Just watched the movie, and it’s implied that the men volunteered to be hanged in a later scene in the movie. They did this so their families would be taken care of.
An interesting note is that the woman with her child is watching her husband being hanged. She shudders and someone suggested on another thread she was actually having an orgasm? I don’t see it this way, but in ancient Rome, people became sexually aroused watching gladiators fight, men being fed to animals etc. I wonder if this is what the director was getting at?