Crucifixion

=== 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>