Suppedaneum
In the Roman Empire, the suppedaneum ( Latin ) was a supporting footboard at a crucifixion , which prolonged the agony. The word is also used as the top step of an altar in a Christian church, also as an altar floor on which the altar table stands.
Suppedaneum at the crucifixion
During the Roman crucifixion, the suppedaneum attached to the cross served to support the feet and thus the body weight. This enabled the death row inmate to take pressure off his arms, which made breathing easier and delayed death by suffocation. Especially when water was administered to the crucified one, it could take days before the crucifixion death occurred (see method of crucifixion ). Probably more common than the suppedaneum, to prolong death at the crucifixion, was the sedile ("seat"), a board at buttock level on which the tortured person could sit.
Finally, if death was to be hastened, the victim's legs were broken so that he could no longer support himself without great pain. Of this z. B. reported in the Gospel of John :
“So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first one, then the other who was crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs "
In Christian iconography , Jesus is often depicted on the cross with a suppedaneum, but typically only in the post-Romanesque period. From this time on, a distinction is made between the so-called three-point phase (hands with two nails on the crossbar, one nail through the two tarsus) in the depiction of the crucified Christ from the previously common four-point phase , in which each foot was shown individually nailed.
literature
- Manuela Beer: Triumphal Crosses of the Middle Ages. A contribution to type and genesis in the 12th and 13th centuries; with a catalog of the preserved monuments . Schnell + Steiner, 2005, pp. 101 f., 706
Individual evidence
- ↑ Joseph Braun: The Christian altar in its historical development . Volume 2: The furnishings of the altar. Antependia. Velen. Candlestick. Stages. Ciborium and canopy. Reredos. Reliquary and sacrament altar. Altar barriers . Old Masters Guenther Koch, 1924, pp. 181–183