Mithridates, a soldier who claimed credit for killing the King’s rival, Cyrus the Younger, sealed his fate during a drunken outburst. By claiming the King’s victory was accidental, he threatened the legitimacy of the throne. Artaxerxes II, seeking to turn the soldier into a living warning, ordered a punishment that would erase the man’s dignity and life in the most public and painful way possible.

The method of scaphism was a calculated form of biological warfare against a single human body. The process involved:

• Sealing the victim between two hollowed-out wooden boats.
• Exposing only the head, hands, and feet.
• Forced consumption of a mixture of milk and honey to induce severe diarrhea.
• Smearing the victim’s face and limbs with the same mixture to attract insects.

This setup ensured the victim remained trapped in their own waste, creating a breeding ground for parasites.

As the sun beat down on the Babylonian landscape, the victim’s body became a site of rapid decomposition. The combination of heat, waste, and honey attracted flies that laid eggs within the victim’s flesh. This condition, known as myiasis, meant that larvae began to consume the soldier from the inside out while he remained fully conscious. For more on the dark side of human history, see The Cadaver Synod.

The executioners were careful to keep the victim alive for as long as possible, often force-feeding him to sustain his heart rate. This prolonged the agony, turning the victim into a vessel for pain that lasted for over two weeks. It serves as a grim reminder of the extremes of human cruelty, much like the rituals explored in Bullet Ant Ritual: The Sateré-Mawé Rite of Passage.