Descriptions in antiquity of the execution cross

Descriptions in antiquity of the execution cross, whether by Christians or non-Christians, present the instrument ordinarily used in putting people to death by crucifixion as composed of two wooden pieces.

[9] Irenaeus (early 2nd century – AD 202) remarks that "the very form of the cross, too, has five extremities, two in length, two in breadth, and one in the middle, on which [last] the person rests who is fixed by the nails".

[10][11] The same remark is made by Justin Martyr (100–165) when commenting on the Book of Deuteronomy 33:17: "No one could say or prove that the horns of a unicorn represent any other fact or figure than the type which portrays the cross.

"[14][15] Justin Martyr also states: "That [passover] lamb which was commanded to be wholly roasted was a symbol of the suffering of the cross which Christ would undergo.

[22] Dionysius of Halicarnassus (c. 60 BC – after 7 BC) mentions that, on a certain occasion, "a Roman citizen of no obscure station, having ordered one of his slaves to be put to death, delivered him to his fellow-slaves to be led away, and in order that his punishment might be witnessed by all, directed them to drag him through the Forum and every other conspicuous part of the city as they whipped him, and that he should go ahead of the procession which the Romans were at that time conducting in honour of the god.

The men ordered to lead the slave to his punishment, having stretched out both his arms and fastened them to a piece of wood which extended across his breast and shoulders as far as his wrists, followed him, tearing his naked body with whips.

It says that in this Moses was inspired to "make the form of a cross, and of him who was about to suffer" (ἵνα ποιήσῃ τύπον σταυροῦ καὶ τοῦ μέλλοντος πάσχειν).

Lucian (125 – after 180) describes the situation of Prometheus chained to the Caucasus as a crucifixion with arms stretched out to right and left: "Let him hang over this precipice, with his arms stretched across from crag to crag [...] altogether a sweet spot for a crucifixion" (Fowler translation);[40] in the original, ἀνεσταυρώσθω (let him be crucified) ἐκπετασθεὶς τὼ χεῖρε ἀπὸ τουτουὶ τοῦ κρημνοῦ πρὸς τὸν ἐναντίον [...] ἐπικαιρότατος ἂν ὁ σταυρὸς γένοιτο.

"[46] (τίς οὖν ἡ δοθεῖσα αὐτῷ γνῶσις; μάθετε, ὅτι τοὺς δεκαοκτὼ πρώτους, καὶ διάστημα ποιήσας λέγει τριακοσίους.

ὅτι δὲ ὁ σταυρὸς ἐν τῷ ταῦ ἤμελλεν ἔχειν τὴν χάριν, λέγει καὶ τοὺς τριακοσίους.

In the same chapter of his book, and again on the basis of the shape of the letter τ, Clement says the 300-cubit length of Noah's ark was seen as a foreshadowing of the cross of Christ: "there are some who say that three hundred cubits are the symbol of the Lord’s sign" (εἰσὶ δ' οἳ τοὺς τριακοσίους πήχεις σύμβολον τοῦ κυριακοῦ σημείου λέγουσι).

In the Trial of the Court of the Vowels of Lucian (125 – after 180), the Greek letter Sigma (Σ) accuses the letter Tau (Τ) of having provided tyrants with the model for the wooden instrument with which to crucify people and demands that Tau be executed on his own shape: "It was his body that tyrants took for a model, his shape that they imitated, when they set up the erections on which men are crucified.

For my part I know none bad enough but that supplied by his own shape—that shape which he gave to the gibbet named σταυρός after him by men"[53] (τῷ γάρ τούτου σώματί φασι τοὺς τυράννους ἀκολουθήσαντας καὶ μιμησαμένους αὐτοῦ τὸ πλάσμα ἔπειτα σχήματι τοιούτῳ ξύλα τεκτήναντας ἀνθρώπους ἀνασκολοπίζειν ἐπ᾽ αὐτά [...] ἐγὼ μὲν γὰρ οἶμαι δικαίως τοῦτο μόνον ἐς τὴν τοῦ Ταῦ τιμωρίαν ὑπολείπεσθαι, τὸ τῷ σχήματι τῷ αὑτοῦ τὴν δίκην ὑποσχεῖν).

"[57] (omnes fideles [...] signatos illa nota scilicet de qua Ezechiel: Dicit dominus ad me, Pertransi in medio portae in media Hierusalem, et da signum Tau in frontibus virorum.

Ipsa est enim littera Graecorum Tau, nostra autem T, species crucis, quam portendebat futuram in frontibus nostris).

[58] The universality of the Early Christian practice of tracing the sign of the cross on the forehead, not limited to the Roman province of Africa, where Tertullian lived, is shown by the fact that the Egyptian Origen, only some thirty years his junior, interprets similarly the passage of the Book of Ezekiel to which Tertullian referred,[59] with the difference that Origen saw in the sign on the forehead of which Ezekiel spoke a reference not to the Greek letter tau, but to the letter taw of the Hebrew alphabet (ת), which earlier had the shape of a cross.

Origen took this to be a prophecy of the Early Christian custom of making a cross on their foreheads when undertaking some activity, especially prayer and reading of the sacred texts.

[60] The oldest extant depiction of the execution of Jesus in any medium seems to be the second-century or early third-century relief on a jasper gemstone meant for use as an amulet, which is now in the British Museum in London.