Salto di Tiberio

The Salto di Tiberio is the modern Italian name for "Tiberius' Leap," the unofficial name for the place on the Villa Iovis from which Tiberius threw people off the island . . . literally. Suetonius writes that Tiberius would have insurgents (or suspected insurgents) tortured brutally at the villa, and then he would have them thrown off the cliff -- about 900 feet -- straight down into the water. Sailors then waited in boats below to whack the bodies with oars and boat hooks to ensure that they were dead.