furca as a means of punishment. Punishment consists of placing a fork-shaped piece of wood on a person in such a way that the neck is clamped in the middle of the fork and the arms are tied in front to the ends of the fork. Originally, the furca was a slave punishment. The Greek reporters designate the f. as δίδυμον ξύλον (Suid.) or δίκρουν ξύλον (Dio bei Zonar. VII 8 p. 21 Boiss.). the Furcifer
carries the for aboutaround like that. furcam ready
(Cic. de div. I 55), he is sub furca
(Val. Max. I 7, 4th Liv. II 36 and ep. 55). A more detailed description at Plut. corioles 24 and quaest. Rome. 70; Plutarch sees in the f forked
wooden part of the wagon into which the drawbar is embedded (ξύλον ἁμάξης, ᾧ τὸν ῥυμὸν ὑπερείδουσιν). Clamping the neck in the fork
will as collum in furcam conicere
(Aurel. Vict. ep. 5), cervicem furcae insere
(Suet. Ner. 49), ἐμβάλλειν αὐχένα εἰς ξύλον δίκρουν (Dio loc. cit.) referred to. It probably also happened that apart from the two
Fork woods (fork parts), to which the arms are attached, a third piece of wood was placed across the chest (Pauly-Wissowa VII,1, 0305a.jpg), so that the neck was within a triangle; this was supposed to prevent the whole apparatus from slipping down. Possibly, however, the passage that mentions this crossbar (Dionys. Hal. ant. VII 69) does not refer to the f., but to the patibulum (sd and provisionally Art. Crux). anywayThere was not a great difference between f. and [306] patibulum in practical use, just as occasionally in the narrative of one and the same event some writers speak of f., others of patibulum (cf. Val. Max. I 7 , 4th Liv. II 36. Cic. de div. I 55 with Macrob. Sat. I 11, 3).
The harnessing in the f. was originally a punishment for slaves; Fork carrier, furcifer, becomes a nickname for the slave (Plaut. Most. 69. 1172). The slave is led about with the fork, shown so to the public, especially the neighbours, and at the same time beaten with rods; the procedure can be compared to the display in the pillory; the public should beware of this slave in the future: ὅπως ἀπιστοῖεν αὐτῷ καὶ φυλάττοιντο πρὸς τὸ λοιπόν (Plut. quaest. Rom. 70). In addition to insults, f. means torture for the slave, the intensity of which depends on the type of execution; with the f. the (sub furca) virgis caedere is always mentioned; the caedere is taken care of by slaves (ἕτεροι οἰκέται Plut. Cor. 24); the master certainly had the right to have the slave whipped to death sub furca, and that may have happened often enough in practice. But by no means is the caedere sub furca always and necessarily the execution of a death penalty, it is regularly only a preparation for the death penalty, which itself is carried out in another form (e.g. crucifixion), cf. the general sub virgis caedere in Livius (II 26 ) with the more precise account of Plutarch (Cor. 24. 25), who says twice in describing the same case: ἐξήλασαν μαστιγοῦντες, εἶτ' ἐθανάτωσαν. It is by no means proven that the sub furca caedere was the normal form of slave execution.
The f. and the sub furca virgis caedere are sometimes also applied to free persons; in Suetonius (Nero 49) it is explained to Nero when asked that the supplicium more maiorum recognized by the senate against him consists in the inseri furcae, caedi virgis ad necem, and in Aurelius. Vict. ep. 5, the Senate expressly imposes this penalty with reference to the mos maiorum. Recently, Mommsen also considered the virgis caedere to be the oldest 'magistrate form of execution of the free citizen' and identified it with the punishment of crucifixion. This view is untenable. First of all, the pontifical execution of the vestal virgin's paramour must be ruled out; here it comes to virgis ad necem caedere (Liv. XXII 57. Suet. Dom. 8. Dionys. Hal. ant. VIII 89. IX 40) and according to one testimony (Dion in Zonar. VII 8. above) also used the f., but that is a very singular execution (like the vestal virgin herself being buried alive) and does not belong in the area of public criminal law, but in the area of domestic breeding (Mommsen: the vestal virgin is a house daughter of the community). Leaving aside this special case, all other reports showing the application of the f. to free persons refer to cases of perduellio (state crimes): Liv. I 26. Cic. per Rab. 15th Liv. ep. 55. Suet. nope 49 (hostem se iudicatum). Aurelius. Vict. ep. 5. Precisely here, however, an application of a procedure that otherwise only occurs with slaves [307] is not conspicuous because, according to the Roman idea, the perduellis already resigns from the citizens' association through his act and joins the circle of enemies of the country (Mommsen criminal law 590), the Use of the f. shows that the exit has already taken place. Incidentally, in these cases the virgis sub furca caedere, contrary to the assurances of Nero's advisors, is probably not the capital punishment itself, but only the preparation for the capital punishment (execution or enslavement, on the latter Liv. ep. 55). Specifically about the typical Horatian process, see Art. Crux.
Finally, the f. is frequently mentioned as a death penalty in the Digests; it has been used here by Justinian's compilers instead of the crux spoken of by the classical jurists. The change is related to the abolition of the penalty of the cross; the f. punishment of the later imperial period (replacement of crucifixion) is now a death penalty, execution by hanging on a gallows, which has the shape of the fork standing upright (tines pointing upwards) (Pauly-Wissowa VII,1, 0307a.jpg) ; instead of the tollere in crucem, the εἰς φούρκαν ἀναρτᾶν now appears, see Harmenope. man. Leg. VI 6, 25. VI 8, 2, and above Art. Crux.
Literature. s.d. Lit. to Art. Crux and also Marquardt Privatleben der Römer I 181ff. Pernice Ztschr. Savigny Foundation XVII 215. Mommsen Rom. Penal Code 918ff. Hot Switzerland. Ztschr. f. criminal law XIII 223ff. Art. crux (Saglio) and f. (Blanchet) in Daremberg et Saglio's Dictionnaire des antiq. grecq. et rom. (with several illustrations).