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Jedakk's Masterpiece

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Sorry I haven't been able to continue on with the posts yet! Real world stuff has had me occupied, plus I added in some more nailing scenes that I had not done earlier and had to render those. Hopefully I'll be able to pick it up again soon.
The real world does that to all of us here at cf from time to time ... looking forward to the return.
 
While this story is fiction, in reality one of the ancient writers mentioned that the Sessorium became "a forest of crosses." Unfortunately, in reality Caesar Augustus had the place cleaned up in 15 BC, so the Sessorium was no longer there by Sabina's time. So I've taken some literary license as I don't know where the place of execution was by 79 AD, or if there was a certain place. Today, I think there's a railroad station and parking lot located about where the Sessorium used to be.
I happened to come across an interesting footnote to this today -
Constantine, who was of course the Roman Emperor who first adopted Christianity
had a palatial residence at the eastern end of the city, overlooking the site of the Sessorium.
His mother, St Helena, used it, too, she who was credited with discovering the True Cross.
Subsequently the palace was replaced by a basilican church,
which was the 'station' where popes processed on Good Friday afternoon
to attend the reading of the Passion narrative (St John's version).
That church, Basilica Sessoriana, was otherwise known as 'Hierosalem', 'Jerusalem',
it was regarded as 'Rome's Golgotha'.
None of that was coincidence, clearly the memory had lingered on,
and the place was 'christened'.
 
I happened to come across an interesting footnote to this today -
Constantine, who was of course the Roman Emperor who first adopted Christianity
had a palatial residence at the eastern end of the city, overlooking the site of the Sessorium.
His mother, St Helena, used it, too, she who was credited with discovering the True Cross.
Subsequently the palace was replaced by a basilican church,
which was the 'station' where popes processed on Good Friday afternoon
to attend the reading of the Passion narrative (St John's version).
That church, Basilica Sessoriana, was otherwise known as 'Hierosalem', 'Jerusalem',
it was regarded as 'Rome's Golgotha'.
None of that was coincidence, clearly the memory had lingered on,
and the place was 'christened'.

Yes, I came across that in the research I did on the Sessorium as a place of execution. Even though that palace and later church was located where it was, very near to the site of the Sessorium place of execution, I was never able to find out whether there was a connection. That place of execution was no longer in use before the birth of Christ, so there's no reason anyone would venerate it as a site where Christians were martyred.

The word "sessorium" in Latin refers to a sitting room or perhaps a boudoir. I've never found anything to explain why the Romans referred to the place of execution as the Sessorium, but I've speculated that it was a bit of black humor, based on the condemned who were crucified there and spent most of their time in a sitting or squatting position on the cross.
 
Yes, I came across that in the research I did on the Sessorium as a place of execution. Even though that palace and later church was located where it was, very near to the site of the Sessorium place of execution, I was never able to find out whether there was a connection. That place of execution was no longer in use before the birth of Christ, so there's no reason anyone would venerate it as a site where Christians were martyred.

There certainly were later executions at the Sessorium:

16 CE:
'Publius Marcius ... was executed by the consuls outside the Esquiline Gate according to ancient usage and at sound of trumpet.' (Tacitus, Annals II, 32)

65 CE:
'Dragged to the place reserved for the execution of slaves*, he [Plautius Lateranus] was slaughtered by the hand of the tribune Statius, resolutely silent and disdaining to reproach the tribune with his complicity in the same affair.' (Tacitus, Annals XV, 60).
*'Known as the Sessorium, in the Campus Esquilinus. It was here that Galba's head was thrown by the slaves of Patrobius (Plut. Galb. 28 — where the definition of the place is:—ᾗ τοὺς τῶν Καισάρων κολαζομένους θανατοῦσιν).'

69 CE:
'They took it [Galba's head], and after heaping all manner of insult and outrage upon it, cast it into a place called Sessorium, where those under condemnation of the emperors were put to death.' (Plutarch, Galba).

***
Sabina could well have been crucified there ten years later.
 
I wonder if anyone who goes there ever thinks about all those hundreds of people on crosses right there in that place 2000 years ago? Probably not.
:D
 
I need one or a couple today. Got to come out of retirement for a while to take care of relatives who need help with their company due to death in the family.
that is the (luxe?) problem if people knows your skills ;) take care
 
The word "sessorium" in Latin refers to a sitting room or perhaps a boudoir. I've never found anything to explain why the Romans referred to the place of execution as the Sessorium, but I've speculated that it was a bit of black humor, based on the condemned who were crucified there and spent most of their time in a sitting or squatting position on the cross.
Latin sessor can mean 'a sitter' or 'a settler'
(from the root *sed- in both Latin and English),
so Sessorium was probably '[place] of settlers' -
I imagine it in the late Republic as a sort of squatter camp,
a third-world shanty town, just outside the city wall.
Not much of a boudoir, though sedilia (same root) were perhaps provided :D

There certainly were later executions at the Sessorium:

16 CE:
'Publius Marcius ... was executed by the consuls outside the Esquiline Gate according to ancient usage and at sound of trumpet.' (Tacitus, Annals II, 32)

65 CE:
'Dragged to the place reserved for the execution of slaves*, he [Plautius Lateranus] was slaughtered by the hand of the tribune Statius, resolutely silent and disdaining to reproach the tribune with his complicity in the same affair.' (Tacitus, Annals XV, 60).
*'Known as the Sessorium, in the Campus Esquilinus. It was here that Galba's head was thrown by the slaves of Patrobius (Plut. Galb. 28 — where the definition of the place is:—ᾗ τοὺς τῶν Καισάρων κολαζομένους θανατοῦσιν).'

69 CE:
'They took it [Galba's head], and after heaping all manner of insult and outrage upon it, cast it into a place called Sessorium, where those under condemnation of the emperors were put to death.' (Plutarch, Galba).

***
Sabina could well have been crucified there ten years later.
Yes, and I think it quite possible that sessorium remained in use as a common term
for a place of execution even when it wasn't actually at that location.

I notice that Santa Sabina on the Aventine is another of the papal 'stations',
visited on Ash Wednesday. ;)

ᾗ τοὺς τῶν Καισάρων κολαζομένους θανατοῦσιν)
I think that means 'to where those condemned by the Emperors are put to death'
 
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Yes, and I think it quite possible that sessorium remained in use as a common term
for a place of execution even when it wasn't actually at that location.

Quite so, but Tacitus didn't mention any other place, and the (presumably Oxbridge-learned :)) commentator thinks it was the Esquiline in the 60s CE. My guess is, the Augustan 'gentrification' of the Esquiline was a slow process, and for some time the Gardens of Maecenas were next to the execution grounds, not unlike Tyburn being adjacent to Hyde Park.


I think that means 'to where those condemned by the Emperors are put to death'
My Greek is woefully lacking, but I think that's it. :)
 
Yes, and I think it quite possible that sessorium remained in use as a common term
for a place of execution even when it wasn't actually at that location.

I notice that Santa Sabina on the Aventine is another of the papal 'stations',
visited on Ash Wednesday. ;)


I think that means 'to where those condemned by the Emperors are put to death'
my translation help................... told me
them of caesarean sanctioned thanatousin):devil:
 
The executioners continue to lift Lucilla's cross, angling it down into its hole. Lucilla braces the soles of her feet to try to take the sudden jolt she knows is coming, but as the cross nears vertical, it becomes harder and harder to do. Sabina describes what she saw:

Unable to support herself with her feet, each jolt sent Lucilla’s body sliding farther down the wood. Each slip downward drew a whimper of fear from her as she anticipated the final drop and the pain of the impact. And then her arms were stretched tight against the ropes that held her wrists.

She balled up her fists and struggled to brace herself. When the cross reached its highest point, it suddenly tipped forward and plunged the final two feet into the hole. Her whimper turned into a scream of panic when she felt herself falling, and then there was the solid deep thump and rattle of the cross as the heavy timber hit bottom.​


Excuse me, the girl, which clothed in a red dress - this is Sabina?
 
Rope her to the cross for a couple of days, then nail her feet, and after maybe another day, nail her wrists, so that her time on the cross is drawn out even further. By this time, she's already been crucified eleven times, so she's spent maybe thirty or more days on a cross and can last longer this final time.

This will be exellently!!!
 
Quite so, but Tacitus didn't mention any other place, and the (presumably Oxbridge-learned :)) commentator thinks it was the Esquiline in the 60s CE. My guess is, the Augustan 'gentrification' of the Esquiline was a slow process, and for some time the Gardens of Maecenas were next to the execution grounds, not unlike Tyburn being adjacent to Hyde Park.
Fasolini expresses a similar opinion in 'Su un caso particolare di summum supplicium sotto Claudio (Svet. Claud. 25, 3)' (in Italian; Analecta Brixiana II, 2007, pp. 93-103).

Just an excuse for a bump!
 
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