_Exposure to wild beasts_, was a common punishment of the Israelites, and Romans, for wickedness or unfaithfulness. Darius caused Daniel to be brought and cast into the den of lions,[15] for this was the law of the Persians, and the King had entered a decree that it should be so, and another ancient authority,[16] advises us that a disobedient prophet, named Jadon, met death from God, by being cast before the lions. _Hanging_ is one of the forms of capital punishment that has survived for thousands of years, for we find that it was in general use among the ancient patriarchs,[17] the Persians[18] and the Greeks[19] and has continued as a mode of capital punishment ever since, in other civilized, or rated civilized, countries.[20] _Precipitation, sawing asunder, slaying by spear or sword, stoning to death, strangling and suffocation_, were all different modes of inflicting the death penalty, practiced among the ancient Israelites and other ancient peoples, from the earliest time. The children of Judah cast 10,000 Edomites from a rock to their death, according to the second book of Chronicles;[21] even the valiant David, painful to relate, when he took the cities of the children of Ammon, brought forth all the people and “cut them with saws, and with harrows of iron, and with axes”;[22] the spear, javelin or dart, was to be used on trespassers, at the foot of Sinai;[23] the sword was taken by the Levites against the worshipers of the golden-calf;[24] Samuel hewed Agag to pieces with the sword;[25] stoning to death was the penalty for adultery, blasphemy, idolatry, for false prophesy and Sabbath breaking;[26] strangling was the proposed punishment for the Syrians, before Israel[27] and suffocation was used both by the ancient Jews and the Macedonians.[28] _Crucifixion_, was a refined mode of punishment used by the Jews and Romans, in the time of the Saviour. It was borrowed by the Romans and Grecians from the Phoenicians, Persians, Egyptians and Numidians, among whom it was in general vogue. Alexander is reported to have crucified two thousand Tyrians at one time, and the same number of rioters were crucified by Varos at one time, after the death of Herod.[29] Under Claudius and Nero, various Roman governors crucified large numbers of robbers, thieves, and political and religious criminals.[30] The method of crucifixion is accurately described in the New Testament.[31] After conviction, the victim was scourged with the _flagellum_, which was such a severe punishment that the afflicted one frequently died before the crucifixion occurred. In Jesus’ case, the scourging seems to have taken place before the crucifixion, as was the custom.