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Crucifixion is a method of capital punishment in which the condemned is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross, beam or stake and left to hang until eventual death. [1] [2] It was used as a punishment by the Persians, Carthaginians, and Romans, [1] among others. Crucifixion has been used in some countries as recently as the 21st century. [3]
Dionysius of Halicarnassus (c. 60 BC – after 7 BC) mentions that, on a certain occasion, "a Roman citizen of no obscure station, having ordered one of his slaves to be put to death, delivered him to his fellow-slaves to be led away, and in order that his punishment might be witnessed by all, directed them to drag him through the Forum and ...
Sources on Pontius Pilate are limited, although modern scholars know more about him than about other Roman governors of Judaea. [14] The most important sources are the Embassy to Gaius (after the year 41) by contemporary Jewish writer Philo of Alexandria, [15] the Jewish Wars (c. 74) and Antiquities of the Jews (c. 94) by the Jewish historian Josephus, as well as the four canonical Christian ...
The universal rule of the Roman Empire limited capital punishment strictly to the tribunal of the Roman governor, [13] and Pilate decided to publicly wash his hands as not being party to Jesus' death. Nevertheless, since only the Roman authority could order crucifixion and since the penalty was carried out by Roman soldiers, Pilate was ...
In his De Cruce (Antwerp 1594), p. 10 Justus Lipsius explained the two forms of what he called the crux simplex.. The term crux simplex was invented by Justus Lipsius (1547–1606) to indicate a plain transom-less wooden stake used for executing either by affixing the victim to it or by impaling him with it (Simplex [...] voco, cum in uno simplicique ligno fit affixio, aut infixio).
Crucifixion was a particularly shameful or unmentionable form of death, [23] with a stigma put onto even the condemned's family. [24] Roman magistrates had wide discretion in executing their tasks, and some question whether Pilate would have been so captive to the demands of the crowd.
The donkey's head and crucifixion would both have been considered insulting depictions by contemporary Roman society. Crucifixion continued to be used as a method of execution for the worst criminals until its abolition by the emperor Constantine in the 4th century. [21]
Crucifixions and crucifixes have appeared in the arts and popular culture from before the era of the pagan Roman Empire.The crucifixion of Jesus has been depicted in a wide range of religious art since the 4th century CE, frequently including the appearance of mournful onlookers such as the Virgin Mary, Pontius Pilate, and angels, as well as antisemitic depictions portraying Jews as ...