in his Opinion, they ought, on this Occasion, to follow the Example of the ancient Romans, who having no Law against Parricide […] adjudg’d the guilty Wretch to be thrown alive, sew’d up in a Sack, into the Tyber. […] As he look’d upon the Contrivers and Executors of the villainous South Sea Scheme, as the Parricides of their Country, he should be satisfy’d to see them undergo the same Punishment.
No specific mention of snakes, but that was part of the Roman “punishment of the sack”.
Robert Molesworth in a session on 12th August 1720:
No specific mention of snakes, but that was part of the Roman “punishment of the sack”.