Flies, wasps, and gadflies

Flies, wasps, and gadflies turn Ambrogiuolo of Piacenza’s sentence into its execution. In the story’s closing image, the insects consume the honey-smeared deceiver at his stake, and the bones left hanging there preserve the public memory of his crime.

The Sentence and Its Setting

The Soldan orders Ambrogiuolo bound to a stake, smeared with honey, and exposed in a high place in the city. He is not to be released until he falls of himself. The insects are part of the sentence’s setting as well as its means of punishment: the narrator notes that the country abounds in flies, wasps, and gadflies.

The Punishment’s Outcome

The sentence is carried out that same day. The insects devour Ambrogiuolo, and the account presents their attack as the cause of his death and the punishment’s completion. The honey, the exposed stake, and the abundance of insects combine to make the sentence both bodily torment and a spectacle.

A Lasting Public Witness

The punishment does not end with Ambrogiuolo’s death. His bones, whitened and still hanging by their sinews, remain unremoved for a long time, visible to all who pass. The insects thus help transform the deceiver’s fate into a public warning: their work leaves behind a sign that continues to testify to his villainy, while the story closes by placing the deceiver beneath the power of the person he deceived.