I don't think we'll see a crucifixion because this type of execution was abolished in AD 313 by Emperor Constantine in the Roman Empire out of respect for Christianity ... I think PP has incorporated so many historical references into his story that he will take this into account - right?
Rupert. I'm so glad to have someone take an interest in the details of Roman law, customs, (and gastronomy?) of the time.
The legal standing (pun intended) of
crucifixio after the ascension of Constantine is not completely clear. The story of Constantine, before the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in 312, seeing a cross in the sky and hearing the words, "
In Hoc Signo Vinces" (In this sign you will conquer - the source of the still standard Christian symbol, IHS) and soon after banning
crucifixio in honor of Christ, was given in a book published in 361 by Roman historian
Sextus Aurelius Victor. There is no record of a legal action of this kind. We know Constantine played an influential role in the proclamation of the Edict of Milan in 313, which declared tolerance for Christianity in the Roman Empire a year after his victory. His mother certainly was a devout Christian. However, the Emperor, himself was only baptized on his deathbed in 337, twenty-six years after his supposed revelation.
As a counter-argument to the reported ban, there is the testimony of
Iulius Firmicus Maternus V C. About the year 346, he composed
De errore profanarum religionum (On the error of profane religions), which he dedicated to Constantius II and Constans, the sons of Constantine, who was probably still alive. In this work, he claimed that crucifixion was still a lawful punishment at least two decades after Constantine’s alleged proscription. Our oldest unambiguous record of a crucifixion ban is the
Codex Theodosianus (Code of Theodosius), published in 438 more than a century after Constantine died. and fifty-five years after our story. It is my opinion that any ban (if it existed) was sporadically enforced and not particularly binding in
Gallia Narbonensis in 383.
Sorry Barbara!
However, an interesting textual coincidence is raised by this discussion. One of the two text sources for the
Codex Theodosianus is found in the Breviary of Alaric (also called
Lex Romana Visigothorum), promulgated on 2 February 506. Therefore, our earliest source for the end of state-sponsored
crucifixio is a document codifying Roman Law in the Visigothic kingdom of Barbara's Gothic tribes that succeeded the Western Roman Empire.
One wonders if I planned that ahead?