1-217-927 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

'Perillus condemned to the bronze bull by Phalaris', 16th century, (1870). A wood engraving of Phalaris (c570 BC), tyrant of Agrigentum in Sicily, who commissioned Perillus of Athens to make a brazen bull in which to execute criminals. They were shut up inside it and then baked alive when fires were lit underneath. Phalaris tested out the vile invention on Perillus who became the first victim of his own ingenuity. Phalaris was eventually overthrown by a popular uprising and he in turn met his end inside the bull.