Crucifixion

:Crucify redirects here. For the song, see Crucify (song).

History of crucifixion

Persia and Alexander

Crucifixion probably originated with ancient Persians. There is evidence that captured pirates were crucified in the port of Athens in the 7th century BC. Alexander the Great is reputed to have executed 2000 survivors from his siege of the city of Tyre, as well as the doctor who unsuccessfully treated Alexander's friend (and probable lover) Hephaestion. Some historians have also conjectured that he crucified Callisthenes, his official historian and biographer, after Callisthenes objected to the adoption by Alexander of the royal Persian ceremony of adoration.

Related Topics:
Persians - Athens - 7th century BC - Alexander the Great - Tyre - Hephaestion - Callisthenes

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Roman Empire

Romans adopted the custom from Carthage and used it for slaves, rebels, pirates and especially despised enemies and criminals. Therefore crucifixion was considered a most way to die.

Related Topics:
Romans - Carthage - Slaves - Pirates - Criminal

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Condemned Roman citizens were usually exempt from crucifixion (like feudal nobles from hanging) except for major crimes against the state, such as high treason. The Romans used it during the Spartacus rebellion, during the Roman Civil War, and the destruction of Jerusalem.

Related Topics:
Treason - Spartacus - Roman Civil War - Jerusalem

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Josephus tells a story of the Romans crucifying people along the walls of Jerusalem. He also says that the Roman soldiers would amuse themselves by crucifying criminals in different positions. In Roman style crucifixion, the victim took days to die, slowly from suffocation. The dead body is not removed from the cross but is left on the cross for vultures and other birds to consume.

Related Topics:
Josephus - Vulture

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The goal of Roman crucifixion was not just to kill the criminal, but also to wreck and dishonour the body of the condemned. In ancient tradition, an honourable death requires burial, so to wreck the body and not permit them to be buried, but to leave them hanging on a cross to decay, is a grave dishonour on the person.

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Under ancient Roman penal practice, crucifixion was not only a means of execution, but also a means of exhibiting the criminal’s low social status. It is the most dishonourable death imaginable. The elite of Roman society (only about 10% of the population) was almost never subject to corporal punishments, instead, they were fined or exiled. Josephus mentions Jews of high rank that were crucified, but this was to point out their status was taken away from them. Control of one’s own body was vital in the ancient world. Capital punishment took away control over one’s own body, thereby a loss of status and honour.

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The New Testament gospels, which are dated around the same time as Josephus, describe soldiers gambling for the robes of Jesus, indicating criminals were crucified naked. They may have in fact gone to the cross naked, being stripped during their scourging or other torture before their execution.

Related Topics:
New Testament - Gospels - Naked

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A common prelude was scourging, which would cause the victim to lose a large amount of blood, and approach a state of shock. The prisoner then usually had to carry the horizontal beam (patibulum in Latin) to the place of execution, not necessarily the whole cross. Crucifixion was typically carried out by specialized teams, consisting of a commanding centurion and four soldiers. When it was done in an established place of execution, the vertical beam (stipes) was sometimes permanently embedded in the ground. The victim was usually stripped naked. The "nails" were tapered iron spikes approximately 5 to 7 in (13 to 18 cm) long with a square shaft 3/8 in (1 cm) across.

Related Topics:
Scourging - Shock - Latin - Centurion - Naked

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The Romans often broke the prisoner's legs to hasten death. Burial afterwards was not usually permitted.

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In some cases, the nails were gathered afterwards and used as healing amulets (similarly, folklore ascribed magical powers to things related to the gallows in feudal times).

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Emperor Constantine abolished crucifixion in the Roman Empire at the end of his reign.

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Japan

Tokugawa Shogunate

Crucifixion was used in Japan before and during the Tokugawa Shogunate. It was called Haritsuke in Japanese.

Related Topics:
Japan - Tokugawa Shogunate

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The victim—usually a sentenced criminal—was hoisted upon a T-shaped cross. Then, executioners killed him with spears. The body was left to hang for a time before burial.

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In 1597, twenty-six Christians were nailed to crosses at Nagasaki, Japan. Among those executed were Paul Miki and Pedro Bautista, a Spanish Franciscan who had worked about ten years in the Philippines.

Related Topics:
1597 - Christian - Nagasaki - Paul Miki - Pedro Bautista - Spanish - Franciscan - Philippines

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Mesoamerica

There are some reports that, after the Spanish conquest of Mesoamerica in the 16th century, some natives performed human sacrifice by crucifixion due to their superficial understanding of Christianity.

Related Topics:
Spanish - Mesoamerica - 16th century - Human sacrifice - Christianity

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Modern death on the cross

• Execution by crucifixion, while rare in recent times, was used at Dachau during the Holocaust and in a number of wars, such as in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge and during the Sino-Japanese war, where it was among the many methods of torture and execution used by Japanese soldiers against Chinese civilians—largely in emulation of medieval Japanese military practices.
• During World War I, there were persistent rumors that German soldiers had crucified an Allied (Canadian) soldier on a tree or barn door with bayonets or combat knives. The event was initially reported in 1915 by private George Barrie of the Canadian First Division, as follows:

:"On 24 April at St Julien I saw a small party of Germans about 50 yards away. I lay still and in about half an hour they left. I saw what appeared to be a man in British uniform. I was horrified to see that the man was literally crucified, being fastened to the post by eight bayonets. He was suspended about 18" from the ground, the bayonets being driven through his legs, shoulders, throat and testicles. At his feet lay an English rifle, broken and covered with blood." http://www.freedominion.ca/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=8270

Related Topics:
St Julien - Germans - British - Bayonets

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According to a Red Cross Nurse and multiple testimonies from men of the same unit, the event supposedly happened to a Harry Banks of Canadian 48th Highland Regiment. This story was widely used in the black propaganda of the time, together with a similar rumor that Germans had bayoneted Belgian babies. Such rumours made for highly graphic and disturbing pictures and were ideal for helping to demonize the enemy.

Related Topics:
Red Cross - Harry Banks - Black propaganda - Germans - Belgian

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After the war, investigators tried to determine the veracity of the story of the crucified soldier, but it was inconclusive.

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• There are persistent stories that crucifixions continue to occur in certain parts of Africa, particularly in Sudan. According to reports, hundreds if not thousands of Christian Sudanese have been nailed to crude crosses on the plains, in remote areas where access by reporters and Western witnesses is limited. Al Jazeera reported in 2002 of the crucifixion of 32 Christian priests and other males, some as young as their early teens. They were allegedly whipped severely and affixed to crosses with six-inch nails through their hands, ankles, and genitals. Other reports suggest that crucifixion has been making a comeback in such fundamentalist Muslim nations as Nigeria and Yemen.