Execution has been and still is a tried and true method of silencing critics. Consider the case of Marcus Tullius Cicero, the gadfly of the Roman senate.  A remarkably gifted rhetorician, his agile and biting tongue was silenced by an affronted Marc Anthony, who had the eloquent orator beheaded.  As the Roman historian Appian later related: Cicero's head and hand were fastened for a long time to the rostra in the forum, where he had previously played the popular leader, and more came to see the sight than had listened to him. It is said that Anthony had the head placed before the table at his meals, until he was sated with looking at the vile object. Leaders of modern democracies and republics, most of which have been and are still committed to some freedom of speech, have generally refrained from beheading outspoken critics outright. But there are ways of silencing people that, though subtler than execution, are almost as effective as death by...(Read Full Article)