How Did the Romans Really Crucify Jesus? Richard Binder, September 27, 2020 (edited March 14, 2021) This article is the conclusion of a secular exploration of an event that some people devoutly believe happened, while others deny the very existence of its central character. That event, or non-event, was the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth. You can find the complete series of articles at this Web address: http://www.richardspens.com/?crux= For nearly two millennia, the method by which Jesus of Nazareth was crucified has been a subject of speculation by Christians, archaeologists, historians, and others whose interest might be based on little or nothing more than curiosity. There exist countless religious paintings, sculptures, and corpora on crucifixes, and there exist also many ancient writings describing crucifixion as practiced by the Romans. This article is an attempt to pull together several applicable threads of information with the purpose of describing without religious bias just how Jesus’ crucifixion was carried out. One thing we can be sure of is that Jesus’ death on the cross did not appear as it is portrayed in depictions intended for veneration by the faithful, typified by the three images shown here—for it was horrifyingly unsuited to that purpose. In this article, I shall refer to works of this type as “traditional” depictions. The Ancona Crucifixion, by Crucifixion from an English A modern Roman Catholic crucifix Titian, 1558 psalter, c. 1225 All three of the above images show nails through Jesus’ palms, one nail holding both feet to the front of the cross, and Jesus wearing a loincloth and hung on a Latin cross. These four features are known, demonstrable errors. Let us take a look at how the Romans really crucified their victims. For the curious, a pronunciation guide for the Latin words used in this article follows the text. Note: Dates in this article are in the Common Era (CE) unless identified as being before the Common Era (BCE). First, it should be understood that crucifixion, possibly on the principle of deterrence, was an intentionally degrading form of public execution and that it was reserved for the lowest of the low, criminals of the worst sorts who were not even Roman citizens—for it was virtually impermissible to put a Roman citizen to death.1 Insurrectionists, pirates, murderous slaves, and the like were candidates for crucifixion or the equally brutal (but quicker) punishments of being impaled or beaten to death with rods of birch or elm wood. Roman law specified that a slave who killed his master was to be put to death—along with all of the master’s other slaves. On the other hand, a Roman citizen was essentially immune to the death penalty. For malefactors who were Roman citizens, the most extreme sentences that could be imposed legally—with one exception, the punishment for parricide, the killing of one’s own father2—were exile or, for the very worst, immurement (burial alive).3 The Cross Historically, crucifixion did not always involve the cross as we know it today. The principal meaning of the Latin word crux is a frame on which criminals are exposed to die, hence, a cross; but crucifixion could also, depending on circumstance, be accomplished on a plain wooden stake taller than the victim, or even on a handy tree. There are also stories, none of which has been archaeologically authenticated, of Latin crosses and St. Andrew’s (X-shaped) crosses. The Romans’ standard method of crucifixion, however, made use of a T-shaped cross, known as a Tau cross for its shape, which resembles the Greek letter tau (Τ). Strong archaeological evidence for the use of the Tau cross exists. The earliest known artwork depicting what is believed to be the crucifixion of Jesus is the graffito shown below, scratched on a plaster wall in the paedagogium (training school for slaves for the royal palace) on the Caelian Hill in Rome at some time between 85 and 300. It is known as the “Alexamenos graffito.” Original graffito, on left, now in the Palatine Hill Museum, Rome. Right-hand image is modern artist’s reconstruction for clarification. The graffito is obviously a mockery of Christianity, which was seen as an extension of Judaism. A common obloquy of the time said that the Jews (and therefore the Christians) practiced onolatry, the worship of an ass, and the head of the crucified is that of an ass. For this reason, the graffito is also referred to as the “blasphemous graffito.” The Greek text below the image reads as follows: ΑΛΕξΑΜΕΝΟC CΕΒΕΤΕ ϑΕΟΝ Alexamenos worships [his] God The letter resembling a C in the text is a form of the Greek letter Σ (sigma) that was common in ancient times. The text aside, the image shows a view of a crucified victim from the back, and it clearly depicts a Tau cross. A second graffito, dated to the second century CE, was found among a mass of other graffiti on the wall of a tavern in Puteoli (modern Pozzuoli). The original graffito remains in situ, in Taberna 5 near the beginning of the ancient Via Campana. This graffito, also showing the victim from the back, again illustrates a Tau cross. It also appears to show the lacerations on the back that resulted from flogging (to be discussed later in this article). The stripes could, however, indicate that the victim was wearing the skin of an animal, possibly to attract the attention of beasts in the arena so that they would attack. The victim's legs in this example are crossed, with each foot secured to the stipes by a separate nail. The Tau cross was made in two parts, as shown here: • The stipes, a vertical stake tall enough to support a man off the ground with his arms stretched out sideways at approximately a 45° angle above his shoulders. When the stipes was standing upright, the visible part of it would have been about seven feet (~2.4 m) tall and about six to eight inches (~15 cm to ~20 cm) square. Traditional depictions of Jesus’ crucifixion that show him on a cross taller than those of the two men who were crucified with him are examples of religious idealism, raising the God-figure above the mere mortals. Given that Golgotha was an established place of execution, there would have been several stipites permanently installed, so that this is probably the size of the stipes on which Jesus was crucified. • The patibulum, a crossbeam enough longer than the span of a man’s arms that the wrists could be nailed to it. A “proper” patibulum, as the one used for Jesus almost certainly was, would have measured approximately six feet (~1.83 m) long and had the same cross- section as the stipes. If it was made of oak, a wood commonly used by the Romans for structural purposes and readily available in Judaea, it would have weighed something on the order of 90 to 95 pounds (~41 to ~43 kg). To correspond with the readiness of the place of execution, there would have been a supply of prefabricated patibula available at or near Herod’s palace, where Pilate’s praetorium (commander’s residence) was located.4 The stipes could be set up by means of a stand, without wheels, that was similar in appearance to the wooden carriages of early cannons. This was a convenience that would allow the stipes to be lowered to the horizontal to make it easy to crucify the victim and to remove the body and the patibulum after the victim had died. Alternatively, the stipes could be buried with its base a few feet into the ground and wedged by pieces of wood pounded into the ground around it to ensure that it would remain standing upright. The choice of erection method was usually determined by whether the place of crucifixion was to be permanently established, or by circumstance. No stands were built, for example, for the crosses of the approximately 6,000 followers of Spartacus who were crucified along the Via Appia in 71 BCE because those crosses were not intended for repeated use. At the top of the stipes was a square or rectangular peg, the cardo masculus, onto which the patibulum, with a matching hole cut into it, the cardo femina, could be fitted. Because the cardines were not round, the patibulum could not rotate atop the stipes. Did Jesus really have to carry his own cross to Golgotha? One of several ancient writers who described crucifixion, the Greek philosopher and biographer Plutarch, known as Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus after he was granted Roman citizenship, wrote the following less than a century after Jesus’ death: ἕκαστος κακούργων ἐκφέρει τὸν αὑτοῦ σταυρόν.5 Every malefactor must carry out his own cross. (author’s translation) If that is not sufficient, we have only to turn to the four Gospels, which are united in saying that Jesus was made to carry his cross. Because he carried his cross, we can be sure that he was crucified on a Tau cross, not a stake or a tree, and that he did not carry the entire cross. As described above, the stipes was already at the place of execution. We do not know whether the stipes of Jesus’ cross was mounted in a stand or sunk into the ground. In either case, however, the only part of the cross that the victim would carry from the place of sentencing to the place of execution was the patibulum. It would be placed across his shoulders like a yoke and lashed to his arms to keep it from slipping, and he would carry it that way.