“paucity of texts from the ancient world that specifically discuss crucifixion”

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**Several texts from the ancient Greco-Roman (and related Hellenistic Jewish) world specifically discuss crucifixion—not merely as a named punishment, but by describing its forms, procedure, physical effects, variations, or cultural horror.**

Crucifixion (Latin *crux*/ *crucifigere*; Greek *stauros*/ *stauroō*/ *anastauroō*) was a Roman penalty typically reserved for slaves, rebels, and non-citizens, often preceded by flogging and involving carrying a crossbeam (*patibulum*), attachment to a vertical post (sometimes with nails or ropes), and prolonged exposure.
Ancient authors rarely give step-by-step manuals, but key passages detail variations, the agony involved, or procedural elements.
The most comprehensive modern survey of these sources is John Granger Cook’s *Crucifixion in the Mediterranean World* (2014/2019), which systematically catalogs Latin, Greek, and other texts chronologically alongside inscriptions and archaeology.

Here are the most notable primary ancient texts that discuss the practice in detail (focusing on non-Christian/Greco-Roman sources; dates are approximate):

### Latin/Roman Authors
– **Plautus** (c. 254–184 BCE), comedies such as *Carbonaria* (frag. 2) and *Menaechmi*:
Early references to the procedure, including the condemned carrying the *patibulum* (crossbeam) through the city before being fastened (*affigere*) to the *crux* (vertical post).
These comedic contexts treat it as a slave’s punishment and deterrent.
– **Cicero** (106–43 BCE), *In Verrem* (Against Verres) 2.5.165 (and related orations):
Strongly condemns crucifixion as “the most cruel and ignominious punishment” (*crudelissimum taeterrimumque supplicium*), arguing the very word “cross” should be kept far from Roman citizens’ thoughts, eyes, or ears.
He describes it as the ultimate penalty for slaves and non-citizens, emphasizing its degrading nature.

– **Seneca the Younger** (c. 4 BCE–65 CE):
– *Moral Letters to Lucilius* 101: Vividly portrays the prolonged suffering:
“Can anyone be found who would prefer wasting away in pain, dying limb by limb… rather than expiring once for all?
Can any man be found willing to be fastened to the accursed tree, long sickly, already deformed, swelling with ugly tumours on chest and shoulders, and draw the breath of life amid long-drawn-out agony?”
He calls the victim
“the most pitiable thing in the world.”
– *Dialogue to Marcia on Consolation* 6.20.3:
Explicitly notes multiple forms:
“I see crosses there, not just of one kind but made in many different ways:
some have their victims with head down to the ground; some impale their private parts; others stretch out their arms on the gibbet [*patibulum*].”

– **Suetonius** (c. 69–after 122 CE), *Life of Julius Caesar* 74.1:
Describes Caesar crucifying pirates after cutting their throats first as an act of mercy, highlighting crucifixion’s extreme cruelty (throat-slitting was preferable).
– **Quintilian** (or Pseudo-Quintilian, 1st–2nd cent. CE), *Declamations*:
References to burial exceptions if the victim was “pierced” (likely a final blow to confirm death), implying standard denial of burial.

### Greek and Hellenistic Authors
– **Philo of Alexandria** (c. 20 BCE–50 CE), *In Flaccum* 83–84 and *De Specialibus Legibus*:
Discusses Roman allowances for taking down crucified bodies before festivals for burial rites, as an act of mercy by “good rulers.”
He also addresses the overall horror and Jewish customs around exposure.
– **Flavius Josephus** (37–c. 100 CE), *Jewish War* (Bellum Judaicum) 5.451 (and 5.11, 6.5.3):
Describes mass crucifixions during the siege of Jerusalem, with soldiers nailing victims “one after another… in different ways… by way of jest” due to overcrowding.
Notes prior flogging (“whipped until his bones showed”) and use as a deterrent.
Also recounts his own intercession for three acquaintances taken down from crosses (*Life* 420–421).
– **Chariton** (1st cent. CE), *Chaereas and Callirhoe* 4.2.7 (Greek novel):
Depicts 16 men paraded chained, each carrying his own cross, as a “grim public spectacle” and deterrent.

– **Plutarch** (c. 46–after 119 CE), *Moralia* (e.g., *Sera Numinis Vindicta* 554) and *Pericles* 28.2:
Notes that “each criminal who goes to execution must carry his own cross on his back.”
Describes binding to planks (possibly a euphemism for crucifixion) lasting days before further killing.
– **Artemidorus of Daldis** (2nd cent. CE), *Oneirocritica* 1.76:
Interprets dreams involving crucifixion; describes the cross as made “from posts and nails” like a ship’s mast, with arms outstretched.
Dreaming of it (or dancing high up) presages criminal execution.
– **Lucian** (c. 125–after 180 CE), *Prometheus* and *Trial of the Court of the Vowels* (*Judicium Vocalium*):
Satirically likens Prometheus’ binding to crucifixion (“hang over this precipice, with his arms stretched across… a sweet spot for a crucifixion”).
Accuses the letter tau (Τ) of modeling the cross shape used by tyrants.

### Other Notable References
– **Legal/inscriptional**: The *lex Puteolana* (Puteoli law, Augustan era) details contracts for public executioners, including crucifixion services (nailing/fastening to *crux*).
Roman jurists (later compiled in *Digest of Justinian* 48.24) discuss official discretion over bodies.
– Earlier or peripheral: Herodotus (*Histories* 3, 6; 5th cent. BCE) describes post-mortem suspension (sometimes translated “crucifixion”) of bodies, but this is more impalement/exposure than living Roman-style crucifixion.

These texts emphasize crucifixion’s deterrent value, extreme pain (asphyxiation, exposure, variations in attachment), and social stigma.
Variations in form (*crux compacta* with transverse beam vs. simpler stakes) are noted, but the *patibulum* carried by the condemned is common.
Many more passing references exist (e.g., in Livy, Polybius, Tacitus *Annals* 15.44 on Jesus, or novels), but the above specifically elaborate on the mechanics or experience.
Cook’s work remains the standard reference for exhaustive analysis.

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**The specific reference you asked about is from Pseudo-Quintilian (also called the Major Declamations ascribed to Quintilian), *Declamationes maiores* 6.9 (1st–2nd century CE).**

The Latin text (in standard editions) reads in context:

> “cruces succiduntur, percussos sepeliri carnifex non vetat…”

A standard English rendering (with slight variations in modern translations) is:

> “Crosses are cut down, the executioner does not prevent those who have been pierced [or struck/smitten] from being buried…”

(or: “But bodies are cut down from crosses, executioners do not prevent executed criminals from being buried…”).

This appears in a rhetorical exercise (a fictional legal debate) that assumes a scenario involving pirates and a father’s corpse, but the statement about crucifixion and burial is presented as a general observation about Roman practice. The key term *percussos* (from *percutio*, “to strike through/pierce/smite”) is widely understood by scholars to refer to a final blow—typically with a sword, spear, or similar weapon—delivered to confirm or hasten death after crucifixion. This would distinguish it from the routine exposure of bodies on the cross.

John Granger Cook, in *Crucifixion in the Mediterranean World* (2014, pp. 109–111 and 429) and his earlier article “Crucifixion and Burial” (*New Testament Studies* 57, 2011), discusses this passage in detail as one of the rare explicit Greco-Roman references to an exception allowing burial of crucified victims under certain conditions (here, after they had been “pierced”). He notes that the word *percussus* in execution contexts typically implies a lethal final strike, aligning with practices like the spear thrust in John 19:34.

This is **not** from Quintilian’s authentic *Institutio Oratoria* (his major rhetorical handbook) but from the collection of 19 longer rhetorical exercises (*Declamationes maiores*) attributed to him or his school—hence often labeled “Pseudo-Quintilian.” The text survives in medieval manuscripts and modern critical editions (e.g., Håkanson’s Teubner or Shackleton Bailey’s Loeb). It is one of the very few ancient sources that directly links a post-crucifixion “piercing” to permission for burial, contrasting with the more common Roman practice of leaving bodies exposed as a deterrent.

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Prior to Lewis Sussman’s translation of MD [_The Major Declamations Ascribed to Quintilian_], the most recent translation into English was done three hundred years ago by John Warr.
So, if you want a modern translation, a translation which takes into account “the subsequent advances in scholarship, our understanding of the textual tradition of this work, and…the recent appearance of a superbly done Latin text by Hakanson” (MD, p.i), then you will want to consult the translation created by Sussman.
Here is the relevant portion of MD 6, section 9, translated by Sussman:

“But bodies are cut down from crosses,
executioners do not prevent executed criminals from being buried,
and the pirates did no more than throw the corpse into the sea.”
(MD, p.75)