Death through crucifixion
Death through crucifixion might have been the most painful and cruel death that has ever occurred. Such a death penalty cannot be compared to any other torture. The Romans borrowed the crucifixion penalty from the Persians and started using it. Roman Crucifixion was a method of punishment in the Roman culture applied to individuals who were caught acting against the law (Pershina, 2017).
Reasons for crucifixion
The punishment was done by special groups of people made of four soldiers and a centurion commander. Some of the reasons as to why an individual would be crucified were; rebellion, lack of submission especially from the slaves, and opposing the state leadership. The slaves were punished for either running away from their masters or committing other forms of crimes. The core purpose of this corporal torture was to intimidate criminals, and prove to them how powerful the Roman Empire was. It also served as a warning to those who were intending to disobey their masters or the Roman laws. Opposing the Roman leadership was taken as a very big offense for which ultimate punishment was crucifixion. For example, Jesus was crucified for opposing the Roman Empire when he claimed to be the King of Kings.
Crucifixion process
Crucifixion was done from areas where everyone could see, such as mountains and main cities and roads. It could either be upward, that is, head on the top, like the one for Jesus or downward, that is, with the head downwards, like Peter's crucifixion. Once a sentence had been announced, the criminal was to carry his own cross to the place where execution would take place. The beating was also part of this punishment whereby the victim would be thoroughly scourged while carrying his cross (Pershina, 2017). They used a belt known as flagrum for beating. The belt was made of metallic pieces which were connected to leather strands. On reaching the crucifixion place, the victim was given a cup of a mixture of gall, vinegar, and myrrh. The mixture was meant for reducing pain induced by the whole process of crucifixion.
Nailing and positioning on the cross
Further, they stripped off the criminals clothes, laid them on the cross. They either nailed the victim to the cross or tied them up using ropes. The nails used were made of iron and they had a wide head. The nails were hammered above wrist in between the bones of the forearm because the wrist was considered unable to hold up the weight of a person. After nailing the hands, they hammered each feet using two large nails. The cross was then fixed on the topmost part of the execution place. The criminal struggled to breathe by pushing themselves up because their knees had been bent. The whole process caused a lot of pain on the criminal, dehydration and blood loss. The criminal was then left on the cross to die for it took some days except for the case of Jesus which happened within three hours (Roberson, 2017).
Death and aftermath
Finally, the victim became tired such that raising his body up for breathing and reducing pain on the feet became impossible. As a result, there was no more respiration due to paralyzed muscles, and finally, the criminal died. If the Sabbath day was near, the legs of the victim were broken to quicken death because bodies were not supposed to remain on the cross during that day. While On the cross, the victim experienced mockery and insults from people who passed by.
References
Chapman, D. W., " Schnabel, E. J. (2015). The trial and crucifixion of Jesus: texts and commentary (Vol. 344). Mohr Siebeck.
Pershina, Y. (2017). The system of punishments in the Ancient Rome. Modern European Researches, (1), 78-86.
John, Roberson, (2017) “Introduction to Christianity” Lecture 3: The Gospels and
The Ministry and Message of Jesus.
