An iron maiden is shown and described as a medieval torture device, but it is now accepted that there was, in fact, no such device--there is no evidence of the existence of iron maidens before the early 19th century. Professor Wolfgang Schild of Bielefeld University in Germany has argued that iron maidens were pieced together from orphaned artifacts in order to create interesting objects intended for commercial exhibition. Several of these 19th-century iron maidens are on display in museums around the world. The 19th-century iron maidens may have been inspired by actual objects, such as the medieval Schandmantel (in English, "coat of shame"), a wearable instrument of punishment made of wood and sheet metal, but without spikes. Inspiration for the iron maiden may also have come from surviving accounts of the execution of Roman consul Marcus Atilius Regulus, in 250 BCE, during the First Punic War between Rome and Carthage. The Carthaginians reportedly "packed [Regulus] into a tight wooden box, spiked with sharp nails on all sides so that he could not lean in any direction without being pierced." Iron maidens also resemble the Apega of Nabis (also known as the Iron Apega), described by the ancient Greek historian Polybius as an ancient torture device similar to the iron maiden invented by Nabis, a king who ruled Sparta as a tyrant from 207 to 192 BCE.