the punishment of beating with sticks. It is also called tympanum, [a drum,] because the patient was beaten like a drum. Upwards of a hundred blows were often inflicted, and sometimes the beating was unto death. St. Paul, Hebrews 11:25 , says that some of the saints were tortured, τυμπανιζω , suffered the tympanum, that is, were stretched on an instrument of torture, and beaten to death.