Taking readers into the ancient Roman coliseum, the medieval dungeon, the Inquisitional interrogation, the auto-da-fe, the witch-trial, and the most horrid of prisons, this is an exploration of the systematic use throughout the ages of various means of punishment, torture, coercion, and torment. It is a shocking and compelling study of the shameful methods and motives of the torturer and the executioner, and of the heinous duty they have performed through the ages. Since the earliest times it is an acknowledged fact that anyone can be made to confess to anything under torture, making such confessions inadmissible. This history of pain questions why such practices have continued for so long.