Thanks to Lucian, the 2nd century AD satirist, we know quite a bit about the torture machine known as "the brass bull of Perilaus" or "the bull of Phalaris".
The sculptor Perilaos between 570-560 BC.
he made to the order of the tyrant Phalaris, a brass bull that could fit an entire man inside. When they lit a fire under the bull, the one inside was roasted alive and his voice were heard, through a special mechanism, like the bellowing of the bull.
When he first presented his invention to the tyrant of Acragantas of Sicily, he ordered Perilaus to be put inside the bull and made his first victim.
It was a fitting end for the inventor of such the diabolical machine.
Illustration and drawing from the Museum of Torture in Bruges, Belgium.
