6. Suffocation in ash
There are several methods of execution that used suffocation, but we picked this one mainly for its brutality. The first recorded victim of suffocation in ash was a Persian nobleman Sogdianus, in the fifth century. He was sentenced to death for the murder of his half-brother, King Xerxes II. A room was filled with ash and Sogdanus was thrown into it. Specially designed wheels kept ash whirling around, slowly filling his lungs as kept inhaling the fine particles and eventually suffocating him. In the 15th century, Aztec rulers used suffocation in ash as a punishment for homosexual relationships.
