Section 290. Details of the Crucifixion.

WHEN Jesus reached the place of execution, he was offered, as was usual, a spiced wine, [782] intended to stupify the mind and deaden the pains of death. Oppressed with burning thirst, he tasted of the wine; but when he perceived the stupifying drug, he refused to drink, that he might die in full consciousness. Stripped of nearly all his clothing, [783] he was lifted up to the cross, bound, and then nailed to it by his hands and feet. [784] (The chief pain of this cruel death, according to a writer who lived while it was yet known and used, consisted in the hanging of the body while the hands and feet were nailed.)