# Crucifixion: Why the Crossbar? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 27, 2017, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crucifixion-why-the-crossbar/802901 "2017-11-27T23:52:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Biffster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biffster/32/339_2.png) [@Biffster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffster)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2017, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crucifixion-why-the-crossbar/802901/61 "2017-12-08T20:03:34Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Terrific race, the Romans. Terrific. My father was a Roman! A woman? No, a Roman, sir. Thtwike him, centuwion! Vewy woughly! ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2017, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crucifixion-why-the-crossbar/802901/62 "2017-12-08T22:33:27Z")
istm that if you don’t have a crosspiece, it can’t really be described as a cross. And affixing someone to it isn’t really crucifixion. ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2017, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crucifixion-why-the-crossbar/802901/63 "2017-12-08T23:36:39Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > istm that if you don’t have a crosspiece, it can’t really be described as a cross. And affixing someone to it isn’t really crucifixion. Etymologically speaking, it doesn’t seem that the Latin word _crux_ originally had any sense of a shape in the form of two intersecting pieces; rather, it just meant something like “a stake or pole used as an instrument of torture and execution”. An ancient Roman cross could be a “[crux simplex](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crux_simplex)”; that is, just a simple upright pole. The English sense of “cross” as in an intersection of lines (like a _cross_roads) or a similar figure (like the letter X or the symbol +) seems to have developed later, under the influence of centuries of Christian conception of the cross used to execute Jesus as having had the shape of a [Latin cross](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Latin_cross). ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2017, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crucifixion-why-the-crossbar/802901/64 "2017-12-09T13:32:50Z")
> [@chappachula](#): > > This has gotta be the most appropriate pun in Sdope history! 🙂 That was a pun??? 😉 Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![OttoDaFe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ottodafe/32/356_2.png) [@OttoDaFe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OttoDaFe)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2017, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crucifixion-why-the-crossbar/802901/65 "2017-12-09T14:25:32Z")
When I was in high school — which seems now like it was about the time the Empire fell — I was doing research for a Latin class project and came across what purported to be an account written by a man who was leaving Rome shortly after Crassus crushed the Spartacus rebellion. Granted that it had no specific provenance, he described the process of mass execution like this:[ul] [li]Every mile or so the soldiers would peel a group of prisoners off from the main body.[/li][li]Once the rest had gone on out of earshot, they’d start killing the prisoners in the group (this was probably done to prevent mass panic and attempts to overpower the guards).[/li][li]Each prisoner would be nailed to a cross that had been pre-built on site by a team of engineers (Henry Ford would approve). The crosses were positioned next to holes in the ground.[/li][li]After the prisoner was secured, the guards would lift the cross by ropes attached to the crossbar and let it drop into the hole. The impact wouldn’t do the victim any good, but that was probably regarded as a feature rather than a bug.[/li][li]If the hole was so big that the cross was seriously off-kilter, the guards would use wedges to straighten it. This had nothing to do with esthetics, it was probably done to ensure that the victim lasted as long as possible[/li][/ul]Apparently Crassus was quite proud of the fact that he was able to calculate the spacing of the crosses so that they reached from the battlefield to the gates of Rome. (Incidentally, contrary to the way the crucifixion of Christ is depicted, it seems to have been a common practice to strip the victim naked. Just another touch of humiliation provided free gratis courtesy of SPQR.) ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2017, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crucifixion-why-the-crossbar/802901/66 "2017-12-09T15:53:01Z")
From the [Ancient History Encyclopedia](https://www.ancient.eu/Marcus_Licinius_Crassus/): > [@](#): > > In 71 BCE he unsuccessfully attempted to corner Spartacus in Bruttium where his lieutenant Mummius rashly disregarded Crassus’ orders and openly attacked the slave army with two legions, was routed and even forced to abandon arms. In response to this setback Crassus employed the ancient punishment of decimation on a 500-man section of Mummius’ force, where one in ten legionaries were killed by their fellows in full view of the whole army. > > With eight legions at his disposal Crassus cornered Spartacus at Lucania, finally defeated the slave army, and crucified 6,000 of the survivors along the Appian Way. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2017, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crucifixion-why-the-crossbar/802901/67 "2017-12-10T02:36:48Z")
Mass crucifixion at intervals along a road was also depicted in _Game of Thrones_. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crucifixion-why-the-crossbar/802901.md?page=3)