The garrote () is known to have been used in the first century BC in Rome. It is referred to in accounts of the Second Catilinian Conspiracy, where conspirators including Publius Cornelius Lentulus Sura were strangled with a "laqueus" in the Tullianum, and the implement is shown in some early reliefs, e.g., "Répertoire de Reliefs grecs et romains", tome I, p. 341 (1919). It was also used in the Middle Ages in Spain and Portugal. It was employed during the "conquista" of the Americas, notably in the execution of the Inca emperor Atahualpa.