a mode of inflicting capital punishment by affixing the criminal to a wooden cross. This was a kind of punishment frequent among the ancients; but, in modern times, it has been confined chiefly to the Mahomedans. On receiving sentence of condemnation, the criminal was scourged, by way of prelude to the cruel death which he was doomed to die. He was then forced to carry his cross to the place of execution, where he was stripped nearly naked, and affixed thereto by means of iron nails driven through each hand and foot, or through the wrists and ankles; and the arms and legs were sometimes encircled by cords. When the criminal, instead of being nailed to his cross, was bound to it by cords, this was designed as a more cruel, because a more lingering, punishment. Crucifixion with the head downwards, the mode in which St Peter suffered martyrdom, may be considered as a refinement on this barbarous species of punishment. See article Cross.