Legend has it that the apostle Peter was crucified upside down. Would you die quicker that way? Would it be more painful than regular crucifixion (if that is even possible)? What exactly would happen, physiologically? Any info would be appreciated. (And I don’t need the answer fast…)
IANARC (I am not a Roman Centurion) but I would say that the biggest impact would be with all the blood rushing to your brain. Would that make you pass out sooner?
I recently read a magazine story about the death of a high school athlete who was found in an inverted position wedged in a rolled up wrestling mat that was stored upright on edge near some bleachers. The story concerned whether the young man had been beaten to death and disposed of head down in the mat or if he had died from misadventure as the cops and medical examiner claimed. They say he reached down in the tube to retrieve his shoes and got wedged upside down with death resulting from suffocation due to compression of his diaphragm by the weight of his internal organs.
I can’t answer the OP’s question, but will toss in this tidbit:
As I understand it, a common precursor to crucifixion, at least as the Romans did it, was scourging to the point that your back was laid open. I’d have to imagine that as you might be going into hypovolemic shock, you might be pretty delirious, and therefore blissfully unaware of the extent of your injuries, regardless of orientation.
Professional attention whore David Blaine did a similar stunt a while back. The Beeb reports that the main danger is high blood pressure in rhw brain leading to significant risk of stroke and fluid in the lungs causing a pulmonary edema. Excess fluid in the brain would cause a cerebral edema.
OTOH Blaine got upright every hour or so, which a crucifixion victim (presumably) would not experience.
There are multiple theories as to the cause of death in crucifixion, but the most common one is that you die of suffocation. Being suspended by your outstretched arms makes it difficult to exhale, so you have to push down on the nail in your feet and relieve the stretch for as long as you can stand the pain and cramping in your legs and feet. Being upside down would not AFAICT stretch out in the same way, so you would just hang by your feet until shock, exposure, and dehydration finished you off (unless you had a stroke or suffered pulmonary edema, as Mr. Kobayashi mentions).
Regards,
Shodan
An inverted-crucifiction victim would have his arms spread out in the same way as an upright one, but without the opportunity to push down on the feet-nail to relieve it. The tension would probably be comparable, depending on the weight of the crossbeam relative to the person’s weight.
What I meant was that pulling the arms down doesn’t stretch out the chest the same way as pulling them up would do, so it would not have the same effect on breathing. The tension would be the same, but the angle of pull would be different.
Regards,
Shodan
But, by being upside down, there’d be continued blood flow to the brain (simply by gravity) making you most unblissfully aware of your pain and injuries for a lot longer than if you were upright.