He sent forth an executioner ( σπεκουλάτωρα); literally, a soldier of his guard; one of his body-guard, in constant attendance as messenger or executioner. It is a Roman word from speculari, to watch.
St. Jerome relates that when the head of the Baptist was brought, Herodias barbarously thrust the tongue through with a bodkin, as Fulvia is said to have done over and over again, the tongue of Cicero; thus verifying what Cicero had once said while living, that "nothing is more revengeful than a woman."
Because they could not bear to hear the truth, therefore they bored through with a bodkin the tongue that had spoken the truth.