p. 233 | CRUCIFIXION

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · April 8, 1880

FromThe Review and Herald, Vol. 55, No. 15

CRUCIFIXION

A correspondent asks when and by whom the practice of crucifixion was abolished. The origin of this mode of punishment is traditionally ascribed to Semiramis. It was in use among the Egyptians, the Carthaginians, the Persians, the Assyrians, Scythians, Indians, Germans, and was very frequent, from the earliest times, among the Greeks and Romans.

It was abolished by Constantine in the latter part of his reign, between the years 324 and 337. Sozomen, in his ecclesiastical history, page 16, speaking of Constantine says: “He abolished the law which had prevailed among the Romans of putting criminals to death by crucifixion.”