longer and stouter pole or stake fixed point upwards, upon which the
victim, with his hands tied behind him, was lodged in such a way that
the point should enter his breast and the weight of the body cause
every movement to hasten the end; and (4) a stout unpointed pole or
stake set upright in the earth, from which the victim was suspended by
a rope round his wrists, which were first tied behind him so that the
position might become an agonising one; or to which the doomed one was
bound, or, as in the case of Jesus, nailed.

That this last named kind of stauros, which was admittedly that to
which Jesus was affixed, had in every case a cross-bar attached, is
untrue; that it had in most cases, is unlikely; that it had in the case
of Jesus, is unproven.

Even as late as the Middle Ages, the word stauros seems to have
primarily signified a straight piece of wood without a cross-bar. For
the famous Greek lexicographer, Suidas, expressly states, "Stauroi;
ortha xula perpegota," and both Eustathius and Hesychius affirm that it
meant a _straight_ stake or pole.

The side light thrown upon the question by Lucian is also worth noting.
This writer, referring to Jesus, alludes to "That sophist of theirs who
was fastened to a _skolops_;" which word signified a single piece of
wood, and not two pieces joined together.

Only a passing notice need be given to the fact that in some of the
Epistles of the New Testament, which seem to have been written before
the Gospels, though, like the other Epistles, misleadingly placed after
the Gospels, Jesus is said to have been _hanged_ upon a _tree_.[3] For
in the first place the Greek word translated "hanged" did not