A belated realisation

[KageKamen]

The reason (or at least one of them) crucifixees were often flogged or scourged before being nailed was so their raw and bloody back being pressed against the wood of the cross would cause them even greater pain than just the nails would.

(Right?)

 

[piedi]

I think it was a way to reduce the strength which subsequently reduced the strength further with the transport of the heavy patibulum. having arrived at the site of the crucifixion, the condemned no longer had the strength to react to the nailing.

 

[maumau59]

I believe that flagellation was a form of "accessory torture" that humiliated the condemned man or woman even more. Like the flagellation of the Via Crucis. There is an atrocious public ritual in this torture which is terrible and fascinating. However, the whippings on the back, shoulders and buttocks will certainly have aggravated the pain caused by rubbing on the wood of the cross... assuming that the crucifixion was frontal and not with the back facing the public. In any case, everything must have been very well studied, and from what I have read the Romans were very prepared and cruel in capital punishment. Much of their power was certainly based on military strength but also on the punishments they knew how to inflict without mercy on those who rebelled against their superiority, and the Cross was certainly the most terrible torture.

 

[KageKamen]

It seems there were many purposes to it. (And of course narratively, it allows someone to suffer plenty even if they manage to not get nailed... not that that's likely around here!)

 

[Naraku]

It also had the effect of weakening the condemned. While that might shorten their survival time on the cross, it also made them less able to put up resistance while being nailed and hoisted making the executioner's job easier.

 

[American Carnifex]

Example to the potentially rebellious population as well. This could be you whipped and crucified.

 

[Lucas Soranus]

I also has the added effect of making crucifixion more horrifically gruesome to watch. Makes an even more powerful message of "don't do what that person did."

 

[Crucified Life]

I think the reason they whipped the victim first, male or female, is because to crucify someone without any whip marks, even if completely naked, exhausted, in visible agony, even unconscious on the cross, and despite the clearly visible nails, it looks as if they have been spared of something. Whereas a body covered in whip marks looks more as if they have been punished or tortured, then their poor, naked or nearly naked, male or female whip-marked body has been crucified with nails.

 

[Lucas Soranus]

I think the reason they whipped the victim first, male or female, is because to crucify someone without any whip marks, even if completely naked, exhausted, in visible agony, even unconscious on the cross, and despite the clearly visible nails, it looks as if they have been spared of something. Whereas a body covered in whip marks looks more as if they have been punished or tortured, then their poor, naked or nearly naked, male or female whip-marked body has been crucified with nails.

In my opinion, the whipping is counter-productive. The cross is torture enough. I'd rather be taken to the cross, unwhipped and nailed. I'd likely suffer longer anyways.

 

[Tenterden]

The flogging was part of the torture before being put onvthe cross
When I was crucified with rope I was flogged and tortured first