Crucifixio Travel Bug Hotel...ish Traditional Cache
Crucifixio Travel Bug Hotel...ish
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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This site is a Travel Bug Hotel. Let your bugs stay here a bit before traveling on. Nothing like resting at the foot of the cross for a tired traveler. The name of this cache is Latin for crucifixion which means "fixing to a cross", from the prefix cruci-, from crux "cross", + verb figere, "fix or bind fast".
The Roman Empire perfected crucifixion as a means of execution. However, they were hardly the first to use it. It was used as a means of execution for about a thousand years before Emperor Constantine abolished its use in 337 BC. In the time since its abolition, the cross has become a symbol of the Christian church among other uses. In the journey from execution method to a symbol, the image of the cross has been cleaned and polished to the point that it’s almost unrecognizable. The truth of the cross is that it was purely a killing tool. Much like lethal injection, a firing squad, hanging, gas chamber, or the electric chair, the sole purpose of a cross was to bring death to a criminal. But the aforementioned means of execution are down right merciful compared to the brutality of hanging on a cross. Crucifixion was not only a punishment for a criminal but a deterrent to onlookers from committing crimes punishable by it. Therefore, it was intentionally very public and very humiliating. By design it was also a particularly painful, slow, and gruesome way to die. In the Roman method of crucifixion, it could take days for the criminal to die. Roman efficiency made great use of crucifixion; to the point that the vertical posts were often permanently fixed in place. The condemned would often carry the 75-125lb cross beam on his shoulders to the site of his execution. The second half of the Latin for crucifixion means to “bind fast.” The condemn could be bound to the cross by ropes but as Josephus records they were often nailed to the cross by Roman soldiers so enraged at the condemned. While its public nature was humiliating in its self, the Romans in their zeal for justice made it even more so by making the criminal as vulnerable as possible. Most artwork depicts crucifixion victims as having some form of loin cloth, however, it has been suggested that crucifixion victims were crucified completely nude. When the criminal had to urinate or defecate, they had to do so in the open, in view of passers-by, resulting in discomfort and the attraction of insects. The Roman guards could only leave the site after the victim had died, and were known to hurry death by deliberate breaking of the shin or thigh bones, spear stab wounds into the heart, sharp blows to the front of the chest, or a smoking fire built at the foot of the cross to asphyxiate the victim. The goal of Roman crucifixion was not just to kill the criminal, but also to mutilate and dishonor the body of the condemned. In ancient tradition, an honorable death required burial; leaving a body on the cross, so as to mutilate it and prevent its burial was a serious dishonor.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Orgjrra n pebff naq n uneq cynpr
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