As part of the decade-long game series, Assassin's Creed has explored much of the ancient world and its politics and architecture, and they've finally released a tour mode of their gameplays recently. This allows us to explore the open world and get into the extensive research Ubisoft has done over 4 years to build a beautifully accurate recreation of ancient Egypt in 70 BCE.
One of the tours I found was about "Crucifixion". Watch the walkthrough here.
"During the Greco-Roman era in Egypt, crucifixion is the most severe form of Roman punishment. In addition to the list of corporal punishment were death by fire and decapitation. Upper class were usually exempt from this, and those who gained Roman citizenship got away with better treatment."
"Easily accessible, crucifixion were popular entertainments among the Roman citizenry. Unlike throwing victims to wild animals, which required an arena where usually gladiator games and public executions were held, crucifixions did not require such settings." Hence taking advantage of the situation, we can understand why soldiers were given leeway to take Jesus' clothes and gamble them off while Pharisees and the general public could spit at or further humiliate Him.
"Those subjected to crucifixion were almost always slaves, traitors and lower class citizens. Roman deserters were crucified because the betrayal of the soldiers were perceived as endangering the lives of Roman citizens."
"In 71 BCE, a major slave uprising in Italia was repressed by the Roman army. This resulted in the crucifixion of 6000 men, including their leader, a slave and former gladiator known as Spartacus." With little tolerance for insurrectionists, and to make an example of them, it was best to have all rebels executed on the cross. This then made sense for the Pharisees, at the trial of Jesus, request that He be crucified, because He was preaching a new coming Kingdom and Himself as its King. Amounting to treason, He was thus sent to die, though at the behest of a wild crowd.
Crucifixion could be done either on a T-shaped cross or X-shaped cross, with the limbs splayed out on the wood. On the T-shape, feet were nailed on either side of the trunk, with nails driven in through the side of the heel into the wood. This made sense given the bone structure of the feet would be sturdy there to help hold the body's weight for a prolonged period of time. The arms were pierced beneath the wrist bone so that the person could hang by the wrist for longer. This is in contrast with the popular belief that the palms were penetrated, because the flesh might not hold as effectively and will rip off.
One might die of starvation or more likely asphyxiation, though Jesus might have died from blood loss too because of His floggings and torture and long walk to Golgotha.
There's no way to describe the extent of pain He endured to take our sins for us. He furthermore had to go to hell and suffer for our sins there in order to complete the punishment, and our salvation plan. The love of God is too great to comprehend, but it held Him to the tree. Let's thank God for what He did to save us wretched sinners.
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