Crucifixion is a method of capital punishment in which the condemned is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross, beam or stake and left to hang until eventual death. It was used as a punishment by the Persians, Carthaginians, and Romans, among others. Crucifixion has been used in some countries as recently as the early 20th century.
A 15th century depiction of Jesus crucified between the two thieves
Crucifixion with Greek Inscriptions by Georgios Markazinis circa 1647
Gabriel von Max's 1866 painting Martyress depicts a crucified young woman and a young man laying flowers at her feet
1st century calcareous heel bone with a nail
Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned practice of killing a person as a punishment for a crime, usually following an authorised, rule-governed process to conclude that the person is responsible for violating norms that warrant said punishment. The sentence ordering that an offender be punished in such a manner is known as a death sentence, and the act of carrying out the sentence is known as an execution. A prisoner who has been sentenced to death and awaits execution is condemned and is commonly referred to as being "on death row". Etymologically, the term capital refers to execution by beheading, but executions are carried out by many methods, including hanging, shooting, lethal injection, stoning, electrocution, and gassing.
Anarchist Auguste Vaillant about to be guillotined in France in 1894
The Christian Martyrs' Last Prayer, by Jean-Léon Gérôme (1883). Roman Circus Maximus.
The Death of Socrates (1787), in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City
The breaking wheel was used during the Middle Ages and was still in use into the 19th century.
