In a crucifixion, you’re nailed to it. Suspended from a furca, you’re dangled from it. Crucifixion can be slow and painful, but it can also be quick and painful - the Jewish-Roman scholar Josephus notes that he requested the Roman general Titus remove several people from crucifixion very shortly after they were crucified, and even with Titus’s own personal physician assisting, the men removed from the cross still died. Getting nailed shoved through your bits is very traumatic, and often deadly even on its own.
Suspended from a furca, you’re tied to it. It’s generally not lethal in and of itself - but like stocks, it’s a humiliation. Traditionally, those hung from the furca were hung there so they could be scourged, though I don’t know if the dogs were scourged or just dangled there as the crowds harassed them. The sources all say they were killed/sacrificed at the end, but not in what manner.
Interesting. I had heard the archeological evidence was that the ropes kind was much more common, what with nails being expensive and all. What was the story with Titus? My searches all just turn up Christian apologetics, lol.
Titus, as in the Emperor Titus (though he wasn’t Emperor at the time), commanded Roman forces in Iudea after his father, Vespasian, left. Titus was renowned for being something of a soft-heart - at least by Roman standards.
And when I was sent by Titus Caesar with Cerealins, and a thousand horsemen, to a certain village called Thecoa, in order to know whether it were a place fit for a camp, as I came back, I saw many captives crucified, and remembered three of them as my former acquaintance. I was very sorry at this in my mind, and went with tears in my eyes to Titus, and told him of them; so he immediately commanded them to be taken down, and to have the greatest care taken of them, in order to their recovery; yet two of them died under the physician’s hands, while the third recovered.
Jesus Christ. that looks like tens of tons of iron, and it was a lot pricier before modern technology. You can pump out nails pretty fast by hand once you have the material, but smelting and purifying ferrous metal without actually melting it is very labour-intensive, and the mining itself would have been painfully slow if they had to actually take down rock faces with no power tools or explosives (I don’t know how much of their needs could have been met with bog iron and similar).
Annual production of iron in the Empire was something to the tune of 80,000 tons per year. Roman furnaces were not, to my knowledge, uniform or exceptionally effective, but Roman mining was refined to a science.
The period actually shows up as a carbon spike in ice cores IIRC.
80,000 tons per year
So that’s a bit over 1 kg/person, assuming metric tons. I wonder what percentage employment in the industry it took to achieve that.
What do you know about the mining? The whole vinegar splashing thing is documented and continues to confuse us. Do I remember something about donkey-powered pumps and mine carts?
So that’s a bit over 1 kg/person, assuming metric tons. I wonder what percentage employment in the industry it took to achieve that.
Not sure, but there are a few employment contracts preserved for common miners, and they get a pretty nice deal for just being unskilled labor, so there was probably a lot of demand compared to the labor force that was available/willing. Also why slaves were condemned to the mines. They always needed more hands.
What do you know about the mining? The whole vinegar splashing thing is documented and continues to confuse us. Do I remember something about donkey-powered pumps and mine carts?
I don’t think there were mine carts, at least not in the sense of tracked carts. That’s a 16th century invention, I think. Pumps, though, definitely - Archimedes Screw was widely used, as was diverting water to erode the ground around metal veins, and trip hammers to smash the ore.
Some sources say being suspended from a furca which, while less excruciating, was considered a more degrading and humiliating punishment.
Which would make more sense, considering you want the dogs to be alive to be ritually sacrificed at the end.
What’s the difference, exactly? Wikipedia makes them sound the same.
That’s horrifying. Blood sacrifice is one thing, but ritual torture is another level of fucked up.
In a crucifixion, you’re nailed to it. Suspended from a furca, you’re dangled from it. Crucifixion can be slow and painful, but it can also be quick and painful - the Jewish-Roman scholar Josephus notes that he requested the Roman general Titus remove several people from crucifixion very shortly after they were crucified, and even with Titus’s own personal physician assisting, the men removed from the cross still died. Getting nailed shoved through your bits is very traumatic, and often deadly even on its own.
Suspended from a furca, you’re tied to it. It’s generally not lethal in and of itself - but like stocks, it’s a humiliation. Traditionally, those hung from the furca were hung there so they could be scourged, though I don’t know if the dogs were scourged or just dangled there as the crowds harassed them. The sources all say they were killed/sacrificed at the end, but not in what manner.
But yes, the past is not a pretty place.
Interesting. I had heard the archeological evidence was that the ropes kind was much more common, what with nails being expensive and all. What was the story with Titus? My searches all just turn up Christian apologetics, lol.
Oh, the Romans had no shortage of nails. Iron production in the Roman Empire wouldn’t be matched in Europe for another ~1600 years.
Titus, as in the Emperor Titus (though he wasn’t Emperor at the time), commanded Roman forces in Iudea after his father, Vespasian, left. Titus was renowned for being something of a soft-heart - at least by Roman standards.
The Life of Josephus
Jesus Christ. that looks like tens of tons of iron, and it was a lot pricier before modern technology. You can pump out nails pretty fast by hand once you have the material, but smelting and purifying ferrous metal without actually melting it is very labour-intensive, and the mining itself would have been painfully slow if they had to actually take down rock faces with no power tools or explosives (I don’t know how much of their needs could have been met with bog iron and similar).
Annual production of iron in the Empire was something to the tune of 80,000 tons per year. Roman furnaces were not, to my knowledge, uniform or exceptionally effective, but Roman mining was refined to a science.
The period actually shows up as a carbon spike in ice cores IIRC.
So that’s a bit over 1 kg/person, assuming metric tons. I wonder what percentage employment in the industry it took to achieve that.
What do you know about the mining? The whole vinegar splashing thing is documented and continues to confuse us. Do I remember something about donkey-powered pumps and mine carts?
Not sure, but there are a few employment contracts preserved for common miners, and they get a pretty nice deal for just being unskilled labor, so there was probably a lot of demand compared to the labor force that was available/willing. Also why slaves were condemned to the mines. They always needed more hands.
https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1799&context=open_access_etds
I don’t think there were mine carts, at least not in the sense of tracked carts. That’s a 16th century invention, I think. Pumps, though, definitely - Archimedes Screw was widely used, as was diverting water to erode the ground around metal veins, and trip hammers to smash the ore.