Chap. IX Punishments Borrowed From Other Nations
The punishments borrowed from other Nations are principally six: 1. Crux, The death on the Cross. 2. Serrâ dissectio, the cutting one asunder with a saw. 3. Damnatio ad bestias, The committing one to fight for his life with wild beasts. 4. τροχὸς, the wheel. 5. καταποντισμὸς, Drowning one in the sea. 6. τυμπανισμὸς, Beating one to death with cudgels. The first and the third were meerly Roman punishments; the second was likewise used by the Romans, but whether originally taken from them is doubtful: the fourth and the last were meerly Greek punishments; the fifth was for the substance in use among Hebrews, Greeks and Romans, but in the manner of drowning them, they differed. It will be needful to speak somewhat of all these.
1. Crux. This word is sometimes applied to any tree or stake on which a man is tortured to death, but most properly it is applied to a frame of wood consisting of two pieces of timber compacted cross-wise. The first is termed Crux simplex, the last Crux compacta. This latter is threefold. 1. Decussata. 2. Commissa. 3. Immissa.
Crux decussata. This was made of two equal pieces of timber obliquely crossing one the other in the middle, after the manner of the Roman X, and thence it is called decussata.595 Decussare, est per medium secare. Veluti si duæ regulæ concurrant ad speciem literæ X, quæ figura est crucis. This kind of cross is by the common people termed Crux Andræana, Saint Andrews-cross, because on such an one he is reported to have been crucified.
Crux commissa. This was, when a piece of timber erected, was joyned in the middle to a traverse, of over-thwart top; somewhat shorter than the piece erect, in manner of a Roman T. This is called Crux Antoniana, S. Anthony his Cross, because he is often painted with such a Cross.
Crux immissa. This was when a short traverse somewhat obliquely crossed the stake erect, not quite in the middle, as Crux decussata, nor quite on the top as Crux commissa, but near the top, in this manner †. This is thought596 to have been Crux Christi, the Cross on which our Saviour Christ suffered.
The Ceremonies used by the Romans towards those whom they crucified were these: First, they scourged them, and sometimes tyed them to a Piller in time of scourging. Artemidorus597 is clear in this, Προσδεθεὶς κίονι, πολλὰς ἔλαβε πληγὰς, that is, being tyed to the Piller, he received many stripes. Plautus598 is thought to have alluded to the same.
———Abducite hunc
Intro, atque adstringite ad columnam fortiter.
The ancient Fathers599 report that our Saviour was whipt thus ad columnam: but the Scripture is silent, both touching the place and manner of this whipping, only that he was whipt is testified. He scourged Jesus, and delivered him to be crucified, Mat. 27. 26.
Secondly, They caused them to bear their own Cross,600 Malefici cùm ad supplicium educuntur, quisq; suum effert crucem. Thus Christ bore his own Cross, John 19. 17. To this there is allusion, He that taketh not his Cross, and followeth after me, he is not worthy of me, Mat. 10. 38.
Thirdly,601 That the equity of the proceeding might clearly appear, the cause of the punishment was written in a table, and so carried before the condemned person; or else it was proclamed by a publick Cryer. This cause was termed by the Romans commonly Titulus, by some602 it is called Elegium. Thus Pilate wrote in Hebrew, Greek, and Latine, Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.
Fourthly,603 They pluckt off their cloaths from such as were to be crucified. Thus Christ suffered naked.
Serra dissectio, A sawing one in sunder. They sawed them from the head downward. The Romans604 they used this kind of punishment, so likewise did the Hebrews. Thus Manasses is thought to have punisht the Prophet Isaiah, and the Apostle to have alluded unto it, They were sawn a-sunder, Heb. 11. 37.
Damnatio ad bestias. Those who were condemned to wild beasts, are properly termed Bestiarii. Whether S. Paul did, according to the letter, fight with beasts at Ephesus, 1 Cor. 15. 32. is much controversed. Some605 understand by Beasts, Demetrius, and others that opposed him at Ephesus, others606 more probably understand the word literally. And this kind of punishment was commonly exercised against Christians in the Primitive Church, insomuch that the Heathens imputing the cause of all publick calamities unto the Christians, would call out,607 Christianos ad Leones! Let the Christians be haled to Lyons: yea, the litteral interpretation of the words, is a stronger argument that Saint Paul believed the Resurrection (which is the scope of the text) than to understand the words of a metaphorical fight, against the enemies of his doctrine.
Τροχὸς, The Wheel: A wise King bringeth the wheel over the wicked, Prov. 20. 26. I take the words to imply no more but this, that as the wheel turneth round, so by the wisdom of a King the mischief intended by wicked men, is brought upon their own head. That hereby should be understood, the grinding of wicked men under a cart-wheel, as the husband brake some sort of grain under the wheel, is the meer conceipt of Expositors on this place; for no Records make mention of any such punishment in use among the Jews. Among the Greeks there was a punishment went under this name:608 it was called τροχὸς, A Wheel, not because a wheel was brought over the wicked, but because they bound fast the offender to the spokes of a wheel, and there scourged him, to inforce a confession.
Καταποντισμὸς, Drowning in the Sea. This was in use among many Nations, but the manner differed. The Romans609 they sewed up a Parricide into a leather budget, sewing up together with him into the same budget, a Serpent, a Cock, and an Ape, and so cast them all into the Sea. The Grecians610 when they judged any to this kind of punishment, they wrapt him up in lead. The Hebrews tyed a milstone about his neck. Thus, in respect of the manner those are to be understood, who say,611 this kind of punishment was peculiar to the Jews.
Τυμπανισμὸς. It is rendred by the general name of torturing, Heb. 11. 35. 2 Mac. 6. 19. But the word signifieth a special kind of torturing, by beating one with cudgels unto death. It hath its denomination from τύμπανον, which signifieth a Drum usually: and hence some612 have parallel’d this torture with that among the Romans termed Equuleus; as if the person thus tortured, were rackt, and stretched out in manner of a drum head: but it signifieth also a drum stick, and thence613 cometh the punishment to be termed Tympanismus, that is, a Tabring, or beating one to death with cudgels, as if it were with drum-sticks. This is evident by Eleazar; he came willingly, ἐπὶ τὸ τύμπανον, to this kind of torment, 2 Macab. 6. 19. and in the thirtieth verse, where he gave up the Ghost, there is mention of his strokes, not of his racking or stretching.
Junius614 reckoneth another kind of punishment termed by the Hebrews, צינק Tsinok, which he would have to be a compound word: doubtless his meaning is that it would be compounded of צי Tsi, Navis, a ship, or boat, and ינק Janack, Sugere, to suck: for he saith that thereby is meant a certain punishment, termed Navicula sugentis which Plutarch615 describeth in this manner; That the offender should be inclosed between two boates, as in a prison, or, as his phrase is (quasi in vagina) as in a sheath; and, to preserve life in him, milk and honey tempered together was forcibly put into his mouth, whether he would or no. And hence, from this sucking in of milk and honey, this punishment hath been termed Navicula sugentis. But the Hebrews616 say, that Tsinock was nothing else but manacles, or cords, wherewith prisoners hands were tyed. I leave it indifferent to the Reader to follow which interpretation he please.
Notes
595 Hieron. in Jerem. c. 31.
596 Lipsius de cruce lib. 10. cap. 10.
597 Joseph. excid. lib. 5. cap. 32. Philo contra Flaccum. It. Liv. lib. 1.
598 Plaut. Bacch.
599 Prudentius; Hieron. Beda vid. Lip. de cruce, lib. 2. cap. 4.
600 Plutarch. de sera num. vind.
601 Euseb. Eccl. hist. lib. 5. cap. 1. It. Suet. Domit. cap. 10.
602 Tertul. Apol. cap. 2. Sueton. in Calig.
603 Artemidor. l. 2. c. 58.
604 Sueton. in Calig. cap. 27.
605 Theophylact. Anselm.
606 Chrysostom. Ambros. & alii.
607 Tertullian. Apol. cap. 40.
608 Ἐπὶ τοῦ τροχοῦ γ’ ἕλκοιτο μαστιγούμενος, Aristoph. in Iren. De eadem pœna loquuntur Demosth. 3. in Aphob. & Suidas.
609 Senec. lib. 5. controv. 4. Juvenal Satyr 8. Modestus, Digest. l. 48. ad legem Pomp. de parric. vid. Cæl. Rhod. l. 11. c. 21.
610 Athenæus l. 14.
611 Hier. Mat. 18. 6.
612 Magius in lib. de Equuleo, vid. Drus. præter. l. 8.
613 Scholiastes Aristophanis τύμπανα scribit esse ξύλα οἷς τύπτονται ἐν τοῖς δικαστηρίοις οἱ τιμωρούμενοι in Pluto p. 50.
614 Junius. Jer. 29. 26.
615 Plutarch. in Artaxerxe.
616 כלי מסגר לידים Instrumentum constringens manus. D. Kimch. Jer. 29. 26.