It was unanimously considered the most borribk form of deatli, worse even than burning, siaoe the ** cross" precedes '* burning" in the law-books (Lipo- us, De Cruc. ii, 1). Hence it is called ermdeSssiwum teterrimwnque suppUdum (Cicero, Verr. v, 66), extras p(rrui(Apvi.deAur,Asin.x),summiims!sqfplicmm(Fs^ tSent. V, tit. xxi, etc.); and to a Jew it woold acquire factitious horror from the curse in Dent, xxi, 21 Among the Romans also the degradation was a part of the infliction, since it was especially a servile suffS- cittm (Tacitus, BisL iv, 11 ; Juvenal, vi, 218 ; Honfe« Sat. i, 8, 8, etc. ; Plautus, passim), or ** a slave's pos- ishmenf' (De In/ami quo Ckr. adfeetus est era. smjf^ in Lange^s Observatt. Sacr, [Lubec, 1731], p. 151 sq. : also Hencke, Opusc. p. 137 sq.), so that even a treii- man ceasedto dread it (Cicero, j>7x>i2(i6. 5); or if applied to freemen, only in the case of the vilest crimiDsb (Joseph. Ant. xvii, 10, 10; War, v, 11, 1 ; PanL Se^ V, tit. xxiii ; LampridL Alex. 8ev. 28), sncfa as persoas guilty of robbery, piracy (Seneca, Ep. vii ; Cieero^ iV tron. 71), assassination, perjury (Finnic, vi, 26), seifi- tion, treason, and (in the case of soldiers) deserCifla (Dion, V, 52 ; Joseph. Ant. xiii, 22 ; Apnleina, ^ jsb. 8). Indeed, exemption from it was the privilege of evoy Roman citizen by the jus eimtatis (Cicero, Ferr. fi, 1, 8). Our Lord was condemned to it by the popalar cry of the Jews (Ifatt. xxvii, 23, as often happened ts the early Christians) on the charge of sedition agaiast CsBsar (Luke xxiii, 2), although tiie Sanhedrim had previously condemned him on the totally distiBct charge of blasphemy. Hundreds of Jews were cra» fied on the former charge, as by Floms (Joseph. ITor, ii, 14, 9) and Varus, who crucified 2000 at once (Awi, xvii, 10, 10). See ExBcunow.
III. Process, — The scarlet robe, crown of thocin, and other insults to which our Lord was subjected, were illegal, and arose from the spontaneous petulance of the brutal soldiery. But the punishment properly commenced with scourging, after the crindnal hid been stripped ; hence, in the common form of sentence, we find **8ummove, lictor, despolia, verbera," et& (Livy, i, 26). For this there is a host of authorities —Livy, xxvi, 18 ; Q. Curt, vii, 11 ; Lucaa, de PiseaL 2 ; Jerome, Comment, ad Matt. xxvH, 26, etc It was inflicted, not with the comparatively mild virges, bat the more terrible fiageOum (Horace, SaL i, 8 ; oomp. 2 Cor. xi, 24, 26), which was not used by the Jews (Deut. xxv, 8). Into these scourges tbe soldiers often stuck nails, pieces of bone, etc, to heighten the pain (the pAori^ doTpayaXwrri mentioned by Atiienaus, etc. ; fiagrum pecuinis ostSbus catenatum, ApuL), wiiich was often so intense that the sufferer died under ft (Ulp. de Patnis, 1. vlii). The scourging generally took
CRUCIFIXION
589
CRUCIFIXION
at a oolamn, and the one to whkh our Lord was >ia.iid is said to have been seen bj Jerome, Prudentius, re^ury of Toare, etc., and is shown at several church-
1 Axx&ong the relics. In oar Lord's case, however, this Lfiiction seems neither to have been the legal scourg- es a^ter the sentence (Val. Max. i, 7 ; Josephns, War, , 2S ; ii, 14, 9), nor yet the examination by torture ^ots sxii, 24), but rather a scourging before the sen- ^nce, to excite pity and procure immunity from fur- b&or panishment (Luke xxiii, 22 ; John xix, 1) ; and r t\iis view l>e correct, the reference to it (^paycXXciH 'cc£> in Matt, xxvii, 26, is retrospective, as so great n an^oish could hardly have been endured twice (see ^oli Synoptit, ad loc.). How severe it was is indica- ed. in prophecy .(Psa. xxxv, 16 ; Isa. 1, 6). Vossius onaiders that it was partly legal, P^^Y tentative [IJarm, Past, v, 13). See Scoubob.
The criminal carried his own cross, or, at any rate, L part of it (Plutarch, Deiitqtd sero^ etc., 9 ; Artemid. Oneirocr, il, 61 ; see John xix, 17 ; comp. " patibulum ferat per urbem, deinde affigatur cruci," Plaut. Carbo- mar-.}. Hence the term /urdfer, cross-bearer (q. v.). rhia was prefigured by Isaac carrying the wood in &en. xxii, 6, where even the Jews notice the parallel ; and. to this the fitthers fantastically- applied the ex- presfloon in Isa. ix, 6, *' the government shall be upon liiB shoulder." They were sometimes scourged and goaded on the way (Plaut. MotteL i, 1, 52). * * In some old fic^tires we see our Lord described with a table ap- pendent to the fringe of his garment, set full of nails and pointed iron" (Jer. Taylor, Ldfe of Ckrisi, iii, xv,
2 ; HcBrdxu Ugno quod tuteraSy Cypr. de Pas, p. 60). See SncoN (of Ctbenb).
The x>lace of execution was outside the city (**po8t nrbem," Cicero, Verr, v, 66; "extra portam,*' Plaut. Mil, GL ii, 4, 6; comp. 1 Kings xxi, 13; Acts vii, 58; Heb. xiii, 12; and in camps " extra vallum"), often in some public road (Quinct. DecL 275) or other conspic- uous place like the Campus Martius (Cicero, pro Ra- bi*'io), or some spot set apart for the purpose (Tacitus, A Jin. xv). This might sometimes be a hill (Yal. Max. vi> ; it is, however, rather an inference to call Gol- goUiA a Aiff ; in the Evangelists it is called " a plact^* (r&xoc)' See Calvabt. Arrived at the place of ex- ecution, the sufferer was stripped naked (Artemidorus, Oneirocr. ii, 68), the dress being the perquisite of the soldiers (Matt, xxvii, 85 ; Dig. xlviii, 20, 6) ; possibly not even a cloth round the loins was allowed him ; at least among the Jews the rule was * * that a man should be stoned naked" (Sanhedr, vi, 8), where the context shows that ** naked" must fiof be taken in its restricted sense. The cross was then driven into the ground, so that the feet of the condemned were a fbot or two above the earth (in pictures of the crucifixion the cross is gen- erally much too large and high), and he was lifted upon it (agerej exatrrere, toUere^ aacendere m cntcem; Pru- dent. -TTtpi <m^,\ Plautus, Mostd, ^* Crucisaliu ;" id. Bacch. 2, 8, 128 ; dtnjyoVy ijyovy ^ov tic okqov riXoc, Greg. Naz.), or else stretched upon it on the ground, and then lifted with it, to which there seems to be an allusion in a lost prophecy quoted by Barnabas (^. 12), orav ^vXov xXiOj Kal icvaorg (Pearson, On the Creedy Acts iv). The former method was the commoner, for we often read (as in Esth. vii, 10, etc.) of the cross be- ing erected beforehand in terrorem. Before the nail- ing or binding took place, a medicated cup was given oat of Idndness to confuse the senses and deaden the pangs of the sufferer (Prov. xxxi, 6), usually of bitter wine (o7voc iofivpfuofiivoQ or XeXiPavtofihoc), as amoog the Jews (Ligh^Toot, Eor. Eebr, ad Matt, xxvii), because myrrh was soporific Other bitter herbs were also employed (Pipping, Exercit. Acad. p. 55). Our Lord refused it that his senses might be clear (Matt, xxvii, 34 ; Mark xv, 23 ; Maimonides, Sanhed, xiii). Matthew calls it " vinegar mingled with gall" (c^oc fikra xoXijCi Y^^^ <^ expression used in reference to