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Executioner’s knife
This knife with a spiral bronze handle surmounted by a lion’s head was used by the Rome executioner. The sheath is leather with bronze trimming.
The executioner used this knife for mutilation, a sentence usually reserved for the poor who had no means of paying high fines. In some cases, the executioner gouged out eyes, and cut off ears and noses. Thieves caught red-handed had their left hand cut off the first time, and their right hand if they committed the crime again.
Provenance: Rome, Museo di Castel Sant’ Angelo, 1934
