“In Cicero’s accounts it has been read that Cotta was hit by an artillery ballista as he was strolling through the streets of a Gallic village. Evidence shows a misfire from an artillery examination headed right toward him and the projectile impaled him through the back. To cover up the catastrophe the soldiers who fired the ballista claimed that Gallic Druids committed the crime. But they were convicted and sentenced to death by lamping, an elaborate form of execution which involves the family members of the deceased hurling lamps at the criminals until they die.”

One of the more unusual methods of execution I’ve seen.