Crux simplex

The crux simplex is an instrument of torture and execution recognized by modern authors as one of the types of crosses that existed in the ancient world. In the sixteenth century the scholar Justus Lipsius (1547–1606) qualified itself in his book De cruce libri tres. Most recently as archaeologists and historians like Joe Zias, (Antiquities Museum Jerusalem) and Frederick T. Zugibe have recognized that the crux simplex, consisting of only a vertical beam without crossbar, "in fact is a kind of crucifixion". This type of cross"was the easiest available way to torture and kill criminals". Indeed it is the most common form of crosses used by the Persians, Assyrians, Seleucids and Phoenicians.

The word crux in Latin, in pre-imperial Rome to the gibbet or stake, a wooden instrument for executions, but not necessarily to intersecting or "cruciform" beams. The Latin word derived from the verb crucio "to torture" (c.f. English ). The addition of a transverse bar, to which the criminal would be fastened with nails or cords, dates to a later period, and the simple pole was specified as crux acuta or crux simplex for disambiguation.

Crucifixion probably originated with the Assyrians and Babylonians. The Assyrians impaled their victims by the ribs and left them hanging on spears or high stakes.

Later this method of execution was adopted by the Persians who used it systematically during the sixth century BCE. The Hebrew Bible (OT) testifies to this Persian practice, when it reads that Darius I the Great issued an order that no one interfere in rebuilding the temple in Jerusalem on pain of being set (literally, "elevation") on a tree ripped from your own home. During the reign of Ahasuerus (Xerxes I), the son of Darius, two of the guardians of the palace gate were hung or attached to a pole, the usual punishment Persians gave traitors. Haman and his ten sons were hung on a tree for similar reasons. The Greek historian Herodotus also cites other cases of application of such punishment by the Persians. The Dead Sea Scrolls, which are dated as of the first century, cited Deuteronomy 21:22-23 with reference to crucifixion practiced by the Romans and later Hasmoneans. For example, they applied this passage to executions by Alexander Jannaeus in the year 88 BCE.

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