Crucifixion

Crucifixion is a form of capital punishment that is implemented by nailing or tying the hands and feet of a person to a cross and leaving the body to hang for days until death by exhaustion or asphyxiation occurs. It was a widespread method of execution in antiquity, particularly in the Roman Empire, but also among Persians, Seleucids, Macedonians, and Carthaginians. The ways of performing the crucifixion varied, but the punishment was usually intended to cause a slow, humiliating, and extremely painful death that would serve as an example for the masses or for enemies. Since its abolishment by Constantine the Great in the early 4th century, the punishment was sporadically used. However, it remains in use up to the present, sometimes as a form of devotion in connection to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, the most famous example of crucifixion and a fundamental narrative in Christianity.

Brief History

Crucifixion can be traced all the way back to the Assyrians, Scythians, Taurians, and Celts. The Persians were intensively using it in the sixth century BCE and Alexander the Great introduced the punishment in his kingdom in the fourth century BCE, a well-known example being the crucifixion of 2,000 prisoners in the siege of Tyre.

The Romans started to use this form of execution in the third century BCE and continued to practice it for 500 years; they were probably introduced to it by the Phoenicians or the Carthaginians who performed it, especially in cases of high treason. In the Roman Empire the primary victims of crucifixion were the persons of low social status (slaves, non-citizens, and pirates), political and religious agitators, or disobedient soldiers. Famous crucifixions performed by the Romans include Spartacus’s followers, Saint Peter, and Simeon of Jerusalem, but the one that gained the most notoriety was the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, ordered by Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Judaea. Jesus’s death on the cross was entrained by the claim of being King of the Jews, considered a direct affront to Roman authority, and it was documented by the Gospels, but also by the ancient historian Tacitus, and by several non-Christian sources.

Although crucifixion has been mentioned widely in the historical record, there are only two known examples of archeological proof that the Romans used crucifixion as capital punishment. The first archeological evidence was uncovered in 1968 in the tombs of Jerusalem’s Second Temple Jewish cemetery by Vassilios Tzaferis. In April 2018, an interdisciplinary team of researchers published an article in Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences detailing their analysis of a skeleton excavated in Rome in 2007. According to the researchers, the skeleton showed signs of suffering trauma similar to crucifixion. Archeological evidence of crucifixion is scarce because skeletal remains damaged by such an execution are not often well preserved, which makes it difficult for researchers to determine whether crucifixion was the cause of death.

The use of crucifixion in the Islamic world as an old method of execution is mentioned several times by the religious texts of the Koran. Crucifixion was also documented in Japan, as early as the fifteenth century, continuing until World War II, when it was used to punish prisoners of war. During the same period, it was reported to be used by Soviet forces against the German civil population in East Prussia. Although the performance of crucifixion became a rather isolated phenomenon, it is still present in the laws of several countries such as Burma, United Arab Emirates, Iran, and Sudan. In 2013, Amnesty International reported an increasing number of crucifixions (mostly preceded by death) in Saudi Arabia. In February 2015, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) reported cases of crucifixions of children in Iraq by the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL), and several other sources connect crucifixion with ISISL ideology. Devotional crucifixions are especially popular in Mexico and Philippines, but they are non-lethal.

Overview

Crucifixion practices differ greatly depending on location and time period, the term corresponding to crucifixion is used to describe executions varying from impaling someone on a stake to affixing the person to a tree, or a pole, sometimes combined with a crossbeam. The Roman cross was typically made of wood, with a vertical stake and a horizontal crossbeam near the top, but several types of crosses were used (crux simplex is a vertical stake, crux commissa is in the form of a T, crux immissa is similar to what later became the symbol of Christianity). Other crosses were in the shape of the letters X and Y.

The victims were placed in different poses, upright or head downward. The nails may have been inserted in the palms or just above the wrists, and sometimes the hands were just tied. The crosses may have had a small seat attached to the front of the cross or a small foot rest for the purpose of redistributing the weight of the person. Before nailing the condemned to the cross, a mixture of gall, vinegar, and myrrh was sometimes offered to alleviate some of the victim’s pain. The guards could only leave the site after the condemned had died, and sometimes they were deliberately precipitating his or her death by stabbing, strong blows to the front of the chest, fracturing the tibia and/or fibula, or by smoking fire at the foot of the cross.

The crucifixion equaled shame and was used primarily for intimidation. Various forms of torture often preceded execution. After being beaten and mocked, the victims walked (sometimes in chains) to the place of crucifixion, usually carrying their crosses, which in some cases were extremely heavy. They were crucified naked or with some sort of garment, being exposed to the public who came and watched the slow death. The places of crucifixion were usually outside the city, sometimes on a height so the victims could be seen from distance. Crucified bodies could rot on crosses or be buried. Death came usually after six hours or up to four days, and would be due to multifactorial pathology, including hemorrhage, dehydration, pulmonary embolism, cardiac shock, etc. The most important contributor to fatality was asphyxiation, which was a typical cause of death especially in the cases of victims whose whole weight was supported by stretched arms.

Crucifixion has been subject of artistic representations since the era of the pagan Roman Empire, becoming later central to Christian imagery. The earliest known representation of the crucifixion of Jesus is considered to be the Alexamenos graffito (second century CE). Starting with the fourth century and until the Byzantine era, when more complex and realist representations occur, representations minimize the horror and physical details of the execution for the purpose of highlighting the optimist message of Resurrection. The theme suffered a decline after seventeenth century, but individual interpretations of the subject are still given by modern artists.

Bibliography

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