Roman Terror

An Ancient Joke About Crucifixion Reveals its Supreme Cruelty

Detail from The Entombment of Christ by Michelangelo Caravaggio, 1603. (Public Domain. Source: Wikimedia Commons)

Imagine waking up in a far-flung future where people literally pray to models of the electric chair. The veneration of the crucifix by millions of Christians would be as puzzling to the Romans as electric chair veneration would be to you.