by Nero accused, as you all know (although with many doubts about it), of having burned Rome in 64 AD Certainly an aspect of Roman society that disgusts us, but which it had a well-defined political and social purpose.