Damm! What a brutal way to take someone's life.
"......sentenced to death by sawing."
Why not just stab the person in the heart and be done with it?

@mobbs, I remember the story of Caligula very vividly because i had previously read about the vile Roman entity. His acts of torture and wickedness took gruesome to a whole new level.
There is even a movie about him titled "Caligula".

However, the movie focused not so much on the vile tortures he meted out, but a lot more on the very immoral activities that were carried out during his time which Caligula obviously enjoyed. You would need to see the movie to grasp the level of psychological accident that dude's brain must have suffered as a child, which led him to commit so many heinous acts.

There were two scenes that depicted very gruesome ways to murder someone though. One in particular was a special type of head mowers.....which chopped off heads of people on a death field, so to say. And I dare say, it is better watched than retold.

It's an old movie but its vivid depiction of the vile acts of those times led to the film being banned in so many countries.

I just checked and strangely, i still have the movie...not proud of it though...but from the tone of your write-up, you seem like you'd enjoy the movie @mobbs.