Latin - Crucify v. Torture

[Marius_Ursus]

Is there a classical Latin word for nailing a person to a piece of wood?

[Carlton Bach]

'crucifigere' lit. 'to fix someone to the crux (cross)'

[Marius_Ursus]

Thank you!

Is there a word for the general act of nailling someone to a piece of wood? Since the Romans had so many methods of nailing people up, I just wondered if there was a term independent of the shape of the device.

[john m roberts]

Don't know about that, but among slaves there was a curse: "Ad crucem!" "To the cross with you!"

[Marius_Ursus]

That's really interesting. Do you have any idea why it was spoken amongst slaves, or is it that we know slaves said it, but we don't have a record of citizens saying it, so it could go either way?

As I was thinking about this yesterday evening, it occurred to me that Romans being the pragmatists that they were probably just called it, "nailed to a piece of wood".