CROSS
519
CROSS
or for a vow made against his master's prosperity
(de salute domijiorum. See Capitolin., Pertinax, ix;
Herodian, V, ii; Paul., "Sent.", V, xxi, 4), for sedi-
tion and tumult (Paul., Fr. x.xxviii; Digest. "De
poenis", xlviii, 19, and "Sent.", V, 221 ; Dion., V, 52;
Josephus, "Antiq.", XIII, xxii, and "Bell. Jud.", II,
iii), for false witness, in which case the guilty party was
sometimes condemned to wild beasts {ad bestias, Paul.,
"Sent.", V, xxiii, 1), and on fugitive slaves, who were
sometimes burned alive (Fr. xxxviii, S. 1 ; Digest. " De
poenis", XLVIII, xix). According to Roman custom,
the penalty of crucifixion was always preceded by
scourging (inrgis ca:dere, Prud., "Enchirid.", xli, 1);
after this preliminary punishment, the condenmed
person had to carry the cross, or at least the trans-
verse beam of it, to the place of execution (Plut.,
"Tard. dei vind.", ix, " Arteniid.", II, xli), expo.^ied to
the gibes and insults of the people (Joseph., "Antiq.",
XIX, iii; Plant., "Most.", I, 1, 52; Dion., VII, 69).
On arrival at the place of execution the cross was
uplifted (Tic., Verr., V, Ixvi). Soon the sufferer, en-
tirely naked, was bound to it with cords (Plin., "Hist.
Nat."", XXVIII, iv; Auson., "Id.", VI, 60; Lucan, VI,
543, 547), indicated in Latin by the expressions agere,
iare, ferre, or ioUere in crucem. He was then, as
Plautus tells us, fastened with four nails to the wood
3f the cross ("Lact.", IV, 13; Senec, "Vita beat.", 19;
Pert., "Adv. Jud.", x; Justus Lipsius "De Cruce",
(I, vii; xli-ii). Finally, a placard called the tilulus,
rearing the name of the condemned man and his sen-
ence, was placed at the top of the cross (Euseb.,
'Hist. Eccl.", V, 1; Suet., "Caligula", xxxviii and
'Domit.", x; Matt., xxvii, 37; John, xix, 19). Slaves
vere crucified outside of Rome in a place called Ses-
\orium, beyond the Esquiline Gate; their execution
vas entnisted to the carnifex servorum (Tacit., "Ann.",
I, 32; XV, 60; XIV, .33; Plut., "Galba", ix; Plant.,
'Pseudol,", 1.3, V, 98), Eventually this wretched
ocality became a forest of crosses (Loiseleur, Des
leines), while the bodies of the victims were the
)rey of vultures and other rapacious birds (Horace,
' Epod, ", V, 99, and the scholia of Crusius ; Plin., " Hist,
v'at.", XXXVI, cvii). It often happened that the
ondemned man did not die of hunger or thirst, but
Ingered on the cross for several days (Isid., V, 27;
ienec, Epist. ci). To shorten his punishment, there-
ore, and lessen his terrible sufferings, his legs were
onietimes broken {rrnrifragium, crura frangere; Cic,
cm Philipp., xii). This custom, exceptional among
he Romans, was common with the Jews. In this
ay it Wiis possible to take down the corpse on the erj' evening of the execution (Tert., "Adv. Jud.", x; sid., V, xxvii; Lactant., IV, xvi). Among the Ro- lans, on the contrary, the corpse could not be taken own, unless such removal had been specially author- ed in the sentence of death. The corpse might also e buried if the sentence permitted (Valer. Max., vi,
- Senec, "Controv.", VIII, iv
- Cic, "Tusc", I, 43;
atull., cvi, 1; Horace, "Epod.", I, 16-48; Prudent., Peristephanon", I, 65; Petron., l.\i sqq.).
The punishment of the cross remained in force hroughout the Roman Empire until the first half of he fourth century. In the early part of his reign ionstantine continued to inflict the penalty of the ross (nffiyere patibido) on slaves guilty of delatio omini, i. c. of denouncing their masters (Cod. Th. ad
- g. Jul. magist.). Later on he abolished this infa-
lous punishment , in memory and in honour of the Pas- ,on of Jesus Chri.st (Eus., "Hist. Eccl.", I, viii; Schol. uven.al., XIV, 78; Niceph., VII, 46; Cassiod., " Hist, 'rip.", I, 9; Codex Theod., IX. 5, IS). Thereafter, lis punishment was very rarely inflicted (Eus., " Hi.st. )ccl.", IV, XXXV ; Pacat., "Paneg.", xliv). Towards 56 fifth centur\' the jurca, or gibbet, was substituted )r the cro.ss (Pio Franchi de'Cavalieri, "Delia forca jstituita alia eroce" in " Xuovo bulletino di archeo- igia cristiana", 1907, nos. 1-3, 63 sqq.).
The penalty of the cross goes back probably to the
arhor infelix, or unhappy tree, spoken of by Cicero
(Pro Rabir., iii sqq.) and by Livy, apropos of the
condemnation of Horatiusafterthe murder of his sister.
According to Huschke (Die Multa, 190) the magis-
trates known as iluoviri perducUioni'i pronounced this
penalty (cf. Liv., I, 266), styled also infelix lignum
(Senec, Ep. ci; Plin., XVI, xxvi; XXIV, ix; Macrob.,
II, xvi). This primitive form of crucifixion on trees
was long in use, as Justus Lipsius notes ("De cruce",
I, ii, 5; cf. Tert., "ApoL", VIII, xvi; and "Martyrol.
Paphnut.", 25 Sept.). Such a tree was knowTi as a
cross (crux). On an ancient vase we see Prometheus
bound to a beam which serves the purpose of a cross.
A somewhat different form is seen on an ancient cist
at Prxneste (Palestrina), upon w-hich Andromeda is
represented nude, and bound by the feet to an instru-
ment of punishment like a militarj' yoke, i. e. two
parallel, perpendicular stakes, surmounted by a trans-
verse bar. Certain it is, at any rate, that the cross
originally consisted of a simple vertical pole, sharpened
at its upper end. Maecenas (Seneca, Epist. xvii, 1,
10) calls it acuta crux; it could also be called crux sim-
plex. To this upright pole a transverse bar was after-
wards added to which the sufferer was fastened with
nails or cords, and thus remained until he died, whence
the expression cruci figere or affigere (Tac, "Ann.",
XV, xliv; Petron,, "Satyr,", iii). The cross, especially
in the earlier times, was generally low. It was ele-
vated only in exceptional cases, particularly when it
was desired to make the punishment more exemplarj',
or when the crime was exceptionally serious. Sue-
tonius (Galba, ix) tells us that CJalba did this in the
case of a certain criminal for whom he caused to be
made a very high cross painted white — " multo pra?ter
coeteras altiorem et dealbatam statui crucem jussit".
Lastly, we may note, in regard to the material form
of the cross, that somewhat different ideas prevailed
in Greece and Italy. The cross, mentioned even in
the Old Testament, is called in Hebrew, '('f, i. e.
"wood", a word often translated crux by St. Jerome
(Gen., xl, 19; Jos., viii, 29; Esther, v, 14; viii, 7; ix,
25). In Greek it is called o-raupis, which Burnouf
would derive from the Sanskrit sldvora. The word
was, however, frequently used in a broad sense.
Speaking of Prometheus nailed to Moimt Caucasus,
Lucian uses the substantive aravpis and the verbs
dva(TTavp6<a and avatrKoXoirffw, the latter being derived
from (rK6\o\f/, which also signifies a cro.ss. In the
same way the rock to which Andromeda was fastened
is called crux, or cross. The Latin word crux was
applied to the simple pole, and indicated directly the
nature and purpose of this instrument, being derived
from the verb crucio, "to torment", "to torture"
(Isid., Or., V, xvii, 33; Forcellini, s. vv. Crucio, Crux).
It is also to be noted that the word furca must have
been at least partially equivalent to trux. In fact
the identification of these two words is constant in
the legal diction of Justinian (Fr. xxviii, 15; Fr.
xxxviii, S. 2; Digest. "De poenis", xlviii, 19).
(3) The Crucifixion of Jesus Christ. — Among the Romans the cross never had the symbolical meaning which it had in the ancient Orient : they regarded it solely as a material instrument of punishment. There are in the Old Testament clear allusions to the Cross and Crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Thus the Greek letter T ilau or thau) .appears in Ezechicl (ix, 4), according to St. Jerome and other Fathers, .as a solemn sj'nibol of the Cross of Chri.st — "Mark Thau upon the foreheads of the men that sigh". The only other symbol of crucifixion indicated in the Old "Testament is the brazen serpent in the Book of Numbers (xxi, 8-9). Christ Himself thus interpreted the passage: "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of man be lifted up" (John, iii, 14). The P.salmist predicts the piercing of the hands and the feet (Ps. xxi, 17). Tliis was a true prophecy, inasmuch
