Crucifixion was often performed to terrorize and dissuade
the onlookers from perpetrating the crimes punishable by it. Victims were left
on display after death as warnings so that others who attempt dissent might be
forewarned. Crucifixion was usually 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 time
period.
The Greek and Latin words
corresponding to "crucifixion" applied to many different forms of painful
execution, from
impaling on a stake to
affixing to a tree, to an upright pole (a crux
simplex) or to a combination of an upright (in
Latin, stipes) and a
crossbeam (in Latin, patibulum).[6]
In some cases, the condemned was forced to carry the
crossbeam on his shoulders to the place of execution. A whole cross would weigh
well over 300 pounds (135 kilograms), but the crossbeam would weigh only 75–125
pounds (35–60 kilograms).[7] The Roman historian
Tacitus records that the city of Rome had a
specific place for carrying out executions, situated outside the
Esquiline Gate,[8] and had a specific area
reserved for the execution of slaves by crucifixion.[9] 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 are
mentioned in a passage by the Judean historian
Josephus, where he states that at the
Siege of Jerusalem (70),
"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."[10] Objects used in the
crucifixion of criminals, such as nails, were sought as
amulets with perceived medicinal qualities.[11]
While a
crucifixion was an execution, it was also a humiliation, by making the condemned
as vulnerable as possible. Although artists have depicted the figure on a cross
with a loin cloth or a covering of the genitals, writings by
Seneca the Younger suggest that victims were
crucified completely nude.[12] When the victim had to
urinate or defecate, they had to do so in the open, in view of passers-by,
resulting in discomfort and the attraction of insects. Despite its frequent use
by the Romans, the horrors of crucifixion did not escape mention by some of
their eminent orators.
Cicero for example, in a
speech that appears to have been an early bid for its abolition,[13] described crucifixion
as "a most cruel and disgusting punishment", 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."[13]
Frequently, the legs of the person executed were broken or
shattered with an iron club, an act called
crurifragium, which was also frequently applied
without crucifixion to slaves.[14] This act hastened the
death of the person but was also meant to
deter those who observed
the crucifixion from committing offenses.[14]
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