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When the Romans took people down from a cross how did they take the nails out?

13 Answers

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  • 4 years ago

    The only person "nailed" to a cross, as far as has been reported, was Jesus. Normally the Romans tied them to their torture device and left them there to die a very slow and painful death. It could literally take a couple of days and hanging like that made breathing Very difficult.

  • Anonymous
    4 years ago

    The nails were long cut nails of iron that were very brittle! Cut nails snap very easy if grasped with pliers and bent suddenly and there were tools of that sort handy here is an actual crucifiction nail break off the head and now you take down the body .

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  • 4 years ago

    With large, cast-iron pliers. How else? Those nails were hard to make, dude. They weren't going to just leave them there.

  • Anonymous
    4 years ago

    the only took down failed Jewish messiahs​

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  • Anonymous
    4 years ago

    Pliers?

  • they did not commonly use nails...... just rope

  • 4 years ago

    Nails were expensive and an effort was made to reclaim them. When nails were involved, they were long and square (about 15cm long and 1cm thick) and were driven into the victim's wrists or forearms to fix him to the crossbar.

    Once the crossbar was in place, the feet may be nailed to either side of the upright or crossed. In the first case, nails would have been driven through the heel bones, and in the second case, one nail would have been hammered through the metatarsals in the middle of the foot.

    Seneca, the Roman philosopher, wrote in 40AD that the process of crucifying someone varied greatly: "I see crosses there, not just of one kind but made in different ways: some have their victims with their head down to the ground, some impale their private parts, others stretch out their arms."

    To remove and reuse the nails, the Roman detail either bent the nails back or just tore the flesh from the nail. The exception was the nail through the feet, which often was driven through the ankle bone and difficult to remove. So, the foot was hacked off and the nail may have been left in the bone.

    Source(s): www.forbes.com, 12/8/15
  • Dr. D
    Lv 7
    4 years ago

    Why bother to remove the nails. There are bones of people who died from crucifixion and the nails are not removed. http://cdn.timesofisrael.com/uploads/2012/03/Heel-...

  • 4 years ago

    The Romans left dead people on the cross,

    until they were picked apart by scavengers.

    They were up there, on display,

    to discourage anyone else

    from resisting the Roman occupation.

    --

    Regards,

    John Popelish

  • 4 years ago

    Typically, they were just mummies or skeletons by then. Crucifixion wasn't meant just to be an execution, but a humiliation. Part of making an example of people was leaving them up there to be fed on by ravens and rot.

    The nails come out pretty easy after that.

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