We will not turn to the testimony of Gaius Tracchus, the military tribune who, has we all know, later wrote the detailed account of Tullius' glorious campaign in Gallia Belgica.
'The lictor swung the fearsome implement with all his might and the first blow landed on the woman’s back. Her shapely body contorded in pain as three red stripes appeared over her shoulders. The call of 'ONE!' echoed throughout the yard.
By the third blow, the Queen seemed to leap almost out of her bonds and a gasp could be heard escaping her lips. By the sixth blow, she began sobbing and trembling, but still somehow managed not to scream. It changed with the eigth blow, which viciously lashed her right tit, squashing the tender flesh on the wooden post. This time, a scream of sheer pain filled the air. Before each stroke, the scourge was plunged into the salt water and starting with the thirteenth one, she was moaning loudly and continuously, crying out and convulsing in pain at every lash. The next blow landed across her buttocks, making her squirm in a most suggestive way. The assembled legionnaries cheered and laughed out loud at the sight.The sixteenth blow caused dropplets of blood to fly from her back and ass and she let out a terrible howl.
The women knowned as Eulalia and Dorothea had tears in their eyes now, and were alternatively shouting words of encouragement to their Queen and cursing us.
As the nineteenth blow fell on her bloodied back, cruelly biting the flesh of her left breast, the woman sank in her bonds and seemed to lose consciousness. Her body was now fully supported by the rope around her wrists. A lictor took a cup of vinegar wine and forced it down her throat, causing her to cough and choke as she regained her senses.'
(credits: very freely adapted from a scene of a very old story, Uthur's Four Days of Torment)
