The breaking wheel, also known as the Catherine wheel or simply the wheel, was a torture device used for capital punishment in the Middle Ages and early modern times for public execution by bludgeoning to death. It was used during the Middle Ages and was still in use into the 19th century.
Read more about Breaking Wheel: Description and Uses, Metaphorical Uses, Coats of Arms With Catherine Wheels, Gallery
Famous quotes containing the words breaking and/or wheel:
“The defects and faults of the mind are like wounds in the body; after all imaginable care has been taken to heal them up, still there will be a scar left behind, and they are in continual danger of breaking the skin and bursting out again.”
—François, Duc De La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680)
“But if you know that you are a man too, and that even such are those that rule, learn this first of all: that all human affairs are a wheel which, as it turns, does not allow the same men always to be fortunate.”
—Herodotus (c. 484–424 B.C.)