Impalements in Antiquity (4A)

WARNING!: This post

may be upsetting to some.

Part 14A of the series: "The Romans NEVER CRUCIFIED the Way We Think They Did!" (Cont'd)

Previous in this series:

Part 13A - Impalements in Antiquity (3A).
Part 12 - Impalements in Antiquity (2).
Part 11 - Impalements in Antiquity (1).
Part 10 - Humiliations.
Part 9 - Utility Poles and Masts.
Part 8 - Crown of Thorns.
Part 7 - Crucifixion and Priapus.
Part 6 - From Wax Image to Exposed Body.
Part 5 - The First Crucifix.
Part 4 - The Tropaeum and the Furca.
Part 3 - Crux - Modern English Use and Ancient Quotidian Meanings.
Part 2 - Crux.
Part 1.

Previous Series - Crucifixion – The Bodily Support:

Part 4 - Physics of Crucifixion.
Part 3 - Manuscript Evidence.
Part 2 - Archaeological Evidence.
Part 1.


Part 14 - Impalements in Antiquity (4A) - Media and Persia.

A. Introduction.

Well, before, we looked at Egypt, the Hittite civilisation, Assyria, Babylon, the Chaldeans and the Judeans and concluded in all likelihood that they impaled people, and it was very unlikely that they crucified people, either in the perverted, cruel and (for us) unusual Roman practice(s) or in the fanciful Christian interpretations thereof. And we shall see, it was the same with Media and Persia, too.

B. Behistun Inscription.

There are four passages on this inscription ascribed to Darius the Great (550 - 486 BCE). This inscription, located in Iran, features text and illustrations chiseled into the mountain fact high up, with the lowest elevation of the inscription already at an insane height!

Here is a British citizen standing at the base of the Behistun Inscription on Mt. Behistun, Kermanshah Province, Iran.  (Photo credit: Kendall K. Down; The Light Radio.co.uk) Note how high up the person standing and the photographer are up on the side of the mountain; the mountaintops opposite are almost at the horizon line and the trees in the valley below look like very low shrubbery for ants.

Why am I going off subject? Well I will tell you: sometimes when Persians impaled people, they used stakes of an insane height! So high, in fact, that they could have employed the use of a patibulum - lifting beam - to park the person on top of the stake already planted into the ground.

The textual inscriptions themselves were inscribed in three different languages: Old Persian, Elamite and Babylonian. The writing multiple cueniform languages, then, served a crucial role in deciphering previously lost and scripts that were found on uncovered objects and monuments.  

B.1. Fravartiš.

Column II, Section 32:

King Darius Says: "Thereupon that Phraortes [Old Persian: Fravartiš] fled thence with a few horsemen to a district in Media called Rhagae. Then I sent an army in pursuit. Phraortes was taken and brought in to me. I cut off his nose, his ears, and his tongue, and I put out one eye, and he was kept in fetters at my palace entrance, and all the people beheld him. Then did I crucify him in Ectabana; and the men who were his foremost followers, those at Ectabana within the fortress, I flayed and hung their hides, stuffed with straw." [1]

The original text reads in Column II, line 76, which includes "did I crucify": 

76 âra : avaina : pasâvašim : Hagmatânaiy : uzmayâpatiy : akunavam [2]

B.2. Ciçataxma.

Column II, Section 33: 

King Darius says: "A man named Tritantaechmes [Old Persian: Ciçataxma], a Sagarhan, revolted from me, saying to his people, 'I am king of Sagarha, of the family of Cyaxares.' Then I sent forth a Persian and a Median army. A Mede named Takhmaspâda, my servant, I made their leader, and i said unto him: 'Go, smite that host which is in revolt, and does not acknowledge me.' Thereupon Takhmaspâda went forth with the army, and he fought a battle with Tritantaechmes. Ahuramazda brought me help,; by the grace of Ahuramazda my army utterly defeated that rebel host, and they seized Tritantaechmes and brought him unto me. Afterwards I cut off both his nose and his ears, and put out one eye, and he was kept bound at my palace entrance, all the people saw him. Afterwards, I crucified him in Arbela." [3]

The original text reads in Column II, line 90, which includes "I crucified":

90 maiy : basta : adâriya : haruvashim : kâra : avaina : pasâvashim : Arbairâyâ [2]

B.3.  Vahyazdâta.

Column III, Section 43:

King Darius says: "Then did I crucify that Vahyazdâta and the men who were his chief followers in a city in Persia called Uvâdaicaya." [4]

The original text reads in Column III, lines 50, 51 and 52, which includes "did I crucify":

50 âyathiya : pasâva : adam : avarn : Vahyazdâtam : utâ : martiyâ :
51 tyaishaiy : fratamâ : anushiyâ : âhata : Uvâdaicaya : nâma : var
52 danam : Pârsaiy : avadashish : uzmayâpatiy : akunavam : thâ [5]

B.4. Arakha.


Column III, Section 50:

King Darius says, "Then did I send an army to [the town of] Babylon. A Persian named Intaphrenes, my servant, I appointed as their leader, and thus I spoke unto them, 'Go, smite that Babylonian host which does not acknowledge me.' Then Intaphrenes marched with the army unto Babylon. Ahuramazda brought me help; by the grace of Ahuramazda Intaphrenes overthrew the Babylonians and brought over the people unto me. On the twenty-second day of the month of Markâsanaš [27 November] they seized that Arakha who called himself Nebuchadnezzar, and the men who were his chief followers he crucified in Babylon." [6]

The original text reads in Column III, lines 90, 91 and 92, which includes "he crucified":

90 gaubatâ : utâ : martiyâ : tyaishaiy : fratamâ : anushiyâ : âhatâ : agarb
91 âya : niyashtâyam : hauv : Arxa : utâ : martiyâ : tyaishaiy : fratamâ : an
92 ushiyâ : âhatâ : Bâbirauv : uz(ma)yâpatiy : akariyatâ [5]

Now here we have information on what the Babylonian text stated. Wm. A. Oldfather (1908) said the Old Persian was slightly ambiguous, but he wrote the statement in the Old Babylonian read as, "I raised him aloft on the wood." [7]

B.5. Did the original really mean "crucified?"

Now in these examples did the Persians really crucify in the modern, limited English sense? Or did they mean something else? The original Old Persian verbs were translated in 1907 by King & Thompson as "crucified." [1] [3] [4] [6] Likewise, Herbert Tolman (1908) translated the expressions as "put on a cross." [8] But a more modern scholar, Roland Kent (1953), believed the expressions denoted impalement. [9]

Now who is correct? Well, we do have ancient sources!


Continues in Part 4B.

F. Footnotes.

[1] This is the translation of L.W. King & R.C. Thompson, The Sculptures and Inscriptions of Darius the Great on the Rock of Behistun in Persia, 1907 (London), where the verb denoting act of suspension, I believe pasâvašim, was translated as "did I crucify".


[2] Avesta Website, "Old Persian Texts", Darius at Behistun col. II.

[3] This is the translation of L.W. King and R.C. Thompson, The Sculptures and Inscriptions of Darius the Great on the Rock of Behistun in Persia, 1907 (London), where the verb denoting act of suspension, I believe pasâvašim, was translated as "I crucified".


[4] This is the translation of L.W. King and R.C. Thompson, The Sculptures and Inscriptions of Darius the Great on the Rock of Behistun in Persia, 1907 (London), where the verb denoting act of suspension, I believe pasâva, was translated as "did I crucify".


[5] Avesta Website, "Old Persian Texts", Darius at Behistun col. III.


[6] This is the translation of L.W. King and R.C. Thompson, The Sculptures and Inscriptions of Darius the Great on the Rock of Behistun in Persia, 1907 (London), where the verb denoting act of suspension was translated as "did I crucify".


[7] William A. Oldfather, "Supplicium de More Maiorum", Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association, Vol. 39 pp. 49-72, p. 61 (1908 Boston, Ginn and Company). In this selfsame article Prof. Oldfather noted that "In 1904, W. Foy (K. Z. xxxvii [1904]. 529^1) from a comparison of the Susian or Elamite text, decided that the expressions meant crucifixion."


[8] Herbert Cushing Tolman, The Behistun Inscription of King Darius, 1908 Nashville TN, Vanderbilt University Press.


[9] Roland G. Kent, Old Persian, 1953. Transliterations and translations of the inscriptions are available to be read at the Avesta website, "Old Persian Texts", Darius at Behistun col. II and Darius at Behistun col. III.