This was a very ancient punishment, practiced among different nations.
In Greece, according to the Delphian law, those who were guilty of sacrilege were punished in this manlier. The Romans also inflicted the same punishment for various offenses. Among the Turks and the Persians a similar mode of capital punishment was adopted. Selden has suggested that the mode of Jezebel’s death is an illustration of this custom (2 Kings 9:3333And he said, Throw her down. So they threw her down: and some of her blood was sprinkled on the wall, and on the horses: and he trode her under foot. (2 Kings 9:33)).