Crucifixion is a method of
capital punishment in which the victim is tied, nailed, or otherwise attached
[1] to a large wooden beam and left to hang for several days until eventual death from exhaustion and
asphyxiation.
[2][3] It is principally known from
classical antiquity, but remains in occasional use in some countries.
Crucifixion was most often performed to dissuade its witnesses from perpetrating similar (usually particularly heinous) crimes. Victims were sometimes left on display after death as a warning to any other potential criminals. 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).
[14]
In some cases, the condemned was forced to carry the crossbeam to the place of execution. A whole cross would weigh well over 135 kg (300 lb), but the crossbeam would not be quite as burdensome, weighing around 45 kg (100 lb).
[15] The Roman historian
Tacitus records that the city of Rome had a specific place for carrying out executions, situated outside the
Esquiline Gate,
[16] and had a specific area reserved for the execution of slaves by crucifixion.
[17] 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 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."
[18] Objects used in the crucifixion of criminals, such as nails, were sought as
amulets with perceived medicinal qualities.
[19]
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.
[20][21] Despite its frequent use by the Romans, the horrors of crucifixion did not escape mention by some of their eminent orators.
Cicero for example, described crucifixion as "a most cruel and disgusting punishment",
[22] 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."
[23]
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.
[24] This act hastened the death of the person but was also meant to
deter those who observed the crucifixion from committing offenses.
The length of time required to reach death could range from hours to days depending on method, the victim's health, and the environment. A literature review by Maslen and Mitchell
[44] identified scholarly support for several possible causes of death: cardiac rupture,
[45] heart failure,
[46] hypovolemic shock,
[47] acidosis,
[48] asphyxia,
[49] arrhythmia,
[50] and
pulmonary embolism.
[51] Death could result from any combination of those factors or from other causes, including
sepsis following infection due to the wounds caused by the nails or by the
scourging that often preceded crucifixion, eventual
dehydration, or animal predation.
[52][53]
A theory attributed to
Pierre Barbet holds that, when the whole body weight was supported by the stretched arms, the typical cause of death was
asphyxiation.
[54] He wrote that the condemned would have severe difficulty inhaling, due to hyper-expansion of the chest muscles and lungs. The condemned would therefore have to draw himself up by his arms, leading to
exhaustion, or have his feet supported by tying or by a wood block. When no longer able to lift himself, the condemned would die within a few minutes. Some scholars, including
Frederick Zugibe, posit other causes of death. Zugibe suspended test subjects with their arms at 60° to 70° from the vertical. The test subjects had no difficulty breathing during experiments, but did suffer rapidly increasing pain,
[55][56] which is consistent with the Roman use of crucifixion to achieve a prolonged, agonizing death. However, Zugibe's positioning of the test subjects' feet are not supported by any archaeological or historical evidence.
[57]
Survival
Since death does not follow immediately on crucifixion, survival after a short period of crucifixion is possible, as in the case of those who choose each year
as a devotional practice to be non-lethally crucified.
There is an ancient record of one person who survived a crucifixion that was intended to be lethal, but that was interrupted.
Josephus recounts: "I saw many captives crucified, and remembered three of them as my former acquaintance. I was very sorry at this in my mind, and went with tears in my eyes to
Titus, and told him of them; so he immediately commanded them to be taken down, and to have the greatest care taken of them, in order to their recovery; yet two of them died under the physician's hands, while the third recovered."
[58] Josephus gives no details of the method or duration of the crucifixion of his three friends before their reprieve.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crucifixion
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Because there wasn't room for an infinite number of corpses.