DiotimosReading Desk

Law

Torment and punitive death

supplice

Supplice covers severe bodily punishment or execution, with the local context determining its cruelty.

From the book

The Gods Are Athirst

Anatole France · Diotimos Editions · 2026

Browse this book’s lexicon →

Meaning

Lemma.

Supplice covers severe bodily punishment or execution, with the local context determining its cruelty. The crowd, finding the guillotine too gentle for Marat’s assassin, demands whipping, the wheel and quartering. Herman later celebrates the suppression of degrading or cruel punishments. The contrast shows punitive passion returning to forms reformers claim to have left behind.

Places to read

  1. Chapter VII, paragraph 55Frenchvouaient la criminelle au supplice: Consigned the criminal to torment. The crowd demands worse than the guillotine.
  2. Chapter IX, paragraph 2Frenchdes supplices ignominieux ou cruels: Degrading or cruel punishments. Herman praises their abolition while retaining capital punishment for state offences.