Execution by crucifixion was a fairly common punishment in the Roman Empire long before the birth of Christ. A famous example is Spartak. When Crassus defeated the rebel army, he ordered the erection of crosses along the Appian Way. On these crosses - from Capua to Rome - about 6 thousand captive slaves, soldiers of the Spartacus army, were crucified.
In republican Rome in the first century BC, this was the standard and infamous form of execution. If you were a citizen of Rome, you could not be executed in this way. Saint Peter was crucified in Rome because he did not have Roman citizenship, unlike St. Paul. It is believed that the apostle Paul was beheaded - such a death was quick and therefore more preferable. But of course, when we mention the crucifixion on the cross, we immediately remember the crucifixion of Jesus Christ
Let's find out what, from a purely medical point of view, a person who is nailed to a torture device in the form of a cross should feel.
Cause of death: suffocation
There are quite a few well-founded theories as to what ultimately finished off the poor fellows, whom the ancient Romans executed in such an exotic and painful way. However, the most likely cause of death for a person crucified on the cross is suffocation.
After many hours, if not days of torture, the weight of your own body will eventually begin to press on the diaphragm, making it difficult to breathe. Even if at first the victim has enough strength to keep himself in a more or less level position, leaning on his legs and pulling himself up on his hands, sooner or later the exhausted muscles will begin to weaken, and the body will limply hang on the nails. When the pressure on the diaphragm becomes too strong, the victim will completely lose the ability to breathe and eventually suffocate slowly and painfully.
By the way, if it seemed to the Roman executioners that the execution was too long, and the old woman with the scythe should be hurried a little, the condemned man was crushed with a hammer. In addition, a hip fracture in itself is one of the most painful fractures in the human body, such manipulations finally deprived a person of the opportunity to resist suffocation, and death in this case occurred much faster.
Nails get on the nervesNails, which were usually driven in the wrist, inevitably struck the main nerves that run through the human hand. When the victim tried to reach upward to inhale, the wrists involuntarily rotated around the nail, snagging the nerve and causing unbearable shooting pain throughout the limb. Even if a weakened person ceased to fight for his life and hung motionless, the constant friction of a nerve against a thick piece of metal caused continuous sharp pain. But what can I say here, for sure, each of us, who at least once in our life have had teeth treated without anesthesia, perfectly knows how “nice” it is when something sharp touches a nerve.
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Gag reflex Nails, which are usually hammered in the wrist, inevitably hit the main nerves that run through the human hand. When the victim tried to reach up to inhale, the wrists involuntarily rotated around the nail, clinging to the nerve and causing unbearable shooting pain throughout the limb. Even if a weakened person ceased to fight for his life and hung motionless, the constant friction of a nerve against a thick piece of metal caused continuous sharp pain. But what can I say here, for sure, each of us, who at least once in our life had teeth treated without anesthesia, perfectly knows how “pleasant” it is when something sharp touches a nerve.
Vomiting reflex Perhaps one of the most painful sensations that one can imagine, a person begins to experience at the very beginning of the execution. Here I need to say a few words about the mechanics of the process itself. First of all, the Roman executioners nailed the wrists of people sentenced to death to the horizontal beam of the cross, after which the cross was raised, placed vertically, and only after that did it reach the feet. This period of time, when the entire body weight was completely resting on the arms, was quite enough to dislocate both shoulder joints. Ultimately, the hands of the unfortunate person moved out of the normal range of motion by almost 15 centimeters.
One continuous pain
Finally, the crucified person began to experience the most terrible sensations just before his death. The inability to breathe normally, caused by pressure on the diaphragm, and the outflow of blood to the lower body under the influence of gravity, led to the fact that almost all vital organs began to suffer from a lack of oxygen. It goes without saying that the only "signal rocket" of the human body that allows you to quite tangibly and definitely hint that something in the body is not going as expected, are pain receptors. And when, due to oxygen starvation, almost all organs at once begin to fail at the same time, the very body of the crucified poor fellow turns into one continuous incessant absolute pain.