David Smith writes about crucifixion. They would take the upright beam and place it in a hole in the ground and fix it steadfast. And then they would take the victim and lay his hands on the cross beam, driving spikes into his quivering flesh and with a rope would hook it onto the cross beam and then tow it up. When the cross beam was in place, they would nail it to the upright. And then placing the victim’s feet together, they would nail his feet into the upright and there he would die. He writes, “Only a depraved human mind could ever have imagined such a mode of death. It is the most painful death a man could die for he died by suffocating as his body hung. His weight would pull him down. There his feet would rest against the nails. He would rise up to catch his breath. He could only rise so long because the pain of the nails would make his body drop. Up and down, up and down he would rise trying to catch breaths and then back down submitting to his pain of the crucifixion. Keep in mind, Jesus had already been whipped with 195 lashes. There he is, his back already broken as he rises up and down, up and down as the beam tore at his flesh” as he slowly suffocated to death.”