Late posting these today. There were some changes I was thinking about making to this scene and decided only yesterday that I would make them. Which means re-rendering a hell of a lot of scenes. I rendered the ones I intended to post today first then continued on with the others, 57 all together so 40 more to go.
Sabina begins to stir and return to consciousness after fainting from her agony. She is still hanging by only the nails in her wrists. The crowd, meanwhile, shows no sympathy. Sabina is just another slave dying on the cross as punishment for whatever she has done. That doesn't matter to them; she could have done something heinous - murdered someone - or spilled some wine. Slaves could be crucified for anything or nothing. Balbus the executioner narrates a bit here:
Just then the slave girl moaned and stirred as she began to awake and remember where she was. She tilted her head back and stared upward at the nails in her wrists, groaning. Her legs began to flail weakly. She looked around, dazed, saw her Domina and asked for mercy. Julia Lepida actually smiled at her as she told her no.
Sabina herself also narrates what it was like when the white-hot agony made her faint and then to awaken and discover that she was hanging naked on the cross:
I awoke gradually, my head spinning, not knowing what happened or where I was. And then, oh gods, the agony! I groaned, gritted my teeth, opened my eyes, looked up and with horror, saw the nails protruding from my wrists, the ooze of blood around them and the trickle down my forearms. I looked down, saw my bare breasts, uncovered legs below, the livid marks where the whip had wrapped around and stung my breasts, my stomach, my hips. I saw no sign of a loincloth, felt nothing between my legs but the air on my bare skin. Rough wood scraped the welts on my bare buttocks.
I’m naked! I thought. I’m hanging here naked, with all these people staring at me. I remember now, they took away my loincloth before… before they started driving the nails.
This can’t be real! This is a nightmare! I’m not supposed to be here!
I blinked, shook my head, struggled to wake up, trying to grope my way out of it. This couldn’t be real, couldn’t be! My mind wouldn’t work, couldn’t process this.
I can’t wake up! Why can’t I wake up?
And I panicked as I finally understood that yes, this horror is real.
I’m crucified.
Through the fog of pain, my head swimming, I moaned and tried to get the soles of my bare feet against the cross to hold myself up, but I was so tired, my strength used up. Then it dawned on me.
Hanging by two nails… Four nails always, always, oh gods! Always used when they crucify a slave. My feet! They aren’t nailed to the cross!
They haven’t finished crucifying me! Oh gods, oh no, please no! Two more… nails! They’re going to nail my feet… nail my feet to the cross! I can’t bear this, can’t bear that too!
With sweat stinging my eyes, I made out the faces of the crowd, laughing, jeering and staring at me. I looked at them in wonder. What had I done to deserve their ridicule? My Domina was to my right, watching me, expressionless.
“D-Domina,” I rasped, “please stop them, my feet, two more nails, I can’t… oh gods, don’t let me die on this cross!”
She looked me in the eyes, smiled, and said, “You earned this when you struck me, slave. Your punishment hasn’t even begun.”
I was crushed. After all our years together, she was throwing me away as easily as if I were a toy she had grown tired of. That pain only added to the agony and humiliation I felt. My vision blurred as tears filled my eyes.