My Titulus

[GabriellaSivilla]

I guess it does not matter which crime I did commit. I usually see myself as a high standing lady that has fallen in disgrace for some reason, maybe trapped by some false witness with some hideous charge. And I guess as a part of the humiliation of ending up on a cross would be that the titulus should be as derogative as possible, and sexist, as in crucifixion the sexual component is so strong... so "whore", "slut", "bitch", or "xxx-sucker" anything that would excite the mob to insult me. So I have chosen "others".

 

[cire]

Since some time, I was thinking about submitting this question to the Forum, by means of a poll. The discussions in the thread http://www.cruxforums.com/xf/threads/what-crimes-could-merit-crucifixion-in-the-future.5684/#post-275062 have made me decide to post it finally.

For those who fantasy of being crucified (but of course others are also invited to take part of the discussion). Imagine : the executioner's job is done. You, and maybe some companions, hang nailed to a cros on a public place, naked, humiliated, in pain and agony. Or you just got tied to the cross for at least twenty-four hours of public display. There is just one thing the justice officer has to do : to fix the titulus. A nameplate with your name , your age and your crime written on it. It will be fixed either above your head, or hang around your neck, or put in front of the cross. So, everybody can see why you deserved this punishment.

What, in your fantasy, could be written on that titulus? Can you imagine yourself as a vicious criminal, a murderer, a thief, a robber, a swindler?

Or being a spy, a traitor, a deserter, a renegade, sabotage, a war criminal, not necessarily for the good cause?

Or do you prefer to be at the good side? A martyr, a rebel, or for resisting or opposing tyranny or oppression by other means? For helping slaves or rebels? For protesting. For putting up or taking part to a strike. For membership of a forbidden association. This will probably involve similar accusations as above, but the perspective is different.

Or for ignorantly breaking the rules, or for heavy mistakes you made in a responsible position? Manslaughter for instance?

I have changed my vote to criminal. It was easy to be a criminal in the days. To me the placing of the Titulus is a very important fact. Not just the crowd can insult the crucified, but the crucified themselves can recognize each other to a point. Start coversations on the cross and may put each other down, too.
To me it is exciting when someone is on the cross naked and one of the executers is climbing up, ignoring the struggling victim, to place the Titulus.
I think it's part of the entertainment. Everybody at the scene, including the crucified, will monitor the placing of each Titulus closely.

 

[Loxuru]

I have changed my vote to criminal. It was easy to be a criminal in the days. To me the placing of the Titulus is a very important fact. Not just the crowd can insult the crucified, but the crucified themselves can recognize each other to a point. Start coversations on the cross and may put each other down, too.
To me it is exciting when someone is on the cross naked and one of the executers is climbing up, ignoring the struggling victim, to place the Titulus.
I think it's part of the entertainment. Everybody at the scene, including the crucified, will monitor the placing of each Titulus closely.

You hit a nail, to my opinion. Particularly while being crucified in a group, for more or less the same reason, this effect of condemned vs. crowd could play, also for criminal offenses.

 

[Deleted member jedakk]

I have changed my vote to criminal. It was easy to be a criminal in the days. To me the placing of the Titulus is a very important fact. Not just the crowd can insult the crucified, but the crucified themselves can recognize each other to a point. Start coversations on the cross and may put each other down, too.
To me it is exciting when someone is on the cross naked and one of the executers is climbing up, ignoring the struggling victim, to place the Titulus.
I think it's part of the entertainment. Everybody at the scene, including the crucified, will monitor the placing of each Titulus closely.

Might just be me, but I've always considered the placing of the titulus as kind of the final humiliation. Already naked, whipped, nails driven through her wrists and feet with no regard at all for her agony while the crowd watches, and now totally helpless. And then they nail that titulus up above her head so that everyone can see who she is and how stupid and worthless she is. She's not only a thief, a murderer, or simply displeased her master, but she was dumb enough to get caught, too.

 

[cire]

Might just be me, but I've always considered the placing of the titulus as kind of the final humiliation. Already naked, whipped, nails driven through her wrists and feet with no regard at all for her agony while the crowd watches, and now totally helpless. And then they nail that titulus up above her head so that everyone can see who she is and how stupid and worthless she is. She's not only a thief, a murderer, or simply displeased her master, but she was dumb enough to get caught, too.

Just look at it like this. The executers have just finished driving the nail through your feet. There is this crowd gathering around the crosses, and of course around the one you were nailed to. The crosses are not as high as one would think and when you sink down, you can look the attending persons straight into the eyes. Of course, when you pull and push yourself up on the Stipes, then your eyes are a little higher.
Unfortunately you are naked, your Body is covered with Sweat and Blood. Then an Officer in roman uniform is leaning a ladder head on to your crossbeam, maybe close to your face. He is climbing up a little with your Titulus.
Now what a contrast, you, naked and helpless, and the Officer under total control.
All you can do is watch him, nailing the Titulus above your head. Or maybe watch other crucified how they react, when they are able to read your Titulus.

 

[Loxuru]

Might just be me, but I've always considered the placing of the titulus as kind of the final humiliation. Already naked, whipped, nails driven through her wrists and feet with no regard at all for her agony while the crowd watches, and now totally helpless. And then they nail that titulus up above her head so that everyone can see who she is and how stupid and worthless she is. She's not only a thief, a murderer, or simply displeased her master, but she was dumb enough to get caught, too.

Just look at it like this. The executers have just finished driving the nail through your feet. There is this crowd gathering around the crosses, and of course around the one you were nailed to. The crosses are not as high as one would think and when you sink down, you can look the attending persons straight into the eyes. Of course, when you pull and push yourself up on the Stipes, then your eyes are a little higher.
Unfortunately you are naked, your Body is covered with Sweat and Blood. Then an Officer in roman uniform is leaning a ladder head on to your crossbeam, maybe close to your face. He is climbing up a little with your Titulus.
Now what a contrast, you, naked and helpless, and the Officer under total control.
All you can do is watch him, nailing the Titulus above your head. Or maybe watch other crucified how they react, when they are able to read your Titulus.

That catches it all. Nailing the titulus as the very last hammerblows of the execution procedure. The final verification that justice is done. The officials look satisfied at their work.

Once more laughter and mockery rise up from the onlookers. The condemned look around, to the left, to the right. They all think of the other : “how could I trust these people?”

 

[thehangingtree]

Since crosses were likely not the massive structures often depicted the condemned prisoner would feel each blow of the hammer as it is affixed. Ironically her most likely question would be 'what does it say?'

 

[Loxuru]

Since crosses were likely not the massive structures often depicted the condemned prisoner would feel each blow of the hammer as it is affixed. Ironically her most likely question would be 'what does it say?'

Did she already forget why she had been brought into Judge Admi's courtroom?

Or against all reason and better judgment still pretending "I am innocent!"?

 

[Deleted member jedakk]

Since crosses were likely not the massive structures often depicted the condemned prisoner would feel each blow of the hammer as it is affixed. Ironically her most likely question would be 'what does it say?'

The condemned might have had ample opportunity to see her titulus before she was crucified, but in all of her horror and panicked anticipation of what was about to be done to her, it might not have registered. What would have registered would have been the immediate threats: The executioner with his hammer and nails, the beam on the ground and the vertical post standing behind it where her wrists and feet were about to be nailed. Not much else might really matter to her, not even the jeers of the crowd. Her whole universe might have contracted down to what was right in front of her, what was about to end her life.

By the time she was crucified and hanging on that cross, with agony crowding out thought, she might or might not have had enough attention left to notice them nailing her titulus in place. Here's the way I wrote it in The Serpent's Eye:

I was conscious of Antius, the executioner, reaching above my head with his hammer and I tensed, thinking that he was about to drive yet another spike into me, but he only tapped a few times on the timber. I supposed he was nailing my titulus in place, although I couldn’t see it.

What did it matter? I was already as humiliated as any girl could be. And yet somehow it did matter. Now everyone who passed by would know my name and why I was being punished this way.

I lifted my head once again and looked out across the crowd of faces, all of the eyes drinking in my humiliation and torture. I was naked for everyone to see. Through the fog of pain, the thought came to me that yes, this is what it is like to be crucified.
​

In another story, one that I haven't finished yet, I wrote it this way:

Arria felt a mild shock travel through the wood at her back and the nails in her wrists and feet when Galeo set the ladder up against the timber behind her. She raised her head automatically to look, even though she was helpless to protect herself if they were about to do something else to her.

The cross shook as Galeo climbed the ladder. He disassembled the block and tackle that stood above the top of the cross, and lifted that away. There was more shaking as he descended the ladder with it.

Then there was the motion of him climbing the ladder again. When his upper body and face appeared above her again, he was setting her titulus in place atop the cross and hammering the single nail that held it in place. Now everyone could see who she was and what she had done to earn this punishment.​

I mentioned the shock of the hammer blows traveling through the cross more than once I think. Here's the way I wrote it in The Serpent's Eye:

As I had when my wrists were nailed, I felt the shank of the spike grating between the bones of my foot, forcing them apart. The cross trembled with each blow as the executioner continued to hammer the spike deeper into the timber. The shock traveled through the wood and nails, vibrating the iron between the bones inside my wrists, creating a horrible new agony.​

And in Damian's Roman Crucifictions:

Crispus swung his hammer again, delivered a blow that vibrated the cross, made her breasts quiver as she looked down between them at her bloody feet.​

And in Altered States:

The vibration from the other man tapping on the timber beneath me traveled through the nails and into my wounded wrists.​

Etc.

 

[Eulalia]

The synoptic Gospels all mention the titulus (Greek titlon, unusually a Greek borrowing from Latin),
immediately after saying 'then they crucified Jesus', implying that it was probably attached to the cross
as soon as he'd been nailed, before he was raised up.
The way the 3 synoptics refer to it suggests it was a standard procedure.
Only John says that Pilate himself had it written, that it was in 3 languages,
that the Jews complained - again, it is the next piece of information
after saying Jesus was crucified, but the way John tells it leaves a bit more open the possibility
it was fixed to the cross later (and none of the Gospels actually says the titulus was fixed above
Jesus' head, though that's the reasonable assumption generally made by artists).

 

[Naraku]

The placement of the titulus above Jesus would be possible if he - or anyone else - were crucified on what is now called a Latin cross. The biblical reference to the titulus may be why artist usually depict this kind of cross; it provides a place to put a sign.

However, this type of cross was more difficult to construct so the Tau cross would have been more common.

So, where was the titulus then? Was it nailed to the crossbar, or was it on a stick wedged into the joint?

This is an important question. It doesn't figure into the story I'm writing now since, in a mass execution, I doubt there would be any effort to identify each one of the condemned. But, I have been thinking about writing another story where it would be an issue.

And, just a note, the condemned probably would have to ask someone what the titulus said. Only a very small percentage of people in the Roman world were able to read.

 

[thehangingtree]

And, just a note, the condemned probably would have to ask someone what the titulus said. Only a very small percentage of people in the Roman world were able to read.

"I can read reading but I can't read writing" -Br' er Rabbit

 

[bobinder]

However, this type of cross was more difficult to construct so the Tau cross would have been more common.
View attachment 486637
So, where was the titulus then? Was it nailed to the crossbar, or was it on a stick wedged into the joint?
View attachment 486634 View attachment 486636
This is an important question. It doesn't figure into the story I'm writing now since, in a mass execution, I doubt there would be any effort to identify each one of the condemned. But, I have been thinking about writing another story where it would be an issue..

I usually employ a tau cross and wedge the titulus into the top of the stipes with the patibulum, which helps to keep it all tight. For mass executions such as this example from Via Appia, each rebel is identified by a number. I like to keep things simple...

 

[Naraku]

I usually employ a tau cross and wedge the titulus into the top of the stipes with the patibulum, which helps to keep it all tight. For mass executions such as this example from Via Appia, each rebel is identified by a number. I like to keep things simple...

View attachment 486640

I don't know. That doesn't look very secure and splitting the wood could cause the whole thing to collapse.
I think the mortise and tenon construction was more likely. It was the most common way of joining wood and any carpenter of soldier would have know how to do it.

Shims would have to be used to make the crossbeam stable and the titulus signpost could be wedged in in this way.

 

[bobinder]

I don't know. That doesn't look very secure and splitting the wood could cause the whole thing to collapse.
I think the mortise and tenon construction was more likely. It was the most common way of joining wood and any carpenter of soldier would have know how to do it.
View attachment 486644 View attachment 486645
Shims would have to be used to make the crossbeam stable and the titulus signpost could be wedged in in this way.

Admittedly my method does impose some strain on the forked head of the stipes, and the executioners sometimes reinforce this by binding it as well as the patibulum. If a titulus is added, it has to be nailed or tied instead of being wedged in. Apart from possibly splitting a log into two patibula, the entire construction can be undertaken with a saw and does not require the use of a chisel.

 

[Deleted member jedakk]

There is an assumption that for a mortise-and-tenon joint, the tenon would be precisely as long as the vertical thickness of the patibulum and no more, so there would be no extension of the stipes above the patibulum, but that's not necessarily so. All of our theories on cross construction are nothing more than speculation, because we do not actually know how they did it. But most of my renderings show the tenon projecting above the patibulum quite a bit so that it can taper down to form a "pilot" portion that makes it much easier to fit the patibulum onto it. You can see that in these pictures:

And once the end of the tenon slips into the mortise, the executioner's helpers could just drop the patibulum down onto it. In this model, both the tenon and the mortise are tapered so that they would tend to lock in place without the need for any wedges or shims. And once the two parts are fitted together, there's plenty of tenon projecting above the patibulum to nail a titulus onto.

That is a workable way, but I now think it's more likely that the Romans might have used a sliding dovetail notch rather than a mortise and tenon joint for cross construction. I don't have any 3D models of this, but I did do a test to see how hard it was to build such a joint with Roman-type tools such as a saw, carpenter's ax, and a chisel. The attached PDF shows how I did that. (See below)

And since I did that I've come up with more efficient ways to cut that joint.

 

[Naraku]

I will accept the judgement of someone who clearly has more carpentry experience than myself. That does seem to be a simpler solution. A cross would be a fairly crude construction and often built quickly. Although we still can see their skill in building in stone and concrete, the Romans were just as masterful in wood. Caesar's legions were able to build a bridge across the Rhine in just 10 days, after all.

What you've done here is a good example of practical archaeology, basically seeing how things were done by actually doing them. This is probably the only time this has been done with a cross.

You are truly a Jedakk of all trades.

 

[Madiosi]

Interest technical questions and solutions here!

 

[phlebas]

What you've done here is a good example of practical archaeology, basically seeing how things were done by actually doing them. This is probably the only time this has been done with a cross.

Nice piece of speculative work by everyone. I love Jedakk's woodworking lesson. We learn by doing.
My own efforts with rough around the house crosses have been pretty crude, but it's not hard to make a Roman cross either that will stand up to a bit of weight and struggle, and will take a titulus.

Your other choice is to attach the titulus to the crucifiee. Say a sign around the neck, resting on the top of the breasts, or even attached to the lower part of the stipes, sitting between the legs. It would be worthy of a long, careful read, if she was attractive enough.

 

[old slave]

even attached to the lower part of the stipes, sitting between the legs.

.......so that even her name is soiled by her excrement, just as her body has been soiled by the rapes, and her reputation by the humiliating crucifixion.