Good Friday

[Gluteus Maximus]

One must be careful of the oft-wielded "broad brush", regardless of the pigment being spread, mustn't one?

You are quite correct and I admit that I often fall into this trap :oops: . The word conceit was a bit strong. I am not particularly anti -Christian though it might have seemed so and I get a bit irked when anyone persists with obsolescent historical viewpoints for whatever reason. I suppose I saw red because this particular example (the donkey-headed crucifixion) is even now cited as an example of Roman contempt for Christianity, when it has long been stated that the body of evidence suggests it is not. I often hear theologians and Christian commentators on BBC Radio 4 (to which I listen obsessively) Quoting Eusebius as a reliable source for early Christianity, referring to 'A non stop policy of persecution which ran from Nero's time up to Constantine the Great'. The donkey - headed crucifixion almost always crops up, and I cannot help but to detect a little unwillingness to distance from the traditional view, which may be down to faith more than reason.

I have not heard such commentators state that all crucifixions were influenced by or carried out in the name of Christianity. But I have heard them refer to the many depictions of the crucified Jesus in ancient Rome, when in fact the earliest unambiguous crucifixion depiction of Jesus comes from the late fourth century. The Catholic Encyclopaedia, well researched, distances itself from traditional assumptions about pagan Romans and the early Church.