Crucifixion

== History and religious texts ==
=== Pre-Roman states ===
Crucifixion (or impalement), in one form or another, was used by [[Achaemenid Persia|Persians]], [[Carthaginians]], and among the Greeks, the [[Ancient Macedonians|Macedonians]].

The Greeks were generally opposed to performing crucifixions.<ref>[http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/LX/Stavros.html Stavros, Scolops (σταῦρός, σκόλοψ). The cross]; {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110628183300/http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/LX/Stavros.html |date=2011-06-28 }} encyclopedia Hellinica</ref> However, in his ''Histories'', ix.120–122, Greek writer [[Herodotus]] describes the execution of a Persian general at the hands of Athenians in about 479 BC: "They nailed him to a plank and hung him up&nbsp;... this [[Artayctes]] who suffered death by crucifixion."<ref>Translation by Aubrey de Selincourt. The original, "σανίδα προσπασσαλεύσαντες, ἀνεκρέμασαν&nbsp;... Τούτου δὲ τοῦ Ἀρταύκτεω τοῦ ἀνακρεμασθέντος&nbsp;...", is translated by Henry Cary (Bohn's Classical Library: ''Herodotus Literally Translated''. London, G. Bell and Sons 1917, pp.&nbsp;591–592) as: "They nailed him to a plank and hoisted him aloft&nbsp;... this Artayctes who was hoisted aloft".</ref> The ''Commentary on Herodotus'' by How and Wells remarks: "They crucified him with hands and feet stretched out and nailed to cross-pieces; cf. vii.33. This barbarity, unusual on the part of Greeks, may be explained by the enormity of the outrage or by Athenian deference to local feeling."<ref>W.W. How and J. Wells, ''A Commentary on Herodotus'' (Clarendon Press, Oxford 1912), vol. 2, p. 336</ref>
[[File:Illustrations pour Salammbô Poirson Victor-Armand.jpeg|thumb|upright=0.8|left|alt=A black-and-white painting showing five men, two in armour, crucified in front of a city|A nineteenth-century depiction of the crucifixion of rebel leaders by the [[Ancient Carthage|Carthaginians]] in 238 BC]]
Some Christian [[theologian]]s, beginning with [[Paul the Apostle|Paul]] of [[Tarsus, Mersin|Tarsus]] writing in [[Galatians 3:13]], have interpreted an allusion to crucifixion in [[Deuteronomy]] {{bibleverse-nb||Deut|21:22–23}}. This reference is to being hanged from a tree, and may be associated with [[lynching]] or traditional hanging. However, Rabbinic law limited capital punishment to just 4 methods of execution: stoning, burning, strangulation, and decapitation, while the passage in Deuteronomy was interpreted as an obligation to hang the corpse on a tree as a form of deterrence.<ref>See Mishnah, Sanhedrin 7:1, translated in Jacob Neusner, The Mishnah: A New Translation 591 (1988), supra note 8, at 595–596 (indicating that court ordered execution by stoning, burning, decapitation, or strangulation only)</ref> The fragmentary Aramaic Testament of Levi (DSS 4Q541) interprets in column 6: "God ... (partially legible)-''will set'' ... right errors. ... (partially legible)-''He will judge'' ... revealed sins. Investigate and seek and know how Jonah wept. Thus, you shall not destroy the weak by wasting away or by ... (partially legible)-''crucifixion'' ... Let not the nail touch him."<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/scrolls_deadsea/uncovered/uncovered05.htm| title = Levi,''Aramaic Testament of Levi'' 4Q541 column 6}}</ref>

The Jewish king [[Alexander Jannaeus]], king of Judea from 103 to 76 BCE, crucified 800 rebels, said to be [[Pharisees]], in the middle of Jerusalem.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pbpSjsz_uY8C&pg=PA46 |first=Wenhua |last=Shi |title=Paul's Message of the Cross As Body Language |publisher=Mohr Siebeck |year=2008 |isbn=978-3-16-149706-3 |page=46}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/deadseascrollsbi0000vand |url-access=registration |first=James C. |last=VanderKam |title=The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Bible |publisher=Eerdmans |year=2012 |isbn=978-0-8028-6679-0 |page=[https://archive.org/details/deadseascrollsbi0000vand/page/110 110]}}</ref>

[[Alexander the Great]] is reputed to have crucified 2,000 survivors from [[Siege of Tyre (332 BC)|his siege]] of the [[Phoenicia]]n city of [[Tyre, Lebanon|Tyre]],<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.livius.org/aj-al/alexander/alexander_t09.html| title = Quintus Curtius Rufus, ''History of Alexander the Great of Macedonia'' 4.4.21| access-date = 2020-03-26| archive-date = 2016-04-08| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160408155932/http://www.livius.org/aj-al/alexander/alexander_t09.html| url-status = dead}}</ref> as well as the doctor who unsuccessfully treated Alexander's lifelong friend [[Hephaestion]]. Some historians have also conjectured that Alexander crucified [[Callisthenes]], his official historian and biographer, for objecting to Alexander's adoption of the Persian ceremony of [[Proskynesis|royal adoration]].

In [[Carthage]], crucifixion was an established mode of execution, which could even be imposed on generals for suffering a major defeat.<ref>{{cite book| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h-VlDC4Jt6gC&pg=PT92|first=Richard A.|last=Gabriel |title=Hannibal |publisher=Potomac Books|year=2011|isbn=978-1-59797-766-1}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/ahistoryrometoe01liddgoog|first=Henry George|last=Liddell|title=A History of Rome|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1855|page=[https://archive.org/details/ahistoryrometoe01liddgoog/page/n322 302]}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o_pZEpbG498C&pg=PA23|first=Robin|last=Waterfield|title=Polybius. The Histories|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2010|isbn=978-0-19-953470-8|page=23}}</ref>

The oldest crucifixion may be a post-mortem one mentioned by Herodotus. [[Polycrates]], the tyrant of [[Samos]], was put to death in 522 BCE by the Persians, and his dead body was then crucified.<ref>Herodotus, ''Histories'', {{Herodotus|en|3|125}} ("Having killed him in some way not fit to be told, Oroetes then crucified him")</ref>{{Clear}}

=== Ancient Rome ===

==== History ====

The Greek and Latin words corresponding to "crucifixion" applied to many different forms of painful execution, including being impaled on a stake, or affixed to a tree, upright pole (a [[crux simplex]]), or to a combination of an upright (in Latin, ''stipes'') and a crossbeam (in Latin, ''patibulum''). Seneca the Younger wrote: "I see crosses there, not just of one kind but made in many different ways: some have their victims with head down to the ground; some impale their private parts; others stretch out their arms on the gibbet".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/sen/sen.consolatione2.shtml|title=Dialogue "To Marcia on Consolation", 6.20.3 |publisher=[[The Latin Library]] |language=la|website=googleusercontent.com}}</ref>

Crucifixion was generally performed within Ancient Rome as a means to dissuade others from perpetrating similar crimes, with victims sometimes left on display after death as a warning. Crucifixion was intended to provide a death that was particularly slow, painful (hence the term ''excruciating'', literally "out of crucifying"), gruesome, humiliating, and public, using whatever means were most expedient for that goal. Crucifixion methods varied considerably with location and period.

One hypothesis suggested that the [[Ancient Rome|Ancient Roman]] custom of crucifixion may have developed out of a primitive custom of ''arbori suspendere''—hanging on an ''[[Glossary of ancient Roman religion#arbor felix|arbor infelix]]'' ("inauspicious tree") dedicated to the gods of the nether world. This hypothesis is rejected by William A. Oldfather, who shows that this form of execution (the ''supplicium more maiorum'', punishment in accordance with the custom of our ancestors) consisted of suspending someone from a tree, not dedicated to any particular gods, and flogging him to death.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/secondary/journals/TAPA/39/Supplicium_de_More_Maiorum*.html|title=Livy I.26 and the Supplicium de More Maiorum|publisher=Penelope.uchicago.edu|access-date=2009-12-19}}</ref> [[Tertullian]] mentions a 1st-century AD case in which trees were used for crucifixion,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.grtbooks.com/exitfram.asp?idx=3&yr=200&aa=AA&at=AA&ref=tertullian&URL=http://www.tertullian.org/latin/apologeticus.htm |title=''Apologia'', IX, 1 |publisher=Grtbooks.com|access-date=2009-12-19}}</ref> but Seneca the Younger earlier used the phrase ''infelix lignum'' (unfortunate wood) for the transom ("patibulum") or the whole cross.<ref>After quoting a poem by [[Maecenas]] that speaks of preferring life to death even when life is burdened with all the disadvantages of old age or even with acute torture ("vel acuta si sedeam cruce"), Seneca disagrees with the sentiment, saying death would be better for a crucified person hanging from the patibulum: "I should deem him most despicable had he wished to live to the point of crucifixion&nbsp;... Is it worth so much to weigh down upon one's own wound, and hang stretched out from a patibulum?&nbsp;... Is anyone found who, after being fastened to that accursed wood, already weakened, already deformed, swelling with ugly weals on shoulders and chest, with many reasons for dying even before getting to the cross, would wish to prolong a life-breath that is about to experience so many torments?" ("Contemptissimum putarem, si vivere vellet usque ad crucem&nbsp;... Est tanti vulnus suum premere et patibulo pendere districtum&nbsp;... Invenitur, qui velit adactus ad illud infelix lignum, iam debilis, iam pravus et in foedum scapularum ac pectoris tuber elisus, cui multae moriendi causae etiam citra crucem fuerant, trahere animam tot tormenta tracturam?" – [http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/sen/seneca.ep17-18.shtml Letter 101, 12–14])</ref> [[Plautus]] and [[Plutarch]] are the two main sources for accounts of criminals carrying their own patibula to the upright ''stipes''.<ref>Titus Maccius Plautus ''Miles gloriosus'' Mason Hammond, Arthur M. Mack – 1997 p. 109, "The patibulum (in the next line) was a crossbar which the convicted criminal carried on his shoulders, with his arms fastened to it, to the place for&nbsp;... Hoisted up on an upright post, the patibulum became the crossbar of the cross"</ref>

Notorious mass crucifixions followed the [[Third Servile War]] in 73–71 BCE (the slave rebellion led by [[Spartacus]]), and other [[Roman civil wars]] in the 2nd and 1st centuries BCE. [[Crassus]] ordered the crucifixion of 6,000 of Spartacus' followers who had been hunted down and captured after the slave defeat in battle.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Appian/Civil_Wars/1*.html#120|title=Appian • The Civil Wars{{snd}}Book I|website=penelope.uchicago.edu}}</ref> Josephus says that in the siege that led to the [[destruction of Jerusalem]] in AD 70, the Roman soldiers crucified Jewish captives before the walls of Jerusalem and out of anger and hatred amused themselves by nailing them in different positions.<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0148%3Abook%3D5%3Awhiston+chapter%3D11%3Awhiston+section%3D1| title = Josephus, ''The War of the Jews'', book 5, chapter 11}}</ref>

In some cases, the condemned was forced to carry the crossbeam to the place of execution.<ref name=":2">{{cite EB1911 |wstitle=Cross and Crucifixion |volume=7 |page=506 |first=Thomas Macall |last=Fallow |author-link=Thomas Macall Fallow}}</ref> A whole cross would weigh well over 135&nbsp;kg (300&nbsp;lb), but the crossbeam would not be as burdensome, weighing around 45&nbsp;kg (100&nbsp;lb).<ref name=Mississippi>{{cite journal|last=Ball|first=DA|title=The crucifixion and death of a man called Jesus|journal=Journal of the Mississippi State Medical Association|year=1989|volume=30|issue=3|pages=77–83|pmid=2651675}}</ref> The Roman historian [[Tacitus]] records that the city of Rome had a specific place for carrying out executions, situated outside the [[Esquiline Gate]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/tacitus/tac.ann2.shtml#32 |title=Annales 2:32.2 |publisher=Thelatinlibrary.com |access-date=2009-12-19}}</ref> and had a specific area reserved for the execution of [[Slavery in ancient Rome|slaves]] by crucifixion.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/tacitus/tac.ann15.shtml#60 |title=Annales 15:60.1 |publisher=Thelatinlibrary.com |access-date=2009-12-19}}</ref> Upright posts would presumably be fixed permanently in that place, and the crossbeam, with the condemned person perhaps already nailed to it, would then be attached to the post.

The person executed may have been attached to the cross by rope, though nails and other sharp materials are mentioned in a passage by Josephus, where he states that at the Siege of Jerusalem (70 CE), "the soldiers out of rage and hatred, ''nailed'' those they caught, one after one way, and another after another, to the crosses, by way of jest".<ref>{{cite web|last1=Flavius|first1=Josephus|title=Jewish War, Book V Chapter 11|url=http://www.ccel.org/j/josephus/works/war-5.htm|publisher=ccel.org|access-date=1 June 2015}}</ref> Objects used in the crucifixion of criminals, such as nails, were sought as [[amulets]] with perceived medicinal qualities.<ref>Mishna, Shabbath 6.10: see [https://books.google.com/books?id=EdbdQ-5fMr0C&pg=PA182 David W. Chapman, ''Ancient Jewish and Christian Perceptions of Crucifixion''] (Mohn Siebeck 2008 {{ISBN|978-3-16-149579-3}}), p. 182</ref>

While a crucifixion was an execution, it was also a humiliation, by making the condemned as vulnerable as possible. Although artists have traditionally depicted the figure on a cross with a loin cloth or a covering of the genitals, the person being crucified was usually stripped naked. Writings by Seneca the Younger state some victims suffered a stick forced upwards through their groin.<ref name="Seneca 1946">Seneca, Dialogue "To Marcia on Consolation", in ''Moral Essays'', 6.20.3, trans. John W. Basore, The Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1946) 2:69</ref><ref>[[Wikisource:Of Consolation: To Marcia#XX.]]</ref> Despite its frequent use by the Romans, the horrors of crucifixion did not escape criticism by some eminent Roman orators. [[Cicero]], for example, described crucifixion as "a most cruel and disgusting punishment",<ref>{{cite book|last=Licona|first=Michael|title=The Resurrection of Jesus: A New Historiographical Approach|year=2010|publisher=InterVarsity Press|isbn=978-0-8308-2719-0|oclc=620836940|author-link=Michael Licona|page=304}}</ref> and suggested that "the very mention of the cross should be far removed not only from a Roman citizen's body, but from his mind, his eyes, his ears".<ref>{{cite book|last=Conway|first=Colleen M.|title=Behold the Man: Jesus and Greco-Roman Masculinity |year=2008 |publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-532532-4|page=67}} (citing Cicero, ''pro Rabirio Perduellionis Reo'' [http://perseus.uchicago.edu/perseus-cgi/citequery3.pl?dbname=PerseusLatinTexts&getid=1&query=Cic.%20Rab.%20Perd.%2019 5.16] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304023505/http://perseus.uchicago.edu/perseus-cgi/citequery3.pl?dbname=PerseusLatinTexts&getid=1&query=Cic.%20Rab.%20Perd.%2019 |date=2016-03-04 }}).</ref> Elsewhere he says, "It is a crime to bind a Roman citizen; to scourge him is a wickedness; to put him to death is almost parricide. What shall I say of crucifying him? So guilty an action cannot by any possibility be adequately expressed by any name bad enough for it."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0018:text=Ver.:actio=2:book=5:section=170|title=M. Tullius Cicero, Against Verres, actio 2, The Fifth Book of the Second Pleading in the Prosecution against Verres., section 170|website=www.perseus.tufts.edu}}</ref>

Frequently, the legs of the person executed were broken or shattered with an iron [[Club (weapon)|club]], an act called ''crurifragium'', which was also frequently applied without crucifixion to slaves.<ref name="Wine">{{cite journal|last=Koskenniemi|first=Erkki|author2=Kirsi Nisula|author3=Jorma Toppari|title=Wine Mixed with Myrrh (Mark 15.23) and Crurifragium (John 19.31–32): Two Details of the Passion Narratives|journal=Journal for the Study of the New Testament|volume=27|issue=4|pages=379–391|year=2005|url=http://jnt.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/27/4/379|doi=10.1177/0142064X05055745|s2cid=170143075|access-date=2008-06-13|archive-date=2009-01-22|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090122113929/http://jnt.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/27/4/379|url-status=dead}}</ref> This act hastened the death of the person but was also meant to [[Punishment#Deterrence|deter]] those who observed the crucifixion from committing offenses.<ref name="Wine" />

[[Constantine I|Constantine the Great]], the first Christian [[Roman Empire|emperor]], abolished crucifixion in the Roman Empire in 337 out of veneration for [[Jesus Christ]], its most famous victim.<ref name="britannica">{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9028045|title=Encyclopædia Britannica Online: crucifixion|author=Encyclopædia Britannica|encyclopedia=Britannica.com|access-date=2009-12-19}}</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=GGJmFIf6mtIC Dictionary of Images and Symbols in Counselling By William Stewart] 1998 {{ISBN|1-85302-351-5}}, p. 120</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bible-archaeology.info/crucifixion.htm|title=Archaeology of the Bible|publisher=Bible-archaeology.info|access-date=2009-12-19|archive-date=2010-03-05|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100305152404/http://www.bible-archaeology.info/crucifixion.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==== Society and law ====
{{multiple image
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| footer = The [[Alexamenos graffito]], a satirical representation of the Christian worship, depicting a man worshiping a crucified donkey (Rome, c AD 85 to 3rd century). It is inscribed ΑΛΕΞΑΜΕΝΟΣ (ΑΛΕΞΑΜΕΝΟϹ) ΣΕΒΕΤΕ (ϹΕΒΕΤΕ) ΘΕΟΝ, which translates as "Alexamenos respects god". Visible at the museum on the Palatine Hill, Rome, Italy (''left''). A modern-day tracing (''right'').
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Crucifixion was intended to be a gruesome spectacle: the most painful and humiliating death imaginable.<ref name=":7">{{Cite journal|last=Robison|first=John C.|date=June 2002|title=Crucifixion in the Roman World: The Use of Nails at the Time of Christ|url=https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1014&context=studiaantiqua|journal=Studia Antiqua|volume=2}}</ref><ref name=":9">{{Cite web|url=http://www.mercaba.org/FICHAS/upsa/crucifixion.htm|title=Crucifixion in Antiquity: The Evidence|last=Zias|first=Joseph|date=1998|website=www.mercaba.org|access-date=March 10, 2018}}</ref> It was used to punish [[Slavery in ancient Rome|slaves]], [[Pirate|pirates]], and enemies of the state. It was originally reserved for slaves (hence still called "supplicium servile" by Seneca), and later extended to citizens of the lower classes (''[[Roman Empire#Unequal justice|humiliores]]'').<ref name=":0" /> The victims of crucifixion were stripped naked<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{bibleverse||Matthew|27:35}}, {{bibleverse||Mark|15:24}}, {{bibleverse||Luke|23:34}}, {{bibleverse||John|19:23–25}}</ref> and put on public display<ref name=":8" /><ref name=":4" /> while they were slowly [[torture]]d to death so that they would serve as a [[Deterrence (legal)|spectacle and an example]].<ref name=":7" /><ref name=":9" />

According to Roman law, if a slave killed his or her owner, all of the owner's slaves would be crucified as punishment.<ref name=Barth>{{cite book |last1=Barth |first1=Markus |last2=Blanke |first2=Helmut |title=The Letter to Philemon: A New Translation with Notes and Commentary |date=2000 |publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing |isbn=978-0-8028-3829-2 |page=16 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W6l4jhzIg7oC&pg=PA16 |language=en}}</ref> Both men and women were crucified.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Barry |first1=Strauss |title=The Spartacus War |date=2009 |publisher=Simon & Schuster |isbn=978-1-4391-5839-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j3LowhKACVwC&pg=PA193 |page=193}}</ref><ref>{{cite Josephus |PACEJ = 1 | text=AJ |bookno=18 |chap=3 |sec=4}}</ref><ref name=":4">{{Cite book |title=Crucifixion in Antiquity: An Inquiry into the Background and Significance of the New Testament Terminology of Crucifixion |last=Samuelsson |first=Gunnar |publisher=Mohr Siebeck |year=2013 |isbn=978-3-16-152508-7 |pages=7}}</ref> Tacitus writes in his ''[[Annals (Tacitus)|Annals]]'' that when [[Lucius Pedanius Secundus]] was murdered by a slave, some in the Senate tried to prevent the mass crucifixion of four hundred of his slaves<ref name="Barth" /> because there were so many women and children, but in the end tradition prevailed and they were all executed.<ref>Tacitus. ''Annals'', Book 14, [[wikisource:The Annals (Tacitus)/Book 14#42|42–45]].</ref> Although not conclusive evidence for female crucifixion by itself, the most ancient image of a Roman crucifixion may depict a crucified woman, whether real or imaginary.{{efn|It is a graffito found in a taberna (hostel for wayfarers) in Puteoli, dating to the time of [[Trajan]] or [[Hadrian]] (late 1st century to early 2nd century AD). An inscription over the person's left shoulder reads "{{lang|grc|Ἀλκίμιλα}}" (Alkimila), a female name. It is not clear, however, whether the inscription was written by the same person who drew the picture, or added by another person later. It is also not known whether the grafitto is intended to depict an actual event, as distinguished from, perhaps, the writer's desire for someone to be crucified, or as a jest. As such, the grafitto does not itself provide conclusive evidence of female crucifixion.<ref name="Cook" />}} Crucifixion was such a gruesome and [[humiliating]] way to die that the subject was somewhat of a taboo in Roman culture, and few crucifixions were specifically documented. One of the only specific female crucifixions that are documented is that of Ida, a [[freedwoman]] (former slave) who was crucified by order of Tiberius.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Barry |first1=Strauss |title=The Spartacus War |date=2009 |publisher=Simon & Schuster |isbn=978-1-4391-5839-5}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Josephus|title=Josephus: Essential Writings|date=1990|publisher=Kregel Academic|pages=265}}</ref>

==== Process ====
Crucifixion was typically carried out by specialized teams, consisting of a commanding [[centurion]] and his soldiers.<ref name=":1" /> First, the condemned would be stripped naked<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|title=A Doctor at Calvary: The Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ as Described by a Surgeon|last=Barbet|first=P|publisher=Doubleday Image Books|year=1953|location=New York|pages=46–51}}</ref> and scourged.<ref name=":0" />{{Failed verification |date=November 2022 |reason=nothing in cited source about scourging, as a general practice or otherwise, associated with crucifixion}} This would cause the person to lose a large amount of blood, and approach a state of [[shock (circulatory)|shock]]. The convict then usually had to carry the horizontal beam (''patibulum'' in [[Latin]]) to the place of execution, but not necessarily the whole cross.<ref name=":0" />

During the death march, the prisoner, probably<ref>{{cite EB1911|wstitle=Cross and Crucifixion|volume=7|page=506|first=Thomas Macall|last=Fallow|author-link=Thomas Macall Fallow}} Macall believes that the person would be given back his or her clothing following the scourging.</ref> still [[nude]] after the scourging,<ref name=":1" /> would be led through the most crowded streets<ref name=":8">{{Cite web|url=http://cojs.org/joe-zias-crucifixion-in-antiquity-the-anthropological-evidence/|title=Crucifixion in Antiquity: The Anthropological Evidence|last=Zias|first=Joseph|date=2016-01-10|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180310074322/http://cojs.org/joe-zias-crucifixion-in-antiquity-the-anthropological-evidence/|archive-date=2018-03-10|url-status=dead|access-date=March 9, 2018}}</ref> bearing a ''titulus'' – a sign board proclaiming the prisoner's name and crime.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":4" /><ref name=":1" /> Upon arrival at the place of execution, selected to be especially public,<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":8" /><ref name=":10">{{Cite web|url=http://www.joezias.com:80/MelGibsonControversy.htm|title=Postscript – The Mel Gibson Controversy|last=Zias|first=Joseph|website=JoeZias.com|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040306140009/http://www.joezias.com/MelGibsonControversy.htm|archive-date=March 6, 2004|url-status=dead|access-date=March 10, 2018}}</ref> the convict would be stripped of any remaining clothing, then nailed to the cross naked.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":0" /><ref name=":4" /><ref name=":10" /> If the crucifixion took place in an established place of execution, the vertical beam (''stipes'') might be permanently embedded in the ground.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /> In this case, the condemned person's wrists would first be nailed to the ''patibulum'', and then he or she would be hoisted off the ground with ropes to hang from the elevated ''patibulum'' while it was fastened to the ''stipes''.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /> Next the feet or ankles would be nailed to the upright stake.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /> The 'nails' were tapered iron spikes approximately {{convert|5 to 7|in|cm|abbr=on|order=flip}} long, with a square shaft {{convert|3/8|in|mm|0|order=flip}} across.<ref name=":5" /> The ''titulus'' would also be fastened to the cross to notify onlookers of the person's name and crime as they hung on the cross, further maximizing the public impact.<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":1" />

There may have been considerable variation in the position in which prisoners were nailed to their crosses and how their bodies were supported while they died.<ref name=":9" /> Seneca the Younger recounts: "I see crosses there, not just of one kind but made in many different ways: some have their victims with head down to the ground; some impale their private parts; others stretch out their arms on the gibbet."<ref name="Seneca 1946" /> One source claims that for Jews (apparently not for others), a man would be crucified with his back to the cross as is traditionally depicted, while a woman would be nailed facing her cross, probably with her back to onlookers, or at least with the ''stipes'' providing some semblance of [[modesty]] if viewed from the front.<ref name=":3" /> Such concessions were "unique" and not made outside a Jewish context.<ref name=":3" /> Several sources mention some sort of seat fastened to the ''stipes'' to help support the person's body,<ref name=":6">Justin Martyr ''Dialogue with Trypho, a Jew'' 91</ref><ref>Irenaeus ''Against Heresies'' II.24</ref><ref>Tertullian ''To the Nations'' I.12</ref> thereby prolonging the person's suffering<ref name=":8" /> and humiliation<ref name=":9" /> by preventing the [[asphyxia]]tion caused by hanging without support. Justin Martyr calls the seat a ''cornu'', or "horn,"<ref name=":6" /> leading some scholars to believe it may have had a pointed shape designed to torment the crucified person.<ref>Barbet, 45; Zugibe, 57; [[Vassilios Tzaferis]], "Crucifixion{{snd}}The Archaeological Evidence," ''Biblical Archaeology Review'' 11.1 (Jan./Feb. 1985), 44–53 (p. 49)</ref> This would be consistent with Seneca's observation of victims with their private parts impaled.

In Roman-style crucifixion, the condemned could take up to a few days to die, but death was sometimes hastened by human action. "The attending Roman guards could leave the site only after the victim had died, and were known to precipitate death by means of deliberate fracturing of the tibia and/or fibula, spear stab wounds into the heart, sharp blows to the front of the chest, or a smoking fire built at the foot of the cross to asphyxiate the victim."<ref name="patho" /> The Romans sometimes broke the prisoner's legs to hasten death and usually forbade burial.<ref name=":4" /> On the other hand, the person was often deliberately kept alive as long as possible to prolong their suffering and humiliation, so as to provide the maximum deterrent effect.<ref name=":9" /> Corpses of the crucified were typically left on the crosses to decompose and be eaten by animals.<ref name=":9" /><ref>{{cite book|title=How Jesus became God: The exaltation of a Jewish preacher from Galilee|last1=Ehrman|first1=Bart D.|date=2014|publisher=HarperCollins|isbn=978-0-06-177818-6|edition=First|location=New York|pages=133–165}}</ref>

=== In Islam ===
{{Further|Hirabah}}

Islam spread in a region where many societies, including the Persian and Roman empires, had used crucifixion to punish traitors, rebels, robbers and criminal slaves.<ref name=EI2>{{Cite encyclopedia|author=Vogel, F.E. | year= 2012 | title=Ṣalb |encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia of Islam| edition=2nd|publisher=Brill |editor=P. Bearman |editor2=Th. Bianquis |editor3=C.E. Bosworth |editor4=E. van Donzel |editor5=W.P. Heinrichs| doi= 10.1163/1573-3912_islam_SIM_6530 }}</ref> The Qur'an refers to crucifixion in six passages, of which the most significant for later legal developments is verse 5:33:<ref>{{cite web|url=http://irebd.com/quran/english/surah-5/verse-33/|title=Quran Surah Al-Maaida ( Verse 33 )|website=irebd.com|access-date=2018-01-27|archive-date=2018-01-29|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180129004428/http://irebd.com/quran/english/surah-5/verse-33/|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="EI2" />

{{Blockquote|The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His Apostle, and strive with might and main for mischief through the land is: execution, or crucifixion, or the cutting off of hands and feet from opposite sides, or exile from the land: that is their disgrace in this world, and a heavy punishment is theirs in the Hereafter.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://quran.com/5|title=Surah Al-Ma'idah [5]|website=Surah Al-Ma'idah [5]}}</ref>}}

The corpus of [[hadith]] provides contradictory statements about the first use of crucifixion under Islamic rule, attributing it variously to [[Muhammad]] himself (for murder and robbery of a shepherd) or to the second caliph [[Umar]] (applied to two slaves who murdered their mistress).<ref name="EI2" /> Classical Islamic jurisprudence applies the verse 5:33 chiefly to highway robbers, as a ''[[hadd]]'' (scripturally prescribed) punishment.<ref name="EI2" /> The preference for crucifixion over the other punishments mentioned in the verse or for their combination (which [[Sadakat Kadri]] has called "Islam's equivalent of the hanging, drawing and quartering that medieval Europeans inflicted on traitors")<ref name="kadri-218">{{cite book |last1=Kadri |first1=Sadakat |title=Heaven on Earth: A Journey Through Shari'a Law from the Deserts of Ancient Arabia ... |date=2012 |publisher=macmillan |isbn=978-0-09-952327-7 |page=241}}</ref> is subject to "complex and contested rules" in classical jurisprudence.<ref name="EI2" /> Most scholars required crucifixion for highway robbery combined with murder, while others allowed execution by other methods for this scenario.<ref name="EI2" /> The main methods of crucifixion are:<ref name="EI2" />

* Exposure of the culprit's body after execution by another method, ascribed to "most scholars"<ref name="EI2" /><ref name=peters>{{Cite book |first=Rudolph|last=Peters|year=2006|title=Crime and Punishment in Islamic Law: Theory and Practice from the Sixteenth to the Twenty-First Century|publisher=Cambridge University Press|pages=37–38}}</ref> and in particular to [[Ibn Hanbal]] and [[Al-Shafi'i]];<ref name=EoF-taslib>{{cite encyclopedia|encyclopedia=الموسوعة الفقهية (Encyclopedia of Fiqh)|publisher=وزارة الأوقاف والشئون الإسلامية في دولة الكويت|url=https://archive.org/details/FPmfkmfk|language=ar|year=1988|volume=12|title=تصليب|trans-title=Taslib}}</ref> or [[Hanbali]]s and [[Shafi'i]]s.<ref name=EoF-hiraba>{{cite encyclopedia|encyclopedia=الموسوعة الفقهية (Encyclopedia of Fiqh)|publisher=وزارة الأوقاف والشئون الإسلامية في دولة الكويت|url=https://archive.org/details/FPmfkmfk|language=ar|year=1988|volume=17|title=حرابة|trans-title=Hiraba}}</ref>
* Crucifying the culprit alive, then executing him with a lance thrust or another method, ascribed to Malikis, most [[Hanafi]]s and most [[Twelver]] Shi'is;<ref name="EI2" /> the majority of the Malikis;<ref name="peters" /> [[Malik ibn Anas|Malik]], [[Abu Hanifa]], and [[Abd al-Rahman al-Awzai|al-Awza'i]];<ref name="EoF-taslib" /> or Malikis, Hanafis, and Shafi'is.<ref name="EoF-hiraba" />
* Crucifying the culprit alive and sparing his life if he survives for three days, ascribed to Shiites.<ref name="peters" />

Most classical jurists limit the period of crucifixion to three days.<ref name="EI2" /> Crucifixion involves affixing or impaling the body to a beam or a tree trunk.<ref name="EI2" /> Various minority opinions also prescribed crucifixion as punishment for a number of other crimes.<ref name="EI2" /> Cases of crucifixion under most of the legally prescribed categories have been recorded in the history of Islam, and prolonged exposure of crucified bodies was especially common for political and religious opponents.<ref name="EI2" /><ref>{{cite book|last=Anthony|first=Sean|title=Crucifixion and Death as Spectacle: Umayyad Crucifixion in Its Late Antique Context|url=https://www.academia.edu/3553404 |series=American Oriental Series 96 |publisher=American Oriental Society|access-date=13 December 2013|year=2014}}</ref>

=== Japan ===
[[File:Japanese Crucifixion.jpg|thumb|Early [[Meiji period]] crucifixion (c.&nbsp;1865–1868), [[Yokohama]], [[Japan]]. A 25-year-old servant, Sokichi, was executed by crucifixion for murdering his employer's son during the course of a robbery. He was affixed by tying to a stake with two cross-pieces.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wD4U34XRlU4C&q=crucifixion+of+sokichi|first=William A.|last=Ewing|title=The body: photographs of the human form|year=1994|publisher=Chronicle Books|page=250|isbn=978-0-8118-0762-3|others=photograph by [[Felice Beato]]}}</ref><ref name="Worswick1979">{{cite book|author=Clark Worswick|title=Japan, photographs, 1854–1905|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g6XpAAAAMAAJ|year=1979|publisher=Knopf : distributed by Random House|isbn=978-0-394-50836-8|page=32}}</ref>]]

Crucifixion was introduced into [[Japan]] during the [[Sengoku period]] (1467–1573), after a 350-year period with no capital punishment.<ref name=JapaneseMind>{{cite book|title=The Japanese mind: essentials of Japanese philosophy and culture|last=Moore |first=Charles Alexander|author2=Aldyth V. Morris|year=1968|publisher=University of Hawaii Press|location= Honolulu|isbn=978-0-8248-0077-2|oclc=10329518|page=145|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x7PT8_QS6OgC}}</ref> It is believed to have been suggested to the Japanese by the introduction of [[Christianity]] into the region,<ref name="JapaneseMind" /> although similar types of punishment had been used as early as the [[Kamakura period]]. Known in Japanese as {{Nihongo|''haritsuke''|磔}}, crucifixion was used in Japan before and during the [[Tokugawa Shogunate]]. Several related crucifixion techniques were used. Petra Schmidt, in "Capital Punishment in Japan", writes:<ref>{{cite book|title=Capital Punishment in Japan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8fZKH4cbcmQC|last=Schmidt|first=Petra|year=2002|publisher=Brill|location=Leiden|isbn=978-90-04-12421-9|pages=14–15}}</ref>{{Blockquote|Execution by crucifixion included, first of all, ''hikimawashi'' (i.e, being paraded about town on horseback); then the unfortunate was tied to a cross made from one vertical and two horizontal poles. The cross was raised, the convict speared several times from two sides, and eventually killed with a final thrust through the throat. The corpse was left on the cross for three days. If one condemned to crucifixion died in prison, his body was pickled and the punishment executed on the dead body. Under [[Toyotomi Hideyoshi]], one of the great 16th-century unifiers, crucifixion upside down (i.e, ''sakasaharitsuke'') was frequently used. Water crucifixion (''mizuharitsuke'') awaited mostly Christians: a cross was raised at low tide; when the high tide came, the convict was submerged under water up to the head, prolonging death for many days}}

[[File:Martyrdom-of-Nagasaki-Painting-1622.png|thumb|The Twenty Six Martyrs of Japan]]
In 1597, [[26 Martyrs of Japan|26 Christian Martyrs]] were nailed to crosses at [[Nagasaki]], Japan. Among those executed were Saints [[Paulo Miki]], [[Philip of Jesus]] and [[Pedro Bautista]], a Spanish [[Franciscan]]. The executions marked the beginning of a long history of [[Japanese Martyrs|persecution of Christianity in Japan]], which continued until its decriminalization in 1871.

Crucifixion was used as a punishment for prisoners of war during [[World War II]]. [[Ringer Edwards]], an Australian prisoner of war, was crucified for killing cattle, along with two others. He survived 63 hours before being let down.

=== Burma ===
In [[Burma]], crucifixion was a central element in several execution rituals. Felix Carey, a missionary in Burma from 1806 to 1812,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.baptist.org.uk/Groups/220248/Latest_News.aspx|title=The Baptist Union: Latest News|website=baptist.org.uk}}</ref> wrote the following:<ref>{{cite magazine|title=The Baptist Magazine, Volume 7|url=https://archive.org/details/baptistmagazine00volgoog|magazine=Baptist Magazine|year=1815|publisher=Button&son|location=London|page=[https://archive.org/details/baptistmagazine00volgoog/page/n77 67]}}</ref>
{{Blockquote|Four or five persons, after being nailed through their hands and feet to a scaffold, had first their tongues cut out, then their mouths slit open from ear to ear, then their ears cut off, and finally their bellies ripped open.

Six people were crucified in the following manner: their hands and feet nailed to a scaffold; then their eyes were extracted with a blunt hook; and in this condition they were left to expire; two died in the course of four days; the rest were liberated, but died of mortification on the sixth or seventh day.

Four persons were crucified, viz. not nailed but tied with their hands and feet stretched out at full length, in an erect posture. In this posture they were to remain till death; every thing they wished to eat was ordered them with a view to prolong their lives and misery. In cases like this, the legs and feet of the criminals begin to swell and mortify at the expiration of three or four days; some are said to live in this state for a fortnight, and expire at last from fatigue and mortification. Those which I saw, were liberated at the end of three or four days.}}

=== Europe ===
[[File:Your Liberty Bond will help stop this Crisco restoration and colours.jpg|thumb|Poster showing a German soldier nailing a man to a tree, as American soldiers come to his rescue. Published in Manila by Bureau of Printing (1917).]]
During [[World War I]], there were persistent rumors that German soldiers [[the Crucified Soldier|had crucified a Canadian soldier]] on a tree or barn door with [[bayonet]]s or combat knives. The event was initially reported in 1915 by Private George Barrie of the [[1st Canadian Division]]. Two investigations, one a post-war official investigation, and the other an independent investigation by the [[Canadian Broadcasting Corporation]], concluded that there was no evidence to support the story.<ref name=PotJ>{{Cite book|title=Prisoners of the Japanese: literary imagination and the prisoner-of-war experience|last=Bourke|first=Roger|year=2006 |publisher=University of Queensland Press|isbn=978-0-7022-3564-1|oclc=70257905|page=184 n.8|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JpKAYepQJN4C}}</ref> However, British documentary maker [[Iain Overton]] in 2001 published an article claiming that the story was true, identifying the soldier as [[Harry Band]].<ref name="PotJ" /><ref>{{cite news|first=Iain|last=Overton|title=Revealed, the soldier who was crucified by Germans|publisher=International Express|date=2001-04-17|page=16}}</ref> Overton's article was the basis for a 2002 episode of the [[Channel 4]] documentary show ''[[Secret History (television documentary series)|Secret History]]''.<ref>{{cite episode|title=The Crucified Soldier|episode-link=The Crucified Soldier|series=Secret History|series-link=Secret History (TV documentary series)|network=[[Channel 4]]|airdate=2002-07-04|season=9|number=5}}</ref>

It has been reported that crucifixion was used in several cases against the [[Germany|German]] civil population of [[East Prussia]] when it was occupied by [[USSR|Soviet]] forces at the end of World War II.<ref>Max Hastings, ''Armageddon: the Battle for Germany 1944–45'', {{ISBN|978-0-330-49062-7}}</ref>