ABSTRACT
The gospels offer minimal detail on the actual process of crucifixion. Roman texts are similarly reticent. Christian art offers a fairly consistent image of crucifixion that readers can draw upon to fill in the missing gaps in the text. But how reliable is the conventional picture? The first-century Roman philosopher Seneca the Younger mentions that some crucifixions could involve the extreme sexual violence of genital impalement. How are these passages to be understood? What might such crucifixions involve? This chapter investigates whether crucifixion could have included penetrative sexualised violence.
