Update

Slight changes to Impalements in Antiquity (4E), section B.2.5., The King Finds Out and Guess What happens to Haman!

Crucifixion the Bodily Support - "Biblical Evidence" - Installment 6.

Detail of an epigraph from the Roman Coliseum.

(Part 5f of the series: Crucifixion the Bodily Support)

Part 1                    Part 2                    Part 3                    Part 4   

Part 5a                  Part 5b                  Part 5c                  Part 5d                  Part5e

Introduction.

What sort of gear was the instrument of Jesus' execution?

Well I said I was going to treat the four gospels as separate which I have done, and then harmonise the whole lot, to see what differences come up. So here we go.

F. Harmonisation.

There are several points to juggle to see which sorts of execution gears used by the Romans would accomplish the (actual or fictitious) execution of Jesus as described in the various gospels.

From the various gospels we have the following points:

F.1. The σταυρὸς was portable and could be borne or worn on one’s back.

This point is from Mark (Mk) 8:34, Matthew (Mt) 10:38 and 16:24, and Luke (Lk) 9.23 where everybody would follow Jesus must take up his own pole σταυρὸν, and contrary to the synoptics, John (Jn) 19:17 said Jesus carried his own pole (σταυρὸν). Whether it was an ordinary pole or impaling stake, a patibulum or cross-pole intended to spread out the arms, or two-pole cross, the σταυρὸς had to be light enough for a violently flogged condemned man to ferry on his back while staggering to the execution site.

F.2. Jesus said he would be “lifted up.”

We have three separate passages where Jesus says that he must be lifted up in the same manner as Moses had lifted up the serpent in the desert. The first instance is in Jn 3:14 when Jesus is visited at night by Nicodemus, and tells him that he is to be lifted up in the same manner as Moses lifted the bronze serpent out in the desert. Then second instance is Jn 8:28 when Jesus tells his Pharisaic Jewish opponents point-blank that when they have lifted him up, they will know that he spoke what the Father (God) taught him. Well the Jews never got the message!  The third instance is in Jn 32-33 when Jesus, at the House of the Holy Place, predict he will be lifted up. This whole snake on a pole business in the first instance, of course, screams that Jesus would be attached to a regular pole somehow and exalted. Just like Moses’ Nehustan pole, Asclepius’ staff and Hermes-Mercury’s caduceus wand.

John claims that this was to be fulfilled when the Jews drag Jesus before Pilate's court to be on trial for his life. Of course, there is no guarantee in real life that a crucified criminal or rebel will be exalted on a cross. The usual Roman term for suspension into a cross or onto a pole or an impale stake is (sus)tollere in crucem, meaning, to lift, hoist, or push up into a cross or onto a stake (pole and/or impale) or both. This is a pregnant construction with the action indicated as an act of motion. And of course, the ius gladii (legal power of the sword) rested with any Roman prefects and procurators who governed Judea since 6 CE.

The typical Roman executionary suspension procedure doesn’t exactly fulfill Jesus’ prediction, when all are taken together, Unless he is to be nailed to an assembled execution cross on the ground and then lifted up, in which case John appears to be importing the imagery of the exaltation of the wax effigy of Julius Caesar on a victory cross / tropaeum at his funeral March 17, 44 BCE into the depiction of what sort death Jesus was to die. The fulfillment doesn’t exactly conform to the image of a bronze snake being nailed to a pole and borne aloft, but it’s close enough for government work.

F.3. Jesus' foreshadowing of the two robbers, crucified on either side.

This scene is only found in Mark and Matthew. In Luke’s gospel, Luke relocates the passages about the Twelve sitting on thrones judging the Twelve Tribes of Israel (Mt 19:16-30), and who would be the greatest, forward to the Last Supper (Lk 22:24-30). John, who is supposedly one of the sons of Zebedee, drops it altogether.

In the scene with Jesus and James and John the sons of Zebedee, (Mk 10:35-40, and Mt 20: 20-23) Jesus said he was not able commit to them that they would get to sit on 'thrones' to the right and left of him when he was to come into his glory. Because here he was talking about himself being suspended on his cross! Here, Jesus reinforces this foreshadowing by bracketing this discourse with predictions of his execution or crucifixion in Mk 10:33-34 / Mt 20:17-19 and Mk 10:45 / Mt 20.28.

The word "sit" is rendered in the Greek as a conjugate of καθίζω "sit, cause to sit, take one's seat, settle, sink down." The meaning is essentially identical to the Latin sedeo, which Seneca Minor uses in his EpistulaeMorales ad Lucillum 101.11, 12 (English Link) in reference to an acuta-crux (pointed stake) to sit, sink down or settle on. This is pointing right out that the two λῃσταί (robbers) were going to 'sit' on their crosses.

F.4. The Jewish leaders and assembled crowd call for his death.

They demand that he be crucified:

"Crucify him!" (Σταύρωσον αὐτόν.) (Mk 15;13,14)

"He must be crucified." (Σταυρωθήτω.) (Mt 27: 21,22)

"Crucify, crucify him!" (Σταύρωσον, σταύρωσον αὐτόν) (Lk 23:21)

“Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!” ("Ἆρον ἆρον σταύρωσον!) (Jn 19:15)

It should be noted here that ἆρον can just as easily be translated as “lift him up” or “hoist him” and σταύρωσον / σταυρωθήτω could just as easily be translated as “pile-drive (impale) him” / “He must be pile-driven (impaled).” For the previous meanings of the basic verb σταυρόω did not always mean "crucify." It also meant at the time and has meant before it was used to connote crucifixion, as "impalisade, fence with pales, pile-drive, impale." "Impale on [a] cross" is the definition listed in the Greek-English Lexicon to Strong's Exhaustive Concordance. And of course, we have the LSJ which defines σταυρόω as: "impalisaded, fence with pales" and also “crucify” in Roman times. Thucydides (The Peloponnesian War 7.25.7) uses the verb to connote: "to drive piles". Diodorus Siculus (Library of History 16.61.2) uses it to connote “impale” (for a corpse already cut to pieces). A more complete survey on the verb can be read here, and by looking into Gunnar Samuelsson's book, Crucifixion in Antiquity.

So one should expect one or more of the previous meanings to be brought forward into the verb σταυρόω when it is used to describe a crucifixion.

F.5. What did they offer him and when did they offer it?

Prior to Jesus’ crucifixion they, the Roman soldiers, offer him a tincture of wine mixed with myrrh (Mk 15:25), which is a tonic and a sexual aphrodisiac! In fact, Romans imported myrrh for the very purpose of using it as an aphrodisiac. Now where did Mark get this information from? It is possible that there was a common practice of the executioners to give those about to be crucified this sort of tincture with the express purpose of making them drunk and high and horny. This would make sense if the cross was equipped with an acuta crux, i.e., a sharpened stake or spike, on which one was suspended or rode, and which would be called a pale (palus), a seat (sedile), a horn (κεράς or cornu), or a thorn (σκόλοψ) in the language of the street.

But then instead, just before they crucify him, they offer him wine mixed with gall (χολῆς: “bile, cuttle-fish ink, a disgust”), i.e., something disgusting to consume. (Mt 27:34)

After Jesus is crucified, the Roman soldiers perchance come in off the road and surround him, offering him vinegar, mocking him the whole time. (Lk 23:36)

At the end of his time alive on the pole, someone offers Jesus some vinegar in a sponge supported on a reed, hoping that would shut him up. (Mk 15:36, Mt 27:48) 

Just before he passes away, the soldiers offer Jesus some vinegar in a sponge that is wrapped around a piece of hyssop, which is herbaceous that time of year. (Jn 19:29)

F.6. How did the executioners crucify him?

The four gospels have absolutely no description of how Jesus was crucified. Luke does have additional information on the mechanics and effects of a typical crucifixion. Just went on before and what were the effects after.

F.6.1 The execution process before.

The Roman soldiers flogged or scourged Jesus. (Mk 15:15, Mt 27:26, Jn 19:1)

The Roman soldiers mock-coronate him in the Praetorium. (Mk 15:16-20, Mt 27:27-31, Jn 19:2-3). Or it was Herod Antipas and his soldiers that did it. (Lk 23:11)

They lead him out. “They” by rule of antecedent were either the Roman soldiers (Mk 15:20, Mt 27:31), or some of the Jews (Lk 23:26, Jn 19:16b)

They run him through the streets either bearing or wearing his own pole (Jn 19:17), or forcing Simon of Cyrene to carry it for him (Mk 15:21, Mt 27;32, Lk 23;36).

They lead two other criminals with Jesus to be executed (ἀναιρεθῆναι "to be raised, lifted up, killed, done away with") (Lk 23:32)

They strip him completely naked before they crucified him and gamble for his clothes afterwards. The “they” who did it were Roman soldiers (Mk 15:24, Mt 27:35, Jn 19:23) or the Jewish execution party (Lk 23:34).

F.6.2. The actual mechanical procedure.

"And they crucify him." (Καὶ σταυροῦσιν αὐτὸν) (Mk 15:24)

"And they crucified him."  (Σταυρώσαντες δὲ αὐτὸν) (Mt 27:35)

"…there they crucified him." (…ἐκεῖ ἐσταύρωσαν αὐτὸν) (Lk 23:33)

“Here they crucified him…” (ὅπου αὐτὸν ἐσταύρωσαν) (Jn 19:18)

No clues or details are given in these passages concerning the actual act of crucifying Jesus, save the use of the verb σταυρόω: “impalisade, fence with pales, pile-drive, impale, crucify.”

Indeed, one has to look into Acts to find further clues as to what the mechanical process was. In Acts 2:23, we see Peter telling the assembled Jews that they crucified Jesus and put him to death (προσπήξαντες ἀνείλατε), literally fastened, fixed, or planted against something unspecified and lifted up or put to death. In Acts 2:36 Peter says they crucified (ἐσταυρώσατε) him, which could include one or more of the earlier senses of the verb σταυρόω. In Acts 4:10, Peter is reported as employing the same verb ἐσταυρώσατε for crucified again. In Acts 5:30 we see Peter tell the Sanhedrin that they killed Jesus by hanging him upon a tree, gallows or stake (κρεμάσαντες ἐπὶ ξύλου) = "whom you killed, having hanged him on a tree," a Greek transliteration for the Hebrew (תָּלָה עַל־ עֵֽץ) (talah 'al 'etz) = “hang upon a tree” (1917 JPS Tanakh) or more directly and accurately per ancient Near East epigraphy “impale on a stake” (1985 JPS Tanakh). In Acts 10:40, in Cornelius’s house, Peter again says that the Jews killed Jesus by hanging him on a tree, etc. (κρεμάσαντες ἐπὶ ξύλου).

F.6.3. The results of the mechanical procedure.

The living persons of the two criminals were bodily suspended or hanged by a means not specified (Lk 23:39):  κρεμασθέντων from κρεμάννῦμι, “hang, hang up, suspend” by any means including crucifixion and impalement. At the end of the day they were to be taken down and Joseph of Arimathea took down (καθελων) the body of Jesus (Mk. 15:46, Lk 23:53) or just took (λαβὼν) it (Mt 27:59).

This is confirmed (except for Joseph of Arimathea being a disciple) by an angry screed, recorded in Acts 5:27-29, by the Apostle Paul in the Synagogue in Pisidian Antioch where he accuses the Jews in Jerusalem and their rulers of, despite lacking a conviction meet of a death sentence, they asked Pilate to have him executed. And after they themselves carried out all that was written, they took him down as booty from the tree (καθελόντες ἀπὸ τοῦ ξύλου) on which he was hanged and laid him in a tomb.

And yet in Jn 19:31 we read that the bodies were to be lifted up and taken away (ἀρθῶσιν) before sunset, which is the apparent sense established by other uses of the verb αἴρω (ἀείρω) in the New Testament. Otherwise the bodies would remain on the crosses, poles (ἐπὶ τοῦ σταυροῦ), which signifies the cross or pole as a support for each body – which it was. In which The preposition ἐπὶ constructed with the genitive of σταυρὸς would indicate that the bodies were on, upon or on top of the σταυρὸς which means it was either an impaling stake or a pole or frame equipped with an impale.

In the case of Jesus there were nail imprints in his hands, wrists or forearms. (Jn 20:25, 27) So apparently in John there was some kind of beam they nailed his hands to.

F.7. Location of the Sign.

Now after they crucified Jesus, where did they install the sign bearing his name and charge of crimen maiestas -- high treason -- for being The King of the Jews?

In Mk 15:26, the location the titulus was posted is not indicated. In Mt 27:37 it's above or near, almost upon, his head: "And they placed upon or near the head of him of the accusation of him (καὶ ἐπέθηκαν ἐπάνω τῆς κεφαλῆς αὐτοῦ τὴν αἰτίαν αὐτοῦ).” In Lk 23:38 the narrative simply states that it's above Jesus: "Moreover there was also an inscription over him (ἦν δὲ καὶ  ἐπιγραφὴ  ἐπ' αὐτῷ).” Jn 19:19 states that “Moreover Pilate wrote a notice and put it on [top of] the cross (ἔγραψεν δὲ καὶ τίτλον ὁ Πιλᾶτος ἔθηκεν ἐπὶ τοῦ σταυροῦ)".

Okay, here the sign is above, at or near Jesus, it’s almost upon his head, and it’s put on top of the cross, hanging beam or pole. Which basically rules out a simple vertical pole, a lone impaling stake, and a crux immissa (tropaeum). What we have left to choose from are a crux commissa (wooden structural tee or a utility pole), a mast-type 'cross', or a patibulum (horizontal pole or beam) suspended between two posts (cf. Seneca, Dialogus 6 (De Consolatione) 20.3).

F.8. And it Was Granted that Two May Sit…

In Mark 10: 35-40 and Matthew 20: 20-23, Jesus is asked if James and John the sons of Zebedee could sit beside him one at his right and the other at his left, naively think that he was speaking of the sitting on his throne in the World to Come. In reply, Jesus said it was outside of his power to grant their request, for the seats were reserved for those for whom it was prepared. This, of course, was an allusion to his crucifixion.

And the two who got to sit at his right and at his left were two λῃσταί: armed robbers (Mk 15;27, Mt 27:38), also called κακούργους : criminals, evildoers (Lk 23:33), and other (men): (Jn 19:18)

“And with him they crucify two robbers (καὶ σὺν αὐτῷ σταυροῦσιν δύο λῃστάς)” (Mk 15:27).

“Then are crucified with him two robbers (Τότε σταυροῦνται σὺν αὐτῷ δύο λῃσταί)” (Mt 27:38).

"along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left (καὶ τοὺς κακούργους, ὃν μὲν ἐκ δεξιῶν ὃν δὲ ἐξ ἀριστερῶν).” (Lk. 23:33)

“and with him two others--one on each side and Jesus in the middle (καὶ μετ’ αὐτοῦ ἄλλους δύο ἐντεῦθεν καὶ ἐντεῦθεν, μέσον δὲ τὸν Ἰησοῦν). (Jn 19:18)

And note that the four evangelists used or implied the verb σταυρόω to denote the crucifixion of the two criminals. And obviously they were required to ‘sit’ in accordance with Jesus’ foreshadowing of his crucifixion in his conversation with James and John Ben-Zebedee.

And if the two with lesser charges were ‘seated’ each on an acuta-crux under lesser charges (armed robbery), the one crucified under the charge of high treason as "The King of the Jews" would be similarly mounted on one, as well. And his could have been taller and stouter. The gospels are absolutely clear that the Romans Soldiers (or "Jews") singled Jesus out for special treatment! So then they would not have remitted this cruel and unusual and most shameful part of the extreme punishment.

F.9. The Mockery.

The mockery in Matthew and Mark are quite different from that in Luke, and far more insulting. The two evangelists set it up so that it is clear that it is quite impossible for Jesus to come down from the cross, pole or frame he is suspended on, despite the fact that neither of the two mention nails being used, at all, anywhere in their gospels.

The ordinary passers-by call for him to "Come down from the cross:"

“Save yourself, and come down from the cross! (καταβὰς ἀπὸ τοῦ σταυροῦ!)” (Mk. 15:30)

“Come down from the cross, (κατάβηθι ἀπὸ τοῦ σταυροῦ) if you are the Son of God!” (Mt 27:40)

In the same vein the chief priests, the teachers of the law and/or elders dared him to do the same thing:

"Let this Christ... come down now from the cross (ὁ χριστὸς..  καταβάτω νῦν ἀπὸ τοῦ σταυροῦ)” (Mk 15:32)

"Let him come down now from the cross (καταβάτω νῦν ἀπὸ τοῦ σταυροῦ)" (Mt 27:42)

These verbs for “come down” are conjugated from καταβαίνω, “step down, dismount” as in “I dismount a horse (καταβαίνω ἀπὸ τοῦ ἵππου).” Now that we have in Mark and Matthew the exact same verbiage in κ. ἀπὸ τοῦ σταυροῦ that we have in κ. ἀπὸ τοῦ ἵππου, it means that Jesus must  "dismount" his suspension-torture cross, pole, or frame, meaning, of course, that he is mounted, stuck on, astride a part of it. And of course it is quite impossible to dismount it, because everyone is mocking and daring him in such a rude manner.

In Luke 23:35-39 the mockery is far different from that in Mark and Matthew. Here, no one dares Jesus to “Come down from the cross!” It is as if Luke knows that Mark and Matthew are being far too rude in their use of the Greek verb καταβαίνω "dismount" when it refers to coming down from a crucifixion instrument, meaning the cruciarius is usually mounted, i.e., penetrated on it.

Instead the people watch, the rulers sneering, the soldiers offering vinegar --- strong vinegar, not just posca, if they were having sport with him as Luke says --- and even one of the two criminals were asking him to save himself (σωσάτω ἑαυτόν) and them too.

John mentions nothing.

F.10. The Hyssop.

Now the use of the hyssop in John’s gospel (Jn 19:29) is very strange. Either the purpose of the inclusion of the hyssop was theological, or there was a Roman practice of irrumating thirsty crucified criminals with sponges laden with vinegar (Gk. οξους, Latin acetum), filthy toilet sponges or otherwise. This of course, is not an act of kindness, but to further torment the person, as he is already dehydrated, to give him a harsh, bitter-tasting fluid that acts as a diuretic.

And how did they "put it upon hyssop?" The Greek verb is, περιθέντες "they put around. In Latin, circumponentes "they set, put, placed around"; and circumdederunt "they put, set, placed around, wrapped around, surrounded, enclosed." And in the early spring hyssop, now known as oregano, marjoram and zatar, may not have been a woody perrenial from a previous year but rather an herbaceous shoot, scarcely 18" high and wholly unable to support a sponge.

There's an interesting fact about hysopped vinegar. Back then, it was used to treat wounds and irritation to the anus. This has been noted by Bill Thayer of the University of Chicago in his comment on Pliny the Elder's NaturalHistory, Book 23. (Note: for anus, Pliny used a euphemism: "seat.") 

"This text of Pliny, however, provides evidence of something very different: hyssoped vinegar was apparently considered a very strong topical anaesthetic specific for rectal pain.

"In more intelligible detail, here is the connection with the Crucifixion:…

"…The crucified man hangs from his wrists, and his chest is distended inwards and down. If a foot-rest is provided, this prolongs the torture, since the victim will be able to push himself up and get some air; but this induces cramps and eventually tetany of the arm and leg muscles, which become so painful that he eventually slumps down again — and the cycle continues to exhaustion and final asphyxiation in the down position."

"To this torture, the Romans commonly added a refinement: a sharp spike (called a sedile, a ‘seat’) was fixed on the upright beam in such a place that when the exhausted victim slips back down, it pierces the anus….

…"Now read Pliny's text again. What the soldier was doing was not giving Jesus a drink of posca using hyssop as a support for the sponge. He was administering a pain-killer to a different place altogether, and the sponge, in accordance with our passage of Pliny, was being used as a swab. The writer of the gospel was standing too far away to see exactly what the soldier was doing and interpreted it wrongly; or some redactor has been prudish."

Then again the passage could have originally stated that the executioners tied a vessel full of vinegar to a reed and put it to his mouth, as stated by Porphyry in Against the Christians (Fragment 15, Macarius, Apocriticus II:12), or the word ὑσσώπῳ, “hyssop” was originally ὑσσῷ, “javelin.” The word is missing from the passage in one of the earliest fragmentary manuscripts Papyrus P66 due to the disintegration of the papyrus.

F.11. Breaking the legs.

Another exclusive to John. So that they might take the persons down from the cross (pole, pale) per Jewish demands, what the soldiers were doing was to break the legs of each of the condemned (Jn 19:32) as a coup de grâce -- a death blow intended to end the suffering of a wounded creature. In the Gospel of Peter, this is made plain: the two thieves don't insult the one crucified with them, but one of them backtalks at one of the executioners. And the execution party decides that this one's legs shall not be broken, so that he shall die in torment. Of course, the executioners probably did not do the breaking of legs out of compassion, but more likely out of boredom or because of local authorities' demands -- in this case, get the bodies buried before sunset!

And the means of death probably wasn’t asphyxiation (the Romans set fires for that -- see image at top) but rather it might have been what we would call Harness Hanging Syndrome, since they can no longer push up with their legs. Or maybe being penetrated with an acuta-crux has something to do with this – depending on its size and shape, of course.

The phrase, "which was crucified with him" in Greek is: τοῦ συσταυρωθέντος αὐτῷ "of the one fenced with pales, pile-driven, impaled and/or crucified with him", the Latin Vulgate, qui crucifixus est cum eo "who was crucified with him" and the Old Latin qui confixus erat illi in crucem "who had been fastened or nailed together (rare), joined (by pressing), pierced through, transfixed with him onto the cross, pole, pale."

F.12. Stabbing the Side.

From Reliquarium Lateran, ca 600 CE.

Apparently, John also had a need to indicate that Jesus was not crucified by being simply directly impaled. This is because that perhaps, σταυρόω still connoted a sense of ‘pile-driving’ or impalement, even of the kind from which there was no surviving. And so, to portray that Jesus did not suffer an exit wound from an impale stake, John comes up with the stabbing scene in Jn 19:34: “But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side (λόγχῃ αὐτοῦ τὴν πλευρὰν ἔνυξεν), and forthwith came there out blood and water.” The verb here used is ἔνυξεν, “Pricked, stabbed, pierced,” but we are later to understand that the wound in the side (πλευρὰν), “side, ribs,” caused by the stabbing with the lance (λόγχῃ) was supposed to be this really huge, really deep gash.

In a hostile occupied country, a real crucifixion of a condemned man who is popular with the locals would require the soldiers to threaten the use of a spear. A pilum would be useless, because any one could bend the point back and it would be disabled. Something rigid like a Celtic lance would be far more useful. But the narrow gaps between the ribs could conceivably prevent a puncture would anything deeper than pricking or stabbing, due to the manner the spearhead tapers out. Tradition seems to back up the idea that Jesus was merely pricked or stabbed like in The Passion of the Christ.

And the stated reason for this stabbing is cited in John 19:37: "as another scripture says: 'They will look upon the one they have pierced (ἐξεκέντησαν: ‘pierced through, transfixed’, 'pierced, stabbed', or 'pricked, stabbed').” Well it seems John didn’t remember that in his story when Jesus was up on the cross, the soldier had pierced him in the sense of pricking or stabbing and later on in John 20:25-27, portrays the wound in Jesus’ side to be large enough for “doubting” Thomas to thrust his whole hand into: “ ‘Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.’… …‘Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing.’ “

F.13. "It is I, myself!"

This scene described in Luke 24:36-44 is after the Resurrection, after Jesus appeared on a highway to and had supper broke bread with two others. He appears to the whole assembled eleven in a room asks them to touch his hands and feet (Lk 24:39,40) and asks for and consumes a broiled fish (Lk 24:41-43).

First, there is no evidence of nails. Second, there is no evidence of a big wound in his side. In fact, the very statement that says he ate some broiled fish mitigates against serious internal damage that would invariably be caused a simple direct impalement. Which means, of course, that Luke was trying to get the message across that Jesus was not killed by that method! Something which, apparently to me, and perhaps to him, too, Mark and Matthew utterly negligently failed to do.

And it looks to me that Luke was aware of John’s gospel when he wrote his, or vice-versa, for one with a big lance wound in his side at least when it’s in the flank hitting the digestive system is not going to be able to eat.

F.14. Conclusions:

And so, from harmonizing the four gospels (and coming up with a fifth in the process):

1. One condemned to be crucified carried his own pole (σταυρὸς) on his own back; therefore it was a large yet portable part of the instrument of his execution. (F.1)
2. One was to be lifted up on or onto his pole when and in order to be crucified. (F.2, F.4, F.6.1)
3. One who is crucified is first stripped naked, completely. (F.6.1)
4. Mark indicates Roman soldiers gave those about to be crucified a tincture of wine and myrrh. This is a sexual aphrodisiac, which means the executioners understood the sexual connotation of Roman crucifixion! Mathew edits this to indicate the wine had a disgusting substance mixed in. (F.5)
5. The verb used by the evangelists for “crucify”, σταυρόω, connotes crucifixion by impalement, or ‘pile-driving’. [F4, F.6.2]
6. The crucified one was suspended and hanging once the procedure of his crucifixion was complete. [F.6.2, F.6.3]  
7. The instrument of one’s crucifixion was referred to as a ξυλον “tree, gallows, stake.” [F.6.2, F.6.3]
8. The one crucified was also firmly supported on, with, and by the instrument of his execution. [F.6.3]
9. The manner of placement and location of the sign bearing Jesus’ name and charge of his conviction restricts the larger pole or frame from which the crucified one was hanged to a wooden structural tee of at least two parts, a utility pole, or an overhead beam supported on two poles. [F.7]
10. Both robbers and Jesus, too, sat (also sank or settled) upon on the instruments of their crucifixion. [F.8]
11. The instrument of Jesus’ execution was something he had to dismount from in order to save himself and was not able to by the very nature of its design. [F.9]
12. A sponge charged with hysopped vinegar is a very curious substance to have at the ready at a crucifixion site, unless the intent was to use it as a strong analgesic for injuries caused to the anus by repeated penetration with a spike every time one hanged in the down position. [F.10]
13. The breaking of the legs caused a quick death for those who were crucified. [F.11]
14. John alleges Jesus was stabbed in the side with a spear or lance. This seems to deflect suspicion that Jesus may have been crucified by being transpierced on an impaling stake which the Romans also called a crux and the Greeks a σταυρὸς as well as a σκόλοψ. [F.12]
15. Luke alleges that Jesus was able to eat regular food the day after his resurrection, meaning he was not transpierced with an impaling stake, nor did any spike he would have been penetrated by when he slumped during his crucifixion cause any internal damage. This also apparently cancels out Jesus being stabbed in the side with a lance. [F.13]

From Last Temptation of Christ.

So the summation of the above fifteen points is this: the condemned carried his own pole to his crucifixion, where he was stripped naked and possibly given an aphrodisiac tincture of wine and myrrh. Then he is nailed with nails, plural, through his hands or wrists to, and lifted up and caused to be suspended by, one part of the gear of his execution, while at the same time he is sitting on, then penetrated by and mounted on, and finally firmly supported by another part of the same gear. Spectators would mock him, daring him to dismount (impossible!). Sometimes, the crucified was treated with hyssoped vinegar -- which, according to Pliny the Elder, was used to treat wounds of the anus. Breaking of legs caused a quick death by a cause unknown to us, possibly the cause was hanging harness syndrome. The eating of food and showing a stab wound from a lance are assertions by Luke and John that in one he wasn't wounded in the midsection and in the other the puncture wound in the midsection was not opened by a pressure point from the inside out.

So then, from the above fifteen points, it is clear that the instrument of Jesus’ execution and that of the two thieves was a cruciform frame, either a wooden structural tee or a utility pole, equipped with an acuta-crux: a spike that pierced the anus of the crucified when he slumped into the down position. The addition of details by the later evangelists Luke and John appear to have been included with the intent to quash rumours that Jesus was transpierced by his crux, not just the nails. 

Even so, there is an outside chance that the gear of Jesus' execution could have consisted of both a suspension beam between two posts by which one is suspended, and an impaling stake upon which one was forced to sit, sink, and settle, and interpreted as such by Non-Christians.

F.15. Weeding out the Confusion of the Four Gospels and Acts.

Another way of harmonizing is to take the different types of crucifixion gear that are possible under each  of the Evangelists' works and find out what remains.

F.15.1. Mark.

1. An impaling stake. (A)

2. An ordinary pole with with an acuta-crux, or spike that the condemned had to sit on. (B)

3. A cruciform structure of the flattop T-type, with the acuta-crux. (C)

4. A cruciform mast-type structure with the vertical pole taller than the height of transverse above the ground, with the acuta-crux. (D)

5. A set of three poles, the central one shorter and pointed, where the crucified would be suspended by the transverse from the two outer poles and impaled on the central one. (G)

F.15.2. Matthew.

1. An impaling stake. (A)

2. An ordinary pole with with an acuta-crux, or spike that the condemned had to sit on. (B)

3. A cruciform structure of the flattop T-type, with the acuta-crux. (C)

4. A cruciform mast-type structure with the vertical pole taller than the height of transverse above the ground, with the acuta-crux. (D)

5. A set of three poles, the central one shorter and pointed, where the crucified would be suspended by the transverse from the two outer poles and impaled on the central one. (G)

F.15.3. Luke.

1. An ordinary pole with an acuta-crux, or spike that the condemned had to sit on. (B)

2. A cruciform structure of the flattop T-type, with the acuta-crux. (C)

3. A cruciform mast-type structure with the vertical pole taller than the height of transverse above the ground, with the acuta-crux. (D)

4. A set of three poles, the central one shorter and pointed, where the crucified would be suspended by the transverse from the two outer poles and impaled on the central one. (G)

F.15.4. From Acts.


1. An impaling stake. (A)

2. An ordinary pole with an acuta-crux (σκόλοψ), or spike that the condemned had to sit on. (B)

3. A cruciform structure of the flattop T-type, with the acuta-crux. (C)

4. A cruciform mast-type structure with the vertical pole taller than the height of transverse above the ground, with the acuta-crux. (D)

5. A cruciform structure of the flattop T-type, plain. (E) (Acts 2:36, 4:10 said he was σταυρόω'ed).

6. A cruciform mast-type structure, plain. (F)

7. A set of three poles, the central one shorter and pointed, where the crucified would be suspended by the transverse from the two outer poles and impaled on the central one. (G)

8. A set of two poles, where the crucified would be suspended by the transverse from the poles. (H)

F.15.5: From John.

1. A cruciform structure of the flattop T-type, with the acuta-crux. (C)

2. A cruciform mast-type structure with the vertical pole taller than the height of transverse above the ground, with the acuta-crux. (D)

3. A cruciform structure of the flattop T-type, plain. (E) (gJohn 19:18 said he was σταυρόω'ed).

4. A cruciform mast-type structure, plain. (F)

5. A set of three poles, the central one shorter and pointed, where the crucified would be suspended by the transverse from the two outer poles and impaled on the central one. (G)

F.15.6. By Process of Elimination:

Types and which gospels and early church "history" each type qualifies for:

(A): Impale: Mark, Matt, Acts.
(B): Pole with acuta-crux: Mark, Matt, Luke, Acts.
(C): T with acuta-crux: Mark, Matt, Luke, Acts, John.
(D): Mast  with acuta-crux: Mark, Matt, Luke, Acts, John.
(E): T without acuta-crux: Acts, John.
(F): Mast without acuta-crux: Acts, John.
(G): Suspension beam on two poles with a central impale: Mark, Matt, Luke, Acts, John.
(H): Suspension beam on two poles only: Acts.

The types that qualify for all five works are: (C): T with acuta-crux, (D): Mast with acuta-crux, and (G) Suspension beam on two poles with a central impale.

F.15.7. Final Conclusions:

Through harmonization, either by harmonizing the gospels themselves and Acts, or by eliminating the types that conform to the requirements of one work and not another, we arrive to three possible types of suspension gear. The results are the same by both methods. And they make clear: Jesus was not crucified on a simple two-beam cross by the traditional understanding of "crucifixion:" nail to a tropaeum.

And this means the traditional understanding of "crucifixion" then, therefore, goes back not to an actual executionary suspension of a Jewish preacher of the good news of the World to Come (which to the Romans meant Death To Rome), but rather to the funerary exposition of the wax image of Julius Caesar on a tropaeum, which was confused with and later changed to a 'crux' by the Church Fathers and early Byzantine Christianity, respectively.

Christians have a lot to answer for.

Pace deorum.
    

Notes:

1. The noun σταυρὸς: masculine gender, nominative [subject] singular (pale, pole, execution cross or 'tree', i.e., Priapus stake; religious or votive cross). Accusative [direct object] singular is σταυρὸν. Accusative plural is σταυρούς. Genitive [possesive, generative or point of origin object] singular is σταυροῦ.

2. The noun patibulum, neutral gender, subject, direct object (door bar, beam or pole which was worn by slaves on the way to their punishment or execution or as part of their punishment, transverse lifting beam for execution by crucifixion or direct impalement).

Resources:

Perseus Digital Library, Perseus Tufts.edu. Link

Greek and Roman Authors on Lacus Curtius, Penelope U-Chigago.edu. Link 

The Latin Library Link

Perseus Greek and Latin Word Study Tools. Link

Whittaker's Words, Univ. of Notre Dame, ND.edu. Link

Word Study Tool, Numen, The Latin Lexicon. Link 

Online Parallel Bible Suite, Biblos (Bible.cc). Link 

Gospel of John in Old Latin, Vetus Latina Iohannes. Link

Σταυρόω

Roman execution poles resembled

our utility poles more than they resembled crosses!

The Greek verb σταυρόω goes quite aways back, into the Classical Greek period if not earlier, for I did not find any from the earlier Archaic period. I found quite a few instances, mostly with the help of the search tools at the Perseus Digital Library.

The basic definition of σταυρόω according to the LSJ and Middle Liddell Greek-English lexica is, "impalisade, fence with pales" and only later on does it mean "crucify" without regard to the method thereof. In New Testament times the meaning of the word becomes "to crucify the flesh (metaphorically), to destroy its power"

The term first appears in the Thucydides (460-395 BCE), The Peloponnesian War, where he describes actions done by opposing military forces. The first appearance is in the battle between Demosthenes' forces and the Lacedaemonians:

Δημοσθένης δὲ ὁρῶν τοὺς Λακεδαιμονίους μέλλοντας προσβάλλειν ναυσί τε ἅμα καὶ πεζῷ παρεσκευάζετο καὶ αὐτός, καὶ τὰς τριήρεις αἳ περιῆσαν αὐτῷ ἀπὸ τῶν καταλειφθεισῶν ἀνασπάσας ὑπὸ τὸ τείχισμα προσεσταύρωσε, καὶ τοὺς ναύτας ἐξ αὐτῶν ὥπλισεν ἀσπίσι [τε] φαύλαις καὶ οἰσυΐναις ταῖς πολλαῖς: οὐ γὰρ ἦν ὅπλα ἐν χωρίῳ ἐρήμῳ πορίσασθαι, ἀλλὰ καὶ ταῦτα ἐκ λῃστρικῆς Μεσσηνίων τριακοντόρου καὶ κέλητος ἔλαβον, οἳ ἔτυχον παραγενόμενοι. ὁπλῖταί τε τῶν Μεσσηνίων τούτων ὡς τεσσαράκοντα ἐγένοντο, οἷς ἐχρῆτο μετὰ τῶν ἄλλων.

Meanwhile Demosthenes, seeing the Lacedaemonians about to attack him by sea and land at once, himself was not idle.

He drew up under the fortification and enclosed in a stockade the triremes remaining to him of those which had been left him, arming the sailors taken out of them with poor shields made most of them of osier, it being impossible to procure arms in such a desert place, and even these having been obtained from a thirty-oared Messenian privateer and a boat belonging to some Messenians who happened to have come to them.Among these Messenians were forty heavy infantry, whom he made use of with the rest.

The Peloponnesian War 4.9.1

In the first instance προσεσταύρωσε means "he enclosed in a stockade", i.e., "impalisaded or fenced alongside with pales"1.

The second appearance describes a battle between Syracusian locals and the Athenians at Syracuse where the Syracusians build up a wall and extend and fortify it with palisades and stockades, but understaffed it.

ἐπειδὴ δὲ τοῖς Συρακοσίοις ἀρκούντως ἐδόκει ἔχειν ὅσα τε ἐσταυρώθη καὶ ᾠκοδομήθη τοῦ ὑποτειχίσματος, καὶ οἱ Ἀθηναῖοι αὐτοὺς οὐκ ἦλθον κωλύσοντες, φοβούμενοι μὴ σφίσι δίχα γιγνομένοις ῥᾷον μάχωνται, καὶ ἅμα τὴν καθ᾽ αὑτοὺς περιτείχισιν ἐπειγόμενοι, οἱ μὲν Συρακόσιοι φυλὴν μίαν καταλιπόντες φύλακα τοῦ οἰκοδομήματος ἀνεχώρησαν ἐς τὴν πόλιν

The Syracusans now thought the stockades and stonework of their counter-wall sufficiently far advanced; and as the Athenians, afraid of being divided and so fighting at a disadvantage, and intent upon their own wall, did not come out to interrupt them, they left one tribe to guard the new work and went back into the city.

The Peloponnesian War 6.100.1

Here the word ἐσταυρώθη means "the stockades [were] advanced", literally, "it [the defence line] was impalisaded"2 where they had elected to build a palisade fence in lieu of or in addition to the stone wall line of defence.

Later on in this chapter the Athenians and the Syracusans engaged in battle and the Athenians were victorious, and they pulled down the stone wall and the palisade and stockades, using the stakes for their tropaeum.

The third instance is where the Athenians and Syracusans were engaged in a pitched battle for Megara Harbor. The Syracusans had driven piles into the seabed in front of their docks to permit their own ships to dock inside and keep the Athenians out. The Athenians who observed this went and pulled the pilings out, broke them or sent divers to cut them in two. The destruction of the pilings was far advanced enough to require the Syracusans to drive new piles under fire:

χαλεπωτάτη δ᾽ ἦν τῆς σταυρώσεως ἡ κρύφιος: ἦσαν γὰρ τῶν σταυρῶν οὓς οὐχ ὑπερέχοντας τῆς θαλάσσης κατέπηξαν, ὥστε δεινὸν ἦν προσπλεῦσαι, μὴ οὐ προϊδών τις ὥσπερ περὶ ἕρμα περιβάλῃ τὴν ναῦν. ἀλλὰ καὶ τούτους κολυμβηταὶ δυόμενοι ἐξέπριον μισθοῦ. ὅμως δ᾽ αὖθις οἱ Συρακόσιοι ἐσταύρωσαν.

But the most awkward part of the stockade was the part out of sight: some of the piles which had been driven in did not appear above water, so that it was dangerous to sail up, for fear of running the ships upon them, just as upon a reef, through not seeing them. However divers went down and sawed off even these for reward; although the Syracusans drove in others.

The PeloponnesianWar 7.25.7

And here in this this instance the verb ἐσταύρωσαν means “drove in others”, i.e., drove piles in [again].3

So Thucydides shows an understanding in this context that σταυρόω that means “to impalisade, fence with pales," to mean, by extension, "to drive piles”.

Polybius (200 – 118 BCE).

The next to use the verb σταυρόω is Polybius where he describes the “crucifixion” of Spendius by the Carthaginian general Hannibal and the revenge upon Hannibal by Mathos’ mercenary army (238 BCE).

4 μετὰ δὲ ταῦτα προσαγαγόντες πρὸς τὰ τείχη τοὺς περὶ τὸν Σπένδιον αἰχμαλώτους ἐσταύρωσαν ἐπιφανῶς. 5 οἱ δὲ περὶ τὸν Μάθω κατανοήσαντες τὸν Ἀννίβαν ῥᾳθύμως καὶ κατατεθαρρηκότως ἀναστρεφόμενον, ἐπιθέμενοι τῷ χάρακι πολλοὺς μὲν τῶν Καρχηδονίων ἀπέκτειναν, πάντας δ᾽ ἐξέβαλον ἐκ τῆς στρατοπεδείας, ἐκυρίευσαν δὲ καὶ τῆς ἀποσκευῆς ἁπάσης, ἔλαβον δὲ καὶ τὸν στρατηγὸν Ἀννίβαν ζωγρίᾳ. 6 τοῦτον μὲν οὖν παραχρῆμα πρὸς τὸν τοῦ Σπενδίου σταυρὸν ἀγαγόντες καὶ τιμωρησάμενοι πικρῶς ἐκεῖνον μὲν καθεῖλον, τοῦτον δ᾽ ἀνέθεσαν ζῶντα καὶ περικατέσφαξαν τριάκοντα τῶν Καρχηδονίων τοὺς ἐπιφανεστάτους περὶ τὸ τοῦ Σπενδίου σῶμα,

4 When this was done they brought the captives taken from the army of Spendius and crucified them in the sight of the Enemy. 5 But observing that Hannibal was conducting his command with negligence and overconfidence, Mathos assaulted the ramparts, killed many of the Carthaginians, and drove the entire army from the camp. All the baggage fell into the hands of the enemy, and Hannibal himself was made a prisoner of war. 6 They at once took him to the pole on which Spendius was “crucified” and after their getting their revenge with tortures, took down the latter’s body and set up and left Hannibal, still living, to his pole, then slaughtered thirty Carthaginians of the highest rank round-about Spendius’ body.

Histories 1.86.4-6

Now here Polybius used in line 4 the conjugate ἐσταύρωσαν for “[they] crucified.”3 But the previous extant meanings from Thucydides are “impalisade,” “fence with pales,” and “pile drive.” Well “impalisade” is right out. So the other meanings are valid to conjure a picture of Spendius’ “crucifixion”. One is “fence with pales,” i.e., hang from a beam suspended by two poles and impale on a central pale, for example, which is necessary to affix the condemned on top of preplanted stakes of enormous heights (see Esther 7:9-10), or impaled across three pales as described by Plutarch in Artaxerxes 17.5. The other is “pile drive” which is obvious enough: the Vlad Tepes method of “crucifixion,” cited by Seneca ad being done “by others”. (Dialogue 6 (De Consolatione) 20.3). Now what about nailing to a cross? In that case, we would be assuming that the Romans were already nailing people to and/or impaling them on two-beamed crosses, simple or single-horned, about 145 to 120 BCE or so and that he was actualizing the punishment for himself by projecting it onto the Carthaginians. But as Gunnar Samuelsson has shown in his Crucifixion in Antiquity, we cannot assume the Romans were crucifying in that manner that early as commonly believed.

Line 6 clears matters up a bit. It describes a singular pole (σταυρός: “upright pale”) – or cross if you want to quibble, doesn’t necessarily mean it was a cross – on which Spendius was “crucified.” And getting their revenge for the murder of Spendius and his troops, Mathos and his troops set up and left (ἀνέθεσαν, which also means “lay upon”, “lay on as a burden”) Hannibal on the selfsame pole.

Plus, we have some modern scholarship to determine how the Carthaginians “crucified”. David W. Chapman in his book, Ancient Jewish and Christian Perceptions of Crucifixion (p. 16) cites the earlier Phoenician language scholars Zelig Harris (A Grammar of the Phoenician Language, AOS 8. New Haven, American Oriental Society, 1936), and J. Hoftijzer and K. Jungeling (Dictionary of the Northwest Semitic Inscriptions, 2 vols. HdO I.21. Leiden, E.J. Brill, 1995) that Ṣ-L-B (TzLB) in the Punic language is very much uncertain but might mean "impale" or "impale on a razor," respectively. Even so, I consider it more probable than the scholars’ assumption that the Romans got crucifixion from the Carthaginians, who got it from the Phoenicians, who got it from the Greeks, who got it from the Persians, compounded by their failure to caution that it did not necessarily conform to our English conception of nailing to a simple two-beam cross, for the Greeks and Romans cite examples of the Carthaginian punishment that went back to 550 BCE!

Furthermore, there is an epigraph ca. 250 BCE in an Esquiline Tomb in Rome showing a man being lifted on a horizontal overhead beam, interpreted to be a preliminary stage of a Carthaginian “crucifixion:” likely in my opinion to be an impaling on a stake between two poles while suspended by the beam at the same time, or in short, “fenced with pales.” Why? The central pale is not depicted: it is possible the Carthaginians lifted the person in place first and then set the pale.

So, then, the sort of crucifixion likely suffered by Spendius was “pile-driving,” i.e., simple direct impalement or “fencing with pales” (Polybius simply failed to mention the lifting beam and the outside support poles on either side for the latter and focused on the central impaling pole of this kind of crucifixion). And Hannibal, likewise, was probably impaled. Otherwise, chances are he was tied to Spendius’ pole. Polybius does NOT mention nails!

Septuagint / Hellenic Jewish Apocrypha (2^nd or 1^st Cent. CE).

Next at the bat are the Jewish Greek-language scholars of the Second or First Century BCE and the Septuagint translation of the Tanakh, specifically, Esther and the additions thereto. I’ve already gone over this with a fine-toothed comb in Impalements in Antiquity (4E) so I’ll just go over it briefly.

9 εἶπεν δὲ βουγαθαν εἷς τῶν εὐνούχων πρὸς τὸν βασιλέα ἰδοὺ καὶ ξύλον ἡτοίμασεν αμαν μαρδοχαίῳ τῷ λαλήσαντι περὶ τοῦ βασιλέως καὶ ὤρθωται ἐν τοῖς αμαν ξύλον πηχῶν πεντήκοντα εἶπεν δὲ ὁ βασιλεύς σταυρωθήτω ἐπ' αὐτοῦ 10 καὶ ἐκρεμάσθη αμαν ἐπὶ τοῦ ξύλου ὃ ἡτοίμασεν μαρδοχαίῳ καὶ τότε ὁ βασιλεὺς ἐκόπασεν τοῦ θυμοῦ

9Then Harbonah, one of the eunuchs in attendance on the king, said, “What is more, a stake is standing at Haman’s house, fifty cubits high, which Haman made for Mordecai—the man whose words saved the king.” “Impale him on it!” the king ordered. 10 So they impaled Haman on the stake which he had put up for Mordecai, and the king’s fury abated.

The Septuagint / The Tanakh (1985 JPS), Esther 7:9-10

 The New Living Translation also uses "impale" for the king's order to execute of Haman.

Here σταυρωθήτω is used for “impale him.”4 and due to the stake's insane height of 50 cubits (25 meters = 75 feet) carries forward the previous meanings “fence with pales, pile drive, impale.” Clear enough.

And we have the additions:

δια τό αυτόν τόν ταυτα εξεργασάμενον πρός ταις Σούσων πύλαις εσταυρωσθαι σύν τη πανοικα, τήν καταξίαν του τά πάντα επικρατουντος θεου διά τάχους άποδόντος αυτω κρίσιν.

For he was the worker of these things, is hanged at the gates of Susa with all his family: God, who ruleth all things, speedily rendering vengeance to him according to his desserts.

Apocrypha, Additions to Esther 16:18

And here, εσταυρωσθαι “is hanged,”5 and could just as easily mean “is fenced with pales, is pile driven,” i.e., impaled, although it’s getting late in history now, into the era that I believe the Priapus stake type of cross was invented by the Romans, likely by Sicilian Propraetor Caius Verres around 73 BCE, and coming onto the time when Rome first conquered Judaea in 63 BCE. So whoever was writing this possibly was thinking of the Roman style of crucifixion. Still, they probably knew the biblical Hebrew and spoke Aramaic so they may have been aware that the Persian method of penal bodily suspension was different from the Roman one.

Diodorus Siculus (90-21 BCE).

Next we have the Sicilian Historian Diodorus Siculus and no doubt he was aware of the Romans nailing people to tortuous wooden suspension devices. Yet our two examples of σταυρόω do not imply any kind of crucifixion in his Library of History.

ὁ μὲνγὰρ ἀρχιτέκτων τῆς καταλήψεως τοῦ ἱεροῦ Φιλόμηλος κατά τινα περίστασιν πολεμικὴν ἑαυτὸν κατεκρήμνισεν, ὁ δὲ ἀδελφὸς αὐτοῦ Ὀνόμαρχος διαδεξάμενος τὴν τῶν ἀπονοηθέντων στρατηγίαν μετὰ τῶν συμπαραταξαμένων ἐν Θετταλίᾳ Φωκέων καὶ μισθοφόρων κατακοπεὶς ἐσταυρώθη.

In fact the man who first schemed of the seizure of the shrine, Philomelus, in a crisis of war hurled himself off a cliff, while his brother Onomarchus, after taking over the command of his people, now became desperate and so was cut to pieces in a battle at Thessaly, along with the Phocians and mercenaries of his command, and “crucified.”

Library of History 16.61.2

Again, ἐσταυρώθη 2 comes from σταυρόω, “fence with pales, pile drive, impale” to which we might be able to add “crucify.” Then again, maybe not.

Now if there is one thing that has to be obvious, is that it’s not possible to crucify a dismembered corpse by nailing it to a cross! Now κατακοπείς is the verb-participle singular aorist passive masculine nominative of κατακόπτω “cut in pieces, cut down, destroy, kill, massacre, butcher” with an apparent strong emphasis on chopping up into pieces. Even in modern Greek it means “hack, chop.” So if he was cut down without being chopped into pieces, we could have a nailing up version of crucifixion here. Except the event happened in 352 BCE in Thessaly. So probably, then, Onomarchus was impaled.

Next we have the Romans attempting to block Lilybaeum (now Marsala) harbor at the end of Sicily ca. 241 BCE and how Diodorus uses the verb here may inform us how he pictured to himself the post-mortem suspension of Onomarchus’ body.

Οί δε Ρωμαιοι θεασάμενοι τήν εισβολήν της δυνάμεως, λίθοις καί χώμασιν εκ δευτέρου τό στόμιον του λιμένος έχωσαν καί ξύλοις μεγίστοις καί άγκύραις τά βάθη εσταυρωσαν.

The Romans, who had observed the force effecting an entrance, again blocked the mouth of the harbor with stones and jetties, and blocked the channels with huge timbers and anchors, but then a strong wind arose, the sea grew turbulent and broke everything up.

Library of History 24.1

The conjugate εσταυρωσαν 3 here clearly means “blocked’ in the sense of “fenced in with pales,” or “impalisading”. The Romans may have driven the piles down into the sea floor but given that they also used anchors and a wind-tossed sea broke everything up, indicates to me the timbers were weighted down by the anchors instead.

Strabo (65 BCE – 24 CE).

The next to utilize the word σταυρόω is Strabo. Strabo is probably familiar with Roman crucifixion because in Geography 3.4.18 he mentions Romans crucifying or impaling enemy fighters over in Cantabria (modern-day northern Spain by the coast) he mentions “that when some of the captive Cantabrians had been nailed/impaled on their crosses/stakes they precedes to sing their paen of Victory. (ὅτι ἁλόντες τινὲς ἀναπεπηγότες ἐπὶ τῶν σταυρῶν ἐπαιάνιζον)”. Here ἀναπεπηγότες is a conjugate of ἀναπήγνυμι, “transfix, fix on a spit, impale, crucify” which includes the preverb ἀνα: “up.” Plutarch employs this verb in Artaxerxes 17.5 describing the eunuch who was flayed alive impaled across three pales. So what the Romans did here was either regular impalement or nailing men to crosses each equipped with a sedile, and impaling each man on it.

But it is in Geography 14.1.39 where he uses σταυρόω for the execution of the grammarian Daphitas, which occurred in Homer’s time (8^th Century BCE):

κεῖται δ᾽ ἐν πεδίῳ πρὸς ὄρει καλουμένῳ Θώρακι ἡ πόλις, ἐφ᾽ ᾧ σταυρωθῆναί φασι Δαφίταν τὸν γραμματικὸν λοιδορήσαντα τοὺς βασιλέας διὰ διστίχου “ πορφύρεοι μώλωπες, ἀπορρινήματα γάζης Λυσιμάχου, Λυδῶν ἄρχετε καὶ Φρυγίης.”

And the city [Lithaeus] lies in the plain [of the western Libyans] near the mountain called Thorax, on which Daphitas the grammarian is said to have been crucified, because he reviled the kings in a distich: “Purpled with stripes, mere filings of the treasure of Lysimachus, ye rule the Lydians and Phrygia.”

Geography 3.4.18

It seems to me the sort of crucifixion here indicated by σταυρωθῆναί 6 would be simple direct impalement, “pile driving”, due to the antiquity of the event and the fact that Strabo uses a different verb for what the Romans did. But other ancient writers say he was thrown off of a rock called Iππος (horse) for criticizing Homer or insulting Attalus the King. (Cicero De fato 5; Valerius Maximus Memorabilium 1.8, ext. 8). Martin Hengel postulates that this is because there could have been a confusion between κρημνέναι (“to hang, crucify”) and κρημνίζειν (“to cast down”). (Martin Hengel, Crucifixion, p. 75) So who knows?

Asklepiades Pharmakologistas (Late 1st - Early 2nd Cent. CE).

Then we have from sometime in the first century Asklepiades Pharmakologistas (First Century CE) quoted in by Alexander Medicus (Sixth Century CE):

ὡς Ἀσκληπιάδης ὁ φαρμακευτής. ἧλον ἐσταυρωμένον τῷ βραχίονι τοῦ πάσχοντος περίαπτε καὶ ἀπαλλάξεις

“Just like Asklepiades the pharmacologist ordains, fasten a nail from a crucifixion on the arm of the sick person and you will deliver him [of his ailment]”

Asklepiades Pharmakologistas, Jun. ap. Alexander Medicus 1.15

Now this may seem obvious, but what is the text actually saying? The Greek, ἧλον ἐσταυρωμένον transliterates as “a nail, having been ‘pile-driven’ (i.e., driven into a pole)”.7 But what kind of pole? The text has no mention or not whether it had a transverse piece or not or what it was used for, for the ancient author assumes everybody knows what he was talking about. If we cross reference Pliny Elder (21-79 CE), Natural History 28.11,46 (fragmentum clavi a cruce aut spartum e cruce “a fragment of a nail from a pole / gallows or a rope from a pole / gallows”) and the Mishnah, Shabbat 6.10 (ובמסמר מן הצלוב משום רפואה “a nail from [the gallows of] an impaled person as a cure [for various conditions]”). So what Asklepiades is referring to here quite clearly is that the staked nail, i.e., the nail that was driven into the pole or gallows of an impaled person. So the pole Asklepiades mentioned was an execution pole of an unknown structure. It could have been a simple pole, a sharpened pole with the criminal sitting on top, a utility pole, a pole with decussate crossed planks on it, etc. Extant graffiti illustrations from the time show a utility pole with a sharpened upright peg at mid-height, and a fresco that is apparently original to the Roman Coliseum constructed 80 CE shows three people hanging on blackened crosses, two of them without their arms stretched tight.

Flavius Josephus (37-100 CE).

Josephus leaves us three examples in his Antiquities, written in 93 CE. The first is the legendary post-mortem suspension of the Chief Baker by the Egyptian Pharoah as predicted by the Israelite (Jewish) Patriarch Joseph, the second is a mass execution by the Romans to put down a revolt, the third is a fake suspension during a play.

καὶ προσελθὼν ἐμήνυσεν αὐτῷ τὸν Ἰώσηπον τήν τε ὄψιν, ἣν αὐτὸς εἶδεν ἐν τῇ εἱρκτῇ, καὶ τὸ ἀποβὰν ἐκείνου φράσαντος, ὅτι τε σταυρωθείη κατὰ τὴν αὐτὴν ἡμέραν ὁ ἐπὶ τῶν σιτοποιῶνκἀκείνῳ τοῦτο συμβαίη κατὰ ἐξήγησιν ὀνείρατος Ἰωσήπου προειπόντος.

“[S]o he came and mentioned Joseph to him, as also the vision he had seen in prison, and how the event proved as he had said, also that the chief baker was crucified on the very same day, and that this also happened to him according to the interpretation of Joseph.”

Josephus, Antiquities 2.77 = 2.5.4

Now here Josephus, using σταυρωθείη, 8 could have been actualizing for himself the normative Roman punishment of the cross / Priapus stake onto the suspension of the Chief Baker, or he could be describing a “pile-driving” suspension instead: impalement, which is shown in the Egyptian epigraphy.

Josephus’ second example describes the aftermath of the revolt under Simon, a slave of the recently deceased Herod the Great, who rose up, recruited men from Sepphoris in Galilee, crowned himself and burnt Herod’s palace. An ally Athronges ambushed a Roman century of soldiers and Judaea was filled with highwaymen. The Romans send Varus to quell the troubles. Varrus meets with leaders in Jerusalem and decamps to sea-side. Whereupon:

Οὔαρος δὲ κατὰ τὴν χώραν πέμψας τοῦ στρατοῦ μέρος ἐπεζήτει τοὺς αἰτίους τῆς ἀποστάσεως. καὶ σημαινομένων τοὺς μὲν ἐκόλασεν ὡς αἰτιωτάτους, εἰσὶ δ᾽ οὓς καὶ ἀφῆκεν: ἐγίνοντο δὲ οἱ διὰ ταύτην τὴν αἰτίαν σταυρωθέντες δισχίλιοι.

“Upon this, Varus sent a part of his army into the country, to seek out those that had been the authors of the revolt; and when they were discovered, he punished some of them that were the most guilty, and some he dismissed: now the number of those that were crucified on this account were about two thousand.

Josephus, Antiquities 17.295 = 17.10.10

Here, Josephus uses σταυρωθέντες “having been crucified or impaled,” 9 which William Whiston translated “that were crucified”. Fair enough. But the valid meanings of the root verb σταυρόω, for penal human bodily suspension, would be “fence with pales” (suspend between two poles and impale on top of a sharpened third), “drive piles” (impale) and “crucify” (nail or tie to a cross and (at least sometimes) impale someone on it). Considering that this was a mass suspension, I would suggest it was done either by direct impalement or by the normative Roman crucifixion. A fencing with pales crucifixion would be too much of a hassle in my opinion, even if Josephus’ numbers are exaggerated.

Josephus’ last example is the fake crucifixion / impalement of an actor in a play called Cinyras. (Suetonius, Juvenal, Martial and Tertullian all called the work Laureolus. Or maybe they were two different plays.) This occurred the day Gaius “Caligula” Caesar was assassinated and as Caligula was watching the play, he saw two omens of his soon impending death in it:

ἔνθα δὲ καὶ σημεῖα μανθάνει δύο γενέσθαι: καὶ γὰρ μῖμος εἰσάγεται, καθ᾽ ὃν σταυροῦται ληφθεὶς ἡγεμών, ὅ τε ὀρχηστὴς δρᾶμα εἰσάγει Κινύραν, ἐν ᾧ αὐτός τε ἐκτείνετο καὶ ἡ θυγάτηρ Μύρρα, αἷμά τε ἦν τεχνητὸν πολὺ καὶ περὶ τὸν σταυρωθέντα ἐκκεχυμένον καὶ τῶν περὶ τὸν Κινύραν.

[A]nd here he perceived two prodigies that happened there; for an actor was introduced, by whom a leader of robbers was crucified, and the pantomime brought in a play called Cinyras, wherein he himself was to be slain, as well as his daughter, Myrrha, and wherein a great deal of fictitious blood was shed, both about him that was crucified, and also about Cinyras.

Josephus, Antiquities 19.94 = 19.1.13

We have two conjugates of σταυρόω here: σταυροῦνται “was crucified / impaled” 10 and σταυρωθέντα “having been crucified / impaled.” 11 It is not possible to determine by the lack of language which one it was exactly. With a great deal of fake blood around the one crucifed, the word for “shed” is ἐκκεχυμένον: “having been poured out.” So it is implied that the blood is on the floor around the pole. On the one hand, it could be a fake impalement. But on the other hand and much more likely given it’s in the theatre, it could be a fake crucifixion with a sedile either installed or implied, to explain the vast amount of “blood” on the stage floor around the post.

Given that Josephus uses ἀνασταυρόω synonymously with σταυρόω (and in the case of the post-mortem hanging of Saul and his son Johnathan (Antiquities 6.374-375 = 6.14.8), where Josephus clearly shows that he used ἀνασταυρόω there to mean “impale”) and in Life 420-421 = 75 which he wrote six years later he talks about three friends who were ἀνασταυρόω’ed and has them retrieved from their crucifixion poles and given medical attention after obtaining authorization from Titus and one survives -- if they were simply, directly impaled not one of the three would have survived --, Josephus has the first one or two mentions of σταυρόω where the verb is clearly referring to Roman crucifixion.

Plutarch (45-120 CE).

This anecdote in Plutarch’s Parallela Minora is about a person, a certain Lucius Tiberis, who places his son and his assets in the custodial responsibility of his son-in-law at a time Hannibal was ravaging Campagnia (217-211 BCE or so). Hoping to gain the father’s assets, the son-in-law kills the son and then the father bids his son-in-law to view some treasures he’d like to show him. And guess what happens to the son-in-law:

ἐλθόντα δ᾽ ἐτύφλωσε καὶ ἐσταύρωσεν.

[B]ut when he came, Tiberis put out his eyes and nailed him to a cross.

Parallela Minora 24

What is translated as “nail to a cross” is in the Greek, ἐσταύρωσεν: “he σταυρόω’ed him,” i.e., “fenced him with pales, pile-drove him, impaled him, crucified him.”12 Nothing about nailing to a cross or even a pole, which Plutarch renders elsewhere as “ἀλλ᾽ εἶς σταυρὸν καθηλώσεις ἢ σκόλοπι πήξεις; (But thou wilt, perhaps, fasten one to the cross [or pole], or impale him on a stake.) καὶ τί Θεοδώρῳ μέλει, πότερον ὑπὲρ γῆς ἢὑπὸ γῆς σήπεται; (Now what cares Theodorus, whether it is above or under ground that he putrefies ?)” Moralia (An visitositas ad infelicitatem sufficia) 499D, where “thou wilt fasten” is καθηλώσεις.13 So ἐσταύρωσεν probably means something else here. Given that the suspension was done privately and about the beginning of the time most scholars believe the Romans adopted the practice of crucifixion from the Carthaginians (although back then it probably was not on a cross), it is very possible Plutarch was referring to a simple impalement.

Epictetus (55-135 CE).

Epictetus’ Discourses were written down in one set of volumes by Arrian in 108 CE. Here, the verb σταυρόωis used in two passages, and one passage makes it obvious he was referring to Roman crucifixion in both places.

καὶ σὺ εἰ τοιοῦτον ἐπίλογον παρασκευάζῃ, τί ἀναβαίνεις, τί ὑπακούεις; εἰ γὰρ σταυρωθῆναι 6 θέλεις, ἔκδεξαι καὶ ἥξει ὁ σταυρός

And you, if you are preparing for such a peroration, why do you wait, why do you wait the order to submit to trial? For if you wish to be crucified, 6 wait, and the cross will come.

Discourses 2.2.19-20

ἵν᾽ ἐν τῷ βαλανείῳ ἐκδυσάμενος καὶ ἐκτείνας σεαυτὸν ὡς οἱ ἐσταυρωμένοι τρίβῃ ἔνθεν καὶ ἔνθεν, εἶθ᾽ ὁ ἀλείπτης ἐπιστὰς λέγῃ ‘μετάβηθι, δὸς πλευρόν, κεφαλὴν αὐτοῦ λάβε, παράθες τὸν ὦμον,’

…that when you have undressed yourself in the bathing-room, and stretched yourself out like a man crucified, you may be rubbed here and there; and the attendant may stand by, and say, “Come this way; give your side; take hold of head; turn your shoulder.”

Discourses 3.26.22

The clue in the second passage is that those being massaged stretched themselves out (ἐκτείνας σεαυτὸν) like those crucified (ὡς οἱ ἐσταυρωμένοι).14 We are not talking about the cross of Christian piety or Hollywood art here, nor are we talking about the Jehovah’s Winesses’ retarded “torture stake” but rather the Roman execution utility pole as shown in the epigraphy (not counting the Alexamenos which according to scholarly consensus, was not yet scratched into existence at this time – 108 CE).

Artemidorus (138-160 CE).

Artemidorus of Ephesus, a dream interpreter who flourished in the Seccond Century CE, has a few passages bearing the verb σταυρόω and all are references to Roman crucifixion.

κακοῦργος δέ ὤν σταυρωθήσεται 15 διά τό ὑψος καί τῶν χειρῶν ἔκτασιν

But then the criminal is crucified 15 amidst the height and a stretching out of the hands.

Oneirocritica 1.76.35

Σταυροῦσθαι 16 πᾶσι μέν τοῖς ναυτιλλομένοις ἀγατόν καί γάρ ἐκ ξύλων καί ἥλων γέγονεν ὁ σταυρός ὡς καί τό πλοῖον, καί ή κατάρτιος αὐτοῦ ὁμοία ἐστί σταυρῷ

Indeed for all those going to sea to be crucified 16 is auspicious, for even the cross [or pole] is made of timbers and nails like a boat, whose mast is similar to a cross [or pole].

Oneirocritica 2.53.3

γυμνοί γάρ σταυροῦνται 10 καί τάς σάρκας ἀπολλύουσιν οἱ σταυρωθέντες 9

For those crucified 9 are crucified 10 naked and they lose their flesh to carrion birds.

Oneirocritica 2.53.7

There’s just one caveat here; Artemidorus is using the Greek word for “mast,” κατάρτιος, as inclusive of the hanging yardarm; because properly speaking, a mast is the spar that supports the yardarm, and of course the plain upright σταυρός by itself is a pole or stake, and it too supports the crossarm. But as I have shown before, sailors also venerated Hermes / Priapus as the patron God of Merchant Sailing and considered the fascinus, a representation of a phallus, to be apotropaic; and they would bring them aboard their ships, and presumably install them on the very masts themselves, for which some fascina were undoubtedly shaped. And in which case one can thus easily guess what a cross, or σταυρός was at this time: a Priapus stake.

Appian 95-165 CE.

Our next ancient writer, Appian, described events in the Punic Wars, the Mithridatic wars, and the Civil Wars. Most of the time he uses conjugates of the verb κρεμάννυμι, “hang” to describe hangings, crucifixions and/or impalements, including Spartacus’ suspension of a captive Roman soldier (Civil Wars 1.119 = 1.14.119) and Crassus’ suspension of 6,000 prisoners of war along the Appian Way (Civil Wars 1.120 = 1.14.120). But sometimes he does use the verb σταυρόω and he doesn’t always use it to mean, “crucify.”

The first anecdote describes the peace conference in 242 BCE, where the people and soldiers on the winning side get to air their grievances against the Carthaginians, who had just lost the First Punic War:

Λίβυες,… ἐχαλέπαινόν τε αὐτοῖς τῆς ἀναιρέσεως τῶν τρισχιλίων, οὓς ἐσταυρώκεσαν τῆς ἐς Ῥωμαίους μεταβολῆς οὕνεκα.

The African Soldiers… were angry also on account of killing of 3,000 of their own number whom the Carthaginians had crucified 17 for deserting to the Romans.

Sicily and the Other Islands 1.3

This is describing the execution of African (lit.: Libyan) Soldiers by crucifixion. Since by this time the verb σταυρόω had obviously expanded its meaning to include “crucify” according to how the Romans did it, Appian could be actualizing the event for himself by projecting the Roman methods back to an earlier time and onto an enemy people Rome fought three wars with.

This second narration describes events at the final fall of Carthage at the end of the Third Punic War in 146 BCE. Scipio Amellianus is fighting the Carthaginians and has routed them from their camp next to their city and proceeds to fortify the isthmus next to it:

δύο τε ἐπικαρσίας αὐταῖς ἑτέρας περιθεὶς ὡς γενέσθαι τὸ ὅλον ὄρυγμα τετράγωνον, ἐσταύρωσε πάντα ξύλοις ὀξέσιν. καὶ ἐπὶ τοῖς σταυροῖς τὰς μὲν ἄλλας τάφρους ἐχαράκωσε, τῇ δ᾽ ἐς τὴν Καρχηδόνα ὁρώσῃ καὶ τεῖχος παρῳκοδόμησεν ἐπὶ τοὺς πέντε καὶ εἴκοσι σταδίους, ὕψος μὲν δυώδεκα ποδῶν χωρὶς ἐπάλξεών τε καὶ πύργων, οἳ ἐκ διαστήματος ἐπέκειντο τῷ τείχει, τὸ δὲ βάθος ἐφ᾽ ἥμισυ μάλιστα τοῦ ὕψους.

He then made two others running transversely, giving the interior space the form of a quadrangle, and threw around the whole a palisade of chevaux-de-frise. In addition to the palisade he fortified the ditches also, and along the one looking toward Carthage he built a wall twenty-five stades in length and twelve feet high, without counting the parapets and towers which surmounted the wall at intervals. The width of the wall was about one-half of its height.

The Punic War, 18.119

In this example, Appian clearly uses σταυρόω in the Classic sense: “to impalisaded, to fence with pales.”18

The third example involves a storming of the besieged city of Xanthus in Lycia, 42 BCE.  

καὶ πολλοὶ μὲν ἐξέπιπτον, εἰσὶ δ᾽ οἳ τὸ τεῖχος ὑπερβάντες καὶ πυλίδα ἀνέῳξαν, ἣ προεσταύρωτο πυκνοτάτοις σταυροῖς, καὶ τοὺς εὐτολμοτάτους αἰωρουμένους ὑπὲρ τὰ σταυρώματα ἐσεδέχοντο.

Many fell off, but some scaled the wall and opened a small gate, defended with a very dense palisade, and admitted the most daring of assailants, who swung themselves over the palings.

Civil Wars 4.79 = 4.10.79

Now here, “defended with a very dense palisade” (προεσταύρωτο πυκνοτάτοις σταυροῖς) transliterates as “impalisaded or fenced in front with closely set pales.” Here προεσταύρωτο 19 is derived from προσταυρόω “draw a stockade in front of,” i.e., “impalisade in front of” or “fence with pales in front of.” Again, σταυρόω is being used here in the Classic sense, with προ, “in front of” as a preverb.

The next example of the use of σταυρόω describes an even in 41 BCE where Octavian (Caesar Augustus) proceeds to prevent two enemy legions from joining forces and makes betterments to his own fortifications and defenses:

καὶ ὁ Καῖσαρ αὐτῶν ἑκάστῳ στρατὸν ἐπιστήσας, ἵνα μὴ πρὸς ἀλλήλους συνέλθοιεν, ἐς τὴν Περυσίαν ἐπανῆλθε καὶ μετὰ σπουδῆς τὰς τάφρους προσεσταύρου καὶ ἐδιπλασίαζε τὸ βάθος καὶ πλάτος ὡς τριάκοντα πόδας ἀμφότερα εἶναι, τό τε περιτείχισμα ὕψου καὶ πύργους ἐπ᾽ αὐτοῦ ξυλίνους δι᾽ ἑξήκοντα ποδῶν ἵστη χιλίους καὶ πεντακοσίους

Octavian stationed a force in front of each, to prevent them from forming a junction, and returned to Perusia, where he speedily strengthened his investment of the place and doubled the depth and width of his ditch to the dimensions of thirty feet each way. He increased the height of the wall and built 1500 towers of wood on it, sixty feet apart.

Civil Wars 5.33 = 5.4.33

What is translated as “he strengthened his investment of the place” is actually in the Greek τὰς τάφρους προσεσταύρου (the ditches, on the sides of, he fenced with pales).20 So again we have a use of the Greek σταυρόω in the Classic sense, with προσ “on the side of” as a preverb.

Appian’s last anecdote describes an even occurring in 39 BCE, where Sextus Pompeius bribed a tribune and a centurion of Murcus, and had them kill Murcus. He says slaves did it, and then:

ἔς τε πίστιν τῆς ὑποκρίσεως τοὺς θεράποντας ἐσταύρου.21

To give credibility to this falsehood he crucified 21 the slaves.

Civil Wars 5.70 = 5.8.70

Here Appian uses σταυρόω to describe a multiple-crucifixion, Roman style. But it is not mentioned how the crucifixion gear was constructed. So on the outside chance it could have been a simple cross, but more likely a Priapus stake where the victim is “pile-driven” onto its sedile, a simple impaling stake, or a pale / pole fence with the pale in the middle for impaling the victim. Appian could be projecting what was going on in his time back to the Roman Civil War of 44-27 BCE to actualize the unwarranted execution of the slaves for himself, but then again he could be remembering what actually went on. It’s for him to know and for us to never find out, thanks in no small part to the Christians who totally changed how the crux / σταυρός of Jesus’ execution looked like.

Lucian (117-180 CE).

Lucian crafted a play that actualized the hanging or crucifiction of the Greek god Prometheus on a cliff in the Caucasus with fetters and chains for his Greek audience. He uses every verb the Greeks used for Roman crucifixion including some unexpected ones. In the opening scene, Hermes is looking around for some convenient crags to which to nail Prometheus. Hephaestus answers:

περισκοπῶμεν, ὦ Ἑρμῆ: οὔτε γὰρ ταπεινὸν καὶ πρόσγειον ἐσταυρῶσθαι χρή, ὡς μὴ ἐπαμύνοιεν αὐτῷ τὰ πλάσματα αὐτοῦ οἱ ἄνθρωποι, οὔτε μὴν κατὰ τὸ ἄκρον, — ἀφανὴς γὰρ ἂν εἴη τοῖς κάτω — ἀλλ᾽ εἰ δοκεῖ κατὰ μέσον ἐνταῦθά που ὑπὲρ τῆς φάραγγος ἀνεσταυρώσθω ἐκπετασθεὶς τὼ χεῖρε ἀπὸ τουτουὶ τοῦ κρημνοῦ πρὸς τὸν ἐναντίον.

“Look around, O Hermes: for it will not do to fix him too low down, or these men of his might come to their maker’s assistance; nor at the top, where he would be invisible from the Earth. What do you say to a middle course? Let him hang over the precipice, with his arms stretched out from crag to crag.”

Prometheus on Caucasus 1 (English text here.)

Here Lucian used ἐσταυρῶσθαι "to crucify him" 22 for “to fix him,” i.e., “make him fast, secure, stable” and ἀνεσταυρώσθω "he must be crucified" 23 for “let him hang,” evoking appropriate definitions of σταυρόω (pile drive, impale, immobilize on a Roman stake or gallows) and ἀνασταυρόω (impale, suspend on a pole).

Several lines Lucian later has Prometheus bring to the audience’s minds the example in Horace Satires 1.3.82 of what a master ought not to do:

ἀλλ᾽ ὅμως ἐκείνων οὐκ ἔστιν ὅστις τῷ μαγείρῳ σταυροῦ ἂν τιμήσαιτο, εἰ τὰ κρέα ἕψων καθεὶς τὸν δάκτυλον τοῦ ζωμοῦ τι περιελιχμήσατο ἢ ὀπτωμένων ἀποσπάσας τι κατεβρόχθισεν, ἀλλὰ συγγνώμην ἀπονέμουσιν αὐτοῖς: εἰ δὲ καὶ πάνυ ὀργισθεῖεν, ἢ κονδύλους ἐνέτριψαν ἢ κατὰ κόρρης ἐπάταξαν, ἀνεσκολοπίσθη δὲ οὐδεὶς παρ᾽ αὐτοῖς τῶν τηλικούτων ἕνεκα.

“A mortal would never want his cook crucified for dipping a finger into a stew-pan, or filching a mouthful from the roast, they overlook these things. At the worst their resentment is satisfied with a box on the ears or a rap on the head. I find no precedent among them for crucifixion in such cases.”

Prometheus on Caucasus 10 (English text here.)

And here Lucian uses σταυροῦ for “crucified”24 and ἀνεσκολοπίσθη "he should be impaled" 25 for “for crucifixion”. The verbs used here would of course evoke the earlier definition of σταυρόω (fence with pales, pile drive, impale) and ἀνασκολοπίζω (fix on a [pointed] pole [as in heads on pikes], impale). In fact this last verb has *kept* its Classic meaning throughout the Koine era and still means “impale” in the Modern Greek!

So what Lucian is describing here in Prometheus on Caucasus is the sort of crucifixion that involves: (1) pile drive, (2) impale, (3) immobilize on a stake or gallows, (4) suspend on a pole, (5) fix on a [pointed] pole, and (6) stretch the arms out. Of course, Prometheus is a mythological fiction and the god is supposed to be chained to a rock instead, so how Prometheus is actually affected by these actions is strictly in the ear of the listener and the eye of the beholder. But translate it into reality, and you have the cruel and unusual and utterly shameful sort of Roman crucifixion that appears to have become the norm across the Empire by the turn of the Second Century CE at the latest.

And how do we know it’s the norm? Because Lucian cites this type of crucifixion in The Court of the twelve Vowels, where Sigma is indicting Tau of mangling the Greek language, and allowing himself to be mimicked by tyrants so they can crucify and impale people on a wodden gallows of his shape!

οὕτω μὲν οὖν ὅσον ἐς φωνὴν ἀνθρώπους ἀδικεῖ: ἔργῳ,δὲ πῶς; κλάουσιν ἄνθρωποι καὶ τὴν αὑτῶν τύχην ὀδύρονται καὶ Κάδμῳ καταρῶνται πολλάκις, ὅτι τὸ Ταῦ ἐς τὸ τῶν στοιχείων γένος παρήγαγε: τῷ γάρ τούτου σώματί φασι τοὺς τυράννους ἀκολουθήσαντας καὶ μιμησαμένους αὐτοῦ τὸ πλάσμα ἔπειτα σχήματι τοιούτῳ ξύλα τεκτήναντας ἀνθρώπους ἀνασκολοπίζειν 26 ἐπ᾽ αὐτά: ἀπὸ δὲ τούτου καὶ τῷ τεχνήματι τῷ πονηρῷ τὴν πονηρὰν ἐπωνυμίαν συνελθεῖν. τούτων οὖν ἁπάντων ἕνεκα πόσων θανάτων τὸ Ταῦ ἄξιον εἶναι νομίζετε; ἐγὼ μὲν γὰρ οἶμαι δικαίως τοῦτο μόνον ἐς τὴν τοῦ Ταῦ τιμωρίαν ὑπολείπεσθαι, τὸ τῷ σχήματι τῷ αὑτοῦ τὴν δίκην ὑποσχεῖν.

Such are his verbal offences against man; his offences in deed remain. Men weep, and bewail their lot, and curse Cadmus with many curses for introducing Tau into the family of letters; they say it was his body that tyrants took for a model, his shape that they imitated, when they set up the erections on which men are crucified impaled.26 Σταυρός the vile engine 27 is called, and it derives its vile name from him. Now, with all these crimes upon him, does he not deserve death, nay, many deaths? For my part I know none bad enough but that supplied by his own shape--that shape which he gave to the gibbet named σταυρός after him by men.

In theCourt of the Vowels 12 (English text here.)

So here we have it. The verb σταυρόω has gone through an evolution from “impalisade, fence with pales, pile drive” to “impale, hang from a gallows and impale” to “crucify: suspend on pole with a crossarm at the top and an outrigged sedile (mini-impalement stake or a short horizontal beam fitted with an upright peg). Well, normatively. Next I will present the “biblical evidence” for the gear of Jesus’ execution and will draw some conclusions Christians are NOT going to like. Well they changed the architecture of the crux / σταυρός, and have been going by a sanitized version for centuries, so they should expect this.

Note the resemblance to a utility pole?

And a man standing "erect" in an upright stance?

NOTES.

1. Perseus Greek Word Study Tool, προσεσταύρωσε, third person singular aorist active conjugate of the preverb πρός- and the verb σταυρόω.
2. Perseus Greek Word Study Tool,  ἐσταυρώθη, third person singular aorist indicative passive conjugate of the verb σταυρόω.
3. Perseus Greek Word Study Tool, ἐσταύρωσαν, third person plural aorist indicative active conjugate of the verb σταυρόω.
4. Perseus Greek Word Study Tool, σταυρωθήτω, third person singular aorist imperative passive  conjugate of the verb σταυρόω.
5. Perseus Greek Word Study Tool, εσταυρωσθαι, third person singular aorist middle/passive conjugate of the verb σταυρόω.
6. Perseus Greek Word Study Tool, σταυρωθῆναι, aorist infinitive passive conjugate of the verb σταυρόω.
7. Perseus Greek Word Study Tool, ἧλον, noun singular masculine accusative of ἧλος, "nail"; ἐσταυρωμένον, verb-participle singular perfect middle-passive masculine accusative conjugate of the verb σταυρόω.
8. Perseus Greek Word Study Tool, σταυρωθείη, third person singular aorist optive passive conjugate of the verb σταυρόω.
9. Perseus Greek Word Study Tool, σταυρωθέντες, verb-participle plural aorist passive masculine nominative conjugate of the verb σταυρόω.
10. Perseus Greek Word Study Tool, σταυροῦνται, third person plural present indicative middle-passive conjugate of the verb σταυρόω.
11. Perseus Greek Word Study Tool, σταυρωθέντα, verb-participle singular aorist passive masculine accusative conjugate of the verb σταυρόω.
12. Perseus Greek Word Study Tool, ἐσταύρωσεν, third person singular aorist indicative active conjugate conjugate of the verb σταυρόω. 
13. Perseus Greek Word Study Tool, καθηλώσεις, second person singular future indicative active conjugate of the verb καθηλόω.14. Perseus Greek Word Study Tool, ἐσταυρωμένοι, verb-participle plural perfect middle-passive masculine nominative conjugate of the verb σταυρόω.15. Perseus Greek Word Study Tool, σταυροῦσθαι, present infinitive middle-passive conjugate of the verb σταυρόω. 16. Perseus Greek Word Study Tool, σταυροῦσθαι, present infinitive middle-passive conjugate of the verb σταυρόω.
17. Perseus Greek Word Study Tool, ἐσταυρώκεσαν, third person plural pluperfect indicative active reduplicative conjugate of the verb σταυρόω.
18. Perseus Greek Word Study Tool, ἐσταύρωσε, third person singular aorist indicative active conjugate of the verb σταυρόω.
19. Perseus Greek Word Study Tool, προεσταύρωτο, third person singular imperfect or pluperfect indicative middle-passive conjugate of the preverb προ- and the verb σταυρόω.
20. Perseus Greek Word Study Tool, προσεσταύρου, third person singular imperfect indicative active conjugate of the preverb πρός- and the verb σταυρόω.
21. Perseus Greek Word Study Tool, ἐσταύρου, third person singular imperfect indicative active conjugate of the verb σταυρόω.
22. Perseus Greek Word Study Tool, ἐσταυρῶσθαι, perfect infinitive middle-passive conjugate of the verb σταυρόω.
23. Perseus Greek Word Study Tool, ἀνεσταυρώσθω, third person singular perfect imperative middle-passive conjugate of the verb ἀνασταυρόω.
24. Perseus Greek Word Study Tool, σταυροῦ, third person singular imperfect indicative active homeric conjugate of the verb σταυρόω.
25. Perseus Greek Word Study Tool, ἀνεσκολοπίσθη, third person singular aorist indicative passive conjugate of the verb ἀνασκολοπίζω.
26. Perseus Greek Word Study Tool, ἀνασκολοπίζειν "to impale", present infinitive active conjugate of the verb ἀνασκολοπίζω.
27. The Greek is: τῷ τεχνήματι τῷ πονηρῷ, which apparently transliterates as: "for that cunning device for that painful / malicious / base [act]" or similar.