Note 86 — VII ROME
W. G. (William George) Waters translation
The employment of fowls in this connection was generally curative. Pepys writes, in describing the treatment of a half-drowned man (vol. vii. p. 288, ed. 1896), “and they did lay pigeons to his feet while I was in the house, and all despair of him and with good reason.” In the case of these criminals the remedy may have been applied to revive them for the next stage of the torture.