According to Brierre de Boismont, voluntary mutilation or
death was very rare among the Chaldeans, the Persians, or the
Hebrews, their precepts being different from those mentioned. The
Hebrews in particular had an aversion to self-murder, and during
a period in their history of 4000 years there were only eight or
ten suicides recorded. Josephus shows what a marked influence on
suicides the invasion of the Romans among the Hebrews had.
In Africa, as in India, there were Gymnosophists. In Egypt
Sesostris, the grandest king of the country, having lost his
eyesight in his old age, calmly and deliberately killed himself.
About the time of Mark Anthony and Cleopatra, particularly after
the battle of Actium, suicide was in great favor in Egypt. In
fact a great number of persons formed an academy called The
Synapothanoumenes, who had for their object the idea of dying
together. In Western Europe, as shown in the ceremonies of the
Druids, we find among the Celts a propensity for suicide and an
indifference to self-torture. The Gauls were similarly minded,
believing in the dogma of immortality and eternal repose. They
thought little of bodily cares and ills. In Greece and Rome there
was always an apology for suicide and death in the books of the
philosophers.
Pages:
1493
1494
1495
1496
1497
1498
1499
1500
1501
1502
1503
1504
1505
1506
1507
1508
1509
1510
1511
1512
1513
1514
1515
1516
1517