382 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1730. 



represented a man siispende-d on the eqiiuleus : and on more attentively con- 

 sidering the matter, and more carefully inquiring into the passages in ancient 

 authors, where mention is made of the equuleus, and diligently comparing 

 them with this figure, he plainly discovered not only the mistakes of modern 

 writers on that head, but as he thought, the causes of their mistakes. 



Some have erroneously confounded the equuleus with the crux or cross: but 

 this latter was a kind of gibbet, to which slaves and others of mean condition 

 were afBxed, and punished with death: whereas on the equuleus the torture 

 was applied in order to extort confession. 



But among the various opinions, Mr. Ward selects only two, as coming 

 nearest the truth. The one, that of Hieronymus Magius dc Equul. c. 1, who 

 rightly judged it to have been made in the shape of a horse. The other, that 

 of Caracciolus, apud Ferrar. Elect, 1. 1, c. 5, who, no less rightly, judged it 

 to have been an erect stake. Now Mr. Ward endeavours to show, that both 

 were mistaken (not to mention other errors) in imagining that the equuleus 

 was always of the same form. 



In the more early times the equuleus was in some measure made like a horse, 

 with its back flatted and of such length and breadth, as that a man's body might 

 be conveniently extended on it: and he who was to be tortured, did not sit, 

 but lay on his back, with his arms writhed back under the equuleus's breast, 

 his hands bound and feet extended. The equuleus was provided with two 

 pulleys of different sizes; the lesser placed between the buttocks, made hollow 

 to receive it ; and the larger, with a handle to it, under the belly. The exe- 

 cutioner after tying both feet with cords, passed the cords over the smaller 

 pulley, and fastened them to the larger one; which last as he turned round 

 with the handle, he could stretch the body, till all the joints were loosened, 

 and that with the most exquisite pain. 



In the next place Mr. Ward produces the testimonies of ancient authors, 

 that may confirm this description. The very name seems pretty plainly to 

 show that the equuleus was shaped like a horse; as there is at this day among 

 us, such another sort of machine for military punishments, called the wooden 

 horse: and the same thing is manifest from those modes of speech, borrowed 

 from the horse and applied to the equuleus. 



The equuleus, as had been said, had not always the form of a horse; but in 

 latter ages was changed into a quite different one; but though it changed its 

 figure, it still retained the name, a thing not uncommon: for, not to mention 

 other instances, that warlike engine, which from its resemblance, to a ram's 

 head, was called aries, had not always the form, from which it originally look 

 its name. 



