Crucifixion of St. Peter

Crucifixion is an ancient method of deliberately painful execution in which the condemned person is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross and left to hang until dead. Crucifixion... was in use at a comparatively high rate among the Seleucids, Carthaginians, and Romans from about the 6th century BC to the 4th century AD. In the year 337, Emperor Constantine I abolished it in the Roman Empire out of veneration for Jesus Christ, the most famous victim of crucifixion. It was also used as a form of execution in Japan for criminals, inflicted also on some Christians. A crucifix is the main religious symbol for Catholics, Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox, but most Protestant Christians prefer to use a cross without the figure of Christ. Most crucifixes portray Jesus on a Latin cross, rather than any other shape, such as a Tau cross or a Greek cross. Ancient Greek has two verbs for crucify: ana-stauro , from stauros, "stake", and apo-tumpanizo "crucify on a plank." together with anaskolopizo . In earlier pre-Roman Greek texts anastauro usually means "impale.
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