A Brief History
On Good Friday, possibly April 3, 33 AD, Jesus of Nazareth, prophet to Islam and Judaism, the Christ and Savior to Christians, was crucified by the Romans in Jerusalem. Crucifixion was a particularly brutal and drawn out process of execution often reserved for “dangerous” criminals, ones that threatened the status quo. Here we list 10 notable cases where a person was crucified.
Note: In April of 2019, the government of Saudi Arabia announced the execution of 37 suspected terrorists, one of those executions coming in the form of crucifixion! Thus, it is logical to conclude that crucifixion is still a “modern” form of execution. (Wow!)
Digging Deeper
10. Inaros II, 454 BC.
Also known as Inarus, this Egyptian was a rebel against the Persian occupiers. Allying himself with the Athenians, the Persians eventually won and captured Inaros, executing him by crucifixion. Records being what they were back then, historians debate whether Inaros was crucified or impaled. Note: Inaros I lived 200 years earlier and was also a rebel, this time against the Assyrians.
9. The Crucified Soldier, 1915.
An unidentified allied soldier said to be a Canadian, was allegedly crucified with bayonets against a barn door by German troops. The story ran in British newspapers (then all over the world) and was used on American posters to sell war bonds, and an American propaganda film The Prussian Cur (1918). Germany claimed the incident was false and just British propaganda. British Parliament asked for an investigation as to whether this was common German practice.
8. The Ten Thousand Martyrs, 9th Century AD.
According to Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox martyrology, ten thousand Roman soldiers converted to Christianity were crucified on Mt. Ararat (the mountain where Noah is said to have landed his ark) in Armenia or Turkey by the Emperor Decius.
7. Julia of Corsica, 439 AD.
A martyred saint, Julia was also reputedly a virgin and a slave that was crucified for refusing to honor pagan gods and renounce Christianity. Despite the descriptive name, she was supposedly of Carthaginian origin.
6. Bessus (Artaxerxes V), 329 BC.
Bessus seized the throne of Persia after the defeat of Darius III by Alexander the Great. Bessus led conspirators to kill Darius III and proclaimed himself King of Kings, and then attempted to mount resistance to the conquering Macedonians. Fearful Persians soon caught Bessus and turned him over to Alexander who had him crucified. As with some of the others allegedly crucified, historians disagree as to the exact method of execution.
5. 26 Martyrs of Japan, 1597.
After successfully converting perhaps 300,000 Japanese to Christianity, the Spanish and Portuguese missionaries were at odds and the Japanese authorities decided to stamp out Christianity. In that atmosphere, 26 Japanese Christians were crucified in Nagasaki, later declared martyrs by the Catholic Church. These were not the only Japanese Christians martyred, but they were the first and the most famous.
4. Third Servile War, 71 BC.
Known also by The Gladiator War or The War of Spartacus, this war was the rising up of the slaves against their Roman masters, led by Spartacus and other gladiators. When the rebellion was finally crushed, Crassus captured 6000 remaining rebellious slaves and had them crucified, their bodies hanging on crosses along the road to Rome (the Appian Way).
3. Andrew the Apostle, 1st Century, AD.
Preaching his way from Jerusalem north to the Ukraine and Russia, Andrew ended up crucified in Greece at an unknown date. The oldest accounts say he was crucified on the type of cross Christ was crucified on, but somewhere along the way tradition changed, claiming that he was crucified on an X shaped cross. Apparently spreading the Christian word was a dangerous thing to do in those days, and fellow apostles Philip and Bartholomew found themselves crucified upside down in what is now Turkey.
2. Saint Peter the Apostle, 1st Century AD.
The designated successor to Jesus as head of the new church, Peter was said to be crucified by Emperor Nero in Rome, upside down at his own insistence because he believed he was unworthy to be crucified like Jesus.
1. Jesus Christ, circa 33 AD.
Of course, Jesus is by far the most famous victim of crucifixion, as millions of crosses (crucifixes) all over the world attest. The story of his crucifixion, aside from being described in the Gospels, is told in “Passion Plays” performed each year all over the world and has been depicted in numerous movies, such as the Mel Gibson production starring Jim Caviezel, The Passion of the Christ (2004). A rather irreverent spoof of the life and execution of Jesus was made by the Monty Python comedy troupe called The Life of Brian in 1979.
+Bonus: Conan!
Arnold Schwarzenegger portrayed fictional character Conan in a 1982 movie with a memorable crucifixion scene.
Question for students (and subscribers): Do you think crucifixion is a justifiable form of punishment? Please let us know in the comments section below this article.
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Zugibe, Frederick T. The Crucifixion of Jesus, Completely Revised and Expanded: A Forensic Inquiry. M. Evans & Company, 2005.
The featured image in this article, Crucifixion from the Buhl Altarpiece, a particularly large Gothicoil on panel painting from the 1490s, from © Ralph Hammann – Wikimedia Commons, is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. This object is classé Monument Historique in the base Palissy, database of the French furniture patrimony of the French ministry of culture, under the references PM68000036, IM68000035 and IM68000036.
You can also watch a video version of this article on YouTube:
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="1786 http://www.crackedhistory.com/?p=1786">35 Comments
Life of Brian was far more accurate than anything regards HeyZeus of made up location. And if the author really has such qualifications, what the F is he doing writing this shite? Enough said really.
There seems to be quite the focus on Christians being crucified, though I suppose that makes sense given that the crucifix is one of their primary symbols. Even as a Christian, I have to say I love that seen from Life of Brian.
It is interesting how widespread the practice of crucifixion was. I had no idea its practice reached as far as Japan. It is also shocking that it was practiced as late as 1915
As much as you’d like to think gruesome ways to die like crucifixion do not exist, it seems that many people have historically died this way, and probably many more who were as well publicized. Disturbing.
It is horrific that so many died this way! — DAVID WARDLE
Tragic that so many had to died like that, but it wasn’t uncommon for this method of death back then, unfortunately.
it was very common to be killed in inhumane ways, chopping a head off, nailing someone to a giant cross, or starving them to death all seem very cruel, yet very common practices.
Actually never heard of any of these people except for Jesus and st peter
crucifixion must have been a terrible way to die
Crazy how 10,000 people were crucified on Mt. Ararat in the 9th century CE.
Crucifixion was an awful way to die. Every time I watch the passion on the Christ I ball my eyes out! I never heard of any of these except Jesus and St. Peter
Was there any other way but a brutal death back in those times? Crucifixion was only one of many horrible ways that a person could have died back then. I think we are only shocked because we have grown accustomed to recognizing crucifixion with Jesus Christ.
Horrific way to die but I did not know that Alexander the Great had someone crucified.
I never really thought about other being people crucified especially in 1915. Really surprised to read about that one.
St. Peter’s crucifixion was the strangest and probably the most painful other than Christ’s.
Crucifixion is a terrible and excruciating process but in all my years hearing about it I have never once encountered a crucified woman. It was very interesting to see that not only men, but women, were also crucified.
It’s sad to see that most of the crucifixions are for punishment of trying to spread religion. Something that today would be seen as terrible and unheard of.
Its obvious that being crucified is a horrible way to die.
It’s pretty fascinating how this method of execution became the symbol for the world’s most popular and influential religion of all time. I actually really like how early Christians realized that they needed to make sacrifices to preach their gospel and instead of letting themselves become persecuted by the Romans and lost to history, they persevered, made sacrifices, and now Christianity is (arguably) the most influential religious belief of all time. As much as a lot of people dislike modern Christianity, I think that this lesson of perseverance is a great lesson to learn about the human condition and it even resonates with our beliefs as Americans in a lot of ways.
I was not surprised when I saw Jesus as the number 1 famous crucifixion. This form of punishment is very torturing which allows viewers to watch the victim slowly die.
It is surprising that an ancient ritual such as crucifixion has been performed in recent times, such as in 1915.
It’s sad to see that so many people on this list were crucified because they were sharing their faith with others. Crucifixion was supposed to be used only for the most dangerous criminals, but it seems that it was used more to punish innocent victims.
Crucifixions might possibly be the worst way to die for obvious reasons. It’s sad that many of the people on this list were crucified for their religious values.
Ya crucifixions pretty much suck. I thank God that its not been a common form of execution for a long time.
It shows how uncivilized these ‘civilizations’ were by crucifying and tormenting people in such a manner.
I agree with you Cody Perotty. This was my initial reaction when I began to read this article.
I agree with some of the other comments. Even now we do not do anything like this, the worst we do is put to people to death with a needle, which seems a lot more gentle than a crucifixion.
The fact that they would crucify people just to spread what they believe breaks my heart, everyone deserves to share something they are passionate about no matter the time period!
I was not surprised that Jesus’ crucifixion was the most famous. I cannot imagine the utter agony people went through when dying from that execution.
Crucifixion is terrible, it is just a mechanism to kill someone in a terrible way. Obviously, Jesus is the prime example but so many others have fallen to this horrendous means of killing.
After watching “The Passion of Christ” I cannot believe that crucifixion was legal back in the day and was practiced as much as it was. What a cruel way to put someone to death.
Crucifixion was not a pleasant way to go, and it was intentionally drawn out to make a point. I find it odd that it made an appearance on Vikings with a made up person, but I’m not familiar with the show and how historically accurate it tries to be. The History channel seems to be losing credibility in general from people upset that it now devotes a lot of show time to aliens and antique shows.
I cannot believe crucifixion was ever a thing but I am surprised how often this was done to people. Prior to this I believed it to be not so common.
Those videos were so interesting!
I always cringe at the site of someone being crucified. To not only deal with much pain, but to die by suffocation as well. It is quite interesting how they come up with these brutal ways to kill and torture people though.