Originally posted by junior
Eh...
I wouldn't be surprised if the Romans let the Jews throw loinclothes on the local executees.
...So you try and hang, but that puts pressure on your lungs, and you can't breathe properly, so you straighten up so you can breathe, but that requires putting pressure on your feet, which hurts because there's a nail through them, so you try and hang, and I think you get the idea.
..One particular form of execution that I recall is when they take the victim, tie each limb to a different horse, and then crack the whip. Horses are evidently stronger than body parts.
1) No loincloths--history sez so... Also, the idea here is ultimate humiliation, as well as physical suffering=ultimate deterrent. Besides, what better way to subjugate a people than to humiliate 'em?... Finally, Pilate (at least) was no friend of the Jews...
2) Remember, you've first been:
a) Flogged 39x by a whip that contains bits of embedded bone, glass & metal. This had the effect of, essentially, leaving the skin & flesh of your back & sides hanging in bloody strips from your torso. (oftentimes, prisoners didn't even survive THIS stage of the ordeal).
b) Beaten up in general by the Roman soldiers, just for sport, leaving your face a barely recognizable mass of bruise & cuts
c) In Christ's case, had a crown of thorns pushed forcefully onto your head
As to the "cross" part of your punishment, yes, suffocation was the usual cause of death. That is, unless shock (from the blood loss), exposure, or bugs/buzzards finished you off first... The mechanism is that your pinioned position didn't leave the chest cage a lot of ability to expand, and thus to effectively breathe. Over time, the respiratory muscles just gave out, and you died. Legs were nailed to the cross bent at the hips and knees, so you *could* lift yourself up to help breathe, but at the cost of increasing the pain in your feet. Prisoners were thus in nearly constant motion as they hung there, just in their efforts to draw breath. Often the legs were broken by the soldiers, simply to mercifully hasten your death.
Not a pretty picture...
3) That's "drawn & quartered", no?... Also, horses are only stronger'n *HUMAN* body parts (just to clarify).