Domina Victrix

Chapter 79: April, 33 AD, Jerusalem

Victoria slung a capsa of medical supplies over her shoulder, and picked up a basket of spunges in a large bowl as she prepared to join the procession taking Yeshua, Dismas, and Gestas out to the execution site. Bolt had established a protocol for executions under his jurisdiction. Soldiers lined the route and the perimeter of the execution site to keep the crowds back. In Jerusalem, crucifixions took place one a large outcropping of rock known as Golgotha, or Skull Place, visible from the City Wall. From the bema to Golgotha was roughly one-half mile. They would take the shortest route possible through the Garden Gate. She saw the execution squads herding the three men in place. Normally, they would carry the lighter crosspiece known as the patibulum. Here, those had not been made yet, so the men labored under the more than one-hundred pound stipes, or upright.

Romans preferred the traditional cross of a patibulum and stipes, and it was what quarternions trained for. However, these were not always available, and execution teams could nail someone anywhere, to a tree or even a wall, to create a deterent to would-be rebels and criminals. The object of most crucifixions was to be as public, humiliating, and prolonged as possible. Bolt disagreed, and went for shorter durations, less pain, and quick disposal. It was not about mercy for the condemned as much as it was trying not to inflame a hostile populace or make the procedure any more unpleasant then it had to be. The crowds along their route jeered both the Romans and Yeshua, while women wailed in grief.

As they passed through the Garden Gate, Yeshua collapsed under the weight of the upright. Julius Verus, leading that quarternion, ordered a passerby to heft the rough-hewn piece of wood, and follow along. Victoria lost track of Bolt in the rush, focusing instead on Marcellus Gallio, whose horse she could hear directly behind her. Once at Golgotha, she set up an impromptu aid station as the soldiers went about stripping the condemned of their clothing, which was now the property of the quarternion, or execution squad. Romans usually crucified people naked, but Jews found public nudity to be offensive. The men would be in their loincloths for the procedure.

Victoria poured the pain mixture into the bowl and ladled some into a dipper. A squad member offered the ladle to Dismas, who accepted the potion, then to Gestas, who did likewise. She handed Verus another ladle for Yeshua. He shook his head 'no'. Victoria gasped. She had never had someone refuse before. Everyone knew how painful this process was. Did Yeshua not know?

"It's for pain!" she cried out in Hebrew, repeating in Aramaic and Greek.

Verus shook his head at her, but not sternly.

"It's his choice," Gallio said above her.

He guided his horse as close to her as he could, while she knelt on the ground, soaking spunges in the pain tincture. She could hear the cries of the condemned men and the gasps of the crowd as they were pushed to the ground, their lacerated backs across the wood, then the grim pounding of the nails.

"Father, forgive them!" Yeshua cried out. "For they know not what they do!"

The execution squads heaved the three stakes upright as the men on them quivered and moaned. Once the uprights were steady in the ground, soldiers pulled stalks from a hyssop bush nearby, loaded the wet sponges on them, and lifted them to the faces of the condemned men. Yeshua again refused the potion. Knowing the process would take awhile, most of the crowd began to disperse. She saw Bolt talking to a group of civilians near the soldiers' cordon. He waved them through and they apprached Yeshua. If Dismas or Gestas had family, they were not here.

The soldiers settled in for the wait, turning their attention to the garments stripped earlier. The clothing of Dismas and Gestas was ragged and filthy. They tossed this aside as worthless. Yeshua had a cloak, a coat, a sash, and inner robe. They were bloodstained, but could be cleaned.