Chapters
The Romans, like the Greeks, used torture during interrogations. Until the 2nd century CE, torture was used only on slaves (with a few exceptions). After that period, torture also affected the lower classes. According to Roman law, the testimony of a slave was considered true only under torture. It was believed that they could not be trusted and had to be deliberately “tortured”.
It is worth noting that according to many scholars, torture was an everyday matter for ancient civilizations and was officially included in the legal system of states. Torture was considered necessary to stop bad and unacceptable social behavior.
Crucifixion
Crucifixion was a form of capital punishment used in ancient times by the Persians, Romans, Phoenicians, and Carthaginians, among others, as a form of shameful execution of slaves, rebels, and other people who were not full citizens. Only a citizen of low status (humiliores) could be sentenced to such a death – in the case of a serious crime, such as treason against one’s own country. The condemned person was then tied or nailed to a large wooden cross and left there until he died. It was an extremely long and painful death.
The hypothesis that the custom of crucifixion in Rome developed from the primitive practice of arbori suspendere, or hanging arbor infelix (“ill-omened tree”), dedicated to the gods of the underworld, is rejected by William A. Oldfather, who points out that this form of execution consisted of hanging the suspect from a tree. Moreover, this punishment was not intended to kill the condemned, much less to sacrifice him to the deities of the underworld.
Tertullian mentions in his 1st-century CE Apology that trees were used in crucifixions. However, it was Seneca the Younger who had already used the phrase infelix lignum (“unfortunate wood”) for the horizontal beam (patibulum) of the cross. The works of Plautus and Plutarch are the only Roman sources that mention criminals carrying their own patibulum.
The most famous crucifixion took place after the suppression of the Spartacus’ Revolt in 71 BCE. As a warning, Marcus Crassus ordered 6,000 rebels to be crucified along the Appian Way leading from Capua to Rome. Mass crucifixions also took place during the civil wars of the 2nd and 1st centuries BC and after the capture of Jerusalem in 70 CE. Josephus Flavius mentions that the Romans crucified defenders along the walls.
Roman law used this torture not only to kill but above all to dishonor and emphasize the low status of the condemned. Josephus Flavius mentions that Jews of high classes used to be crucified, only to take away their status. The Romans also often broke the legs of the condemned to hasten death and forbid their burial.
Sometimes, before hanging, the victim was severely whipped, which caused significant blood loss and the victim went into a state of shock and stupor. Then the condemned had to carry a horizontal beam (patibulum) to the place of execution. According to Roman source literature, a person condemned to crucifixion never carried the entire cross, contrary to popular belief and contrary to many modern reenactments of Jesus’ path to Golgotha. The vertical beam (stipes) was already firmly planted in the ground at the place of execution. The condemned person was stripped of his clothes. Then the victim was tied or nailed to the beams. For this purpose, iron, tapered nails from 13 to 18 cm long were used. Sometimes, after the execution, the nails were collected by onlookers and carried with them as healing amulets. The condemned person, nailed to the beam, was pulled up and attached to the vertical post. Then the whole thing gave the tool its most famous form, that of a cross. The cruelty of the executioners took on various forms, and the torment could last from several hours to even several days. The condemned person was hanged right-side up or upside down.
Since crucifixion itself – without significant damage to organs – did not cause death, in most cases the direct cause of death of the condemned (occurring within a period of several to a dozen or so hours or even days) was suffocation, exhaustion, dehydration, or bleeding out as a result of injuries. In such a case, the condemned initially had their legs relatively straightened, bent enough so that the feet could be nailed to the cross. After a few or a dozen hours, the leg muscles could no longer support the weight of the body and would bend under the condemned. At that point, the diaphragm was pressed so much that the condemned began to suffocate – and this could last for another several or a dozen or so hours. Another way of dying on the cross was bleeding out (nails driven in in a way that led to a quicker death) or death from exhaustion (using a leg rest).
In Roman times, modifications to this method of execution were also used, by placing a support on a vertical pole at the level of the condemned’s feet, thanks to which the condemned could breathe relatively freely. Death occurred from exhaustion, even several days after the execution began. Executions were also sometimes sped up by breaking the condemned’s legs (this made it impossible to support himself and try to take a breath).
Crucifixion was practised from the 6th century BCE until the 4th century CE, when in 337 Emperor Constantine the Great banned this type of execution in honor of Christ, who was the most famous victim of this execution. In addition, Roman legi