15 Notable Crucifixions in History

During the early days, crucifixion is one of the commonest methods of execution for those who were sentence to death. The Cross represents Jesus Christ’s martyrdom and is the best known religious symbol of Christianity. The following are the most popular crucifixions in history.

Crucifixion of 6,000 Rebel Slaves

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The crucifixion of rebel slaves during the so-called Third Servile War is one of the most notable cases of crucifixion in history of mankind. Triggered by abuses and maltreatments, between 73 BC and 71 BC a band of slaves, numbering about 120,000, under the leadership of Spartacus (a slave and gladiator) were in open revolt against the Roman republic. For two years the terrorized Rome but due to lack of unity and squabbles among leaders, the rebellion was eventually crushed. While Spartacus himself most likely died in the final battle of the revolt, approximately 6,000 of his followers were crucified along the 200 km road between Capua and Rome, as a warning to any other would-be rebels.

Crucifixion of the Ten Thousand Martyrs of Mount Ararat

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This is by far the largest number of crucifixion in history. The ten thousand martyrs of Mount Ararat were Roman soldiers who, led by Saint Acacius, converted to Christianity and were crucified on Mount Ararat in eastern Turkey by order of the Roman emperor. The story is attributed to the ninth century scholar Anastasius Bibliothecarius. The martyrs are commemorated by the Roman Catholic Church but not by the Eastern Orthodox Church or the Armenian Apostolic Church. Despite its questionable veracity, the event was extremely popular in Italian Renaissance art, as seen for example in the painting 10,000 Martyrs of Mount Ararat by the Venetian artist Vittore Carpaccio.

Crucifixion of the Twenty-six Martyrs of Japan

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In the orient, one of the most notable crucifixions was the execution of The Twenty-six Martyrs of Japan. This refers to a group of Christians who were executed on February 5, 1597 in Nagasaki, Japan. On August 15, 1549, St. Francis Xavier, Fr. Cosme de Torres, S.J. and Fr. John Fernandez arrived in Kagoshima, Japan from Spain with hopes of bringing Catholicism to Japan. On September 29, St. Francis Xavier visited Shimazu Takahisa, the daimyo of Kagoshima, asking for permission to build the first Catholic mission in Japan. A promising beginning to those missions-perhaps as many as 300,000 Christians by the end of the sixteenth century-met complications from competition between the missionary groups, political difficulty between Spain and Portugal, and factions within the government of Japan. Christianity was suppressed. By 1630, Christianity was driven underground.