(Note that, contrary the Christian mythology the upper nails were nearly always driven through the wrists rather than the hands as this provides a more secure hold. Also it is vital to position the ankle nails such that the victim's knees are slightly bent.
The piercing of both wrists and ankles with nails is the key. The simple cross or crucifix, so beloved of the Roman and Greek civilisations, was more a torture device than a method of execution (although death was almost always the end result). Composers, of a sort, competed among themselves to produce short, inspired pieces of symphony for the amusement of the masses.
In my campaign, the jaded aristocrats of the Empire of A'Thun, 'improved' on this design, by allowing a more intricate set of tubing and piping to emit a sound not unlike music, during the roasting victim's muted death screams. It is also said that when the bull was reopened, the victims' scorched bones shone like jewels and were made into bracelets. The head of the ox was supplied by a complex system of tubes and stops so that the prisoner's screams were converted into sounds not unlike the bellowing of an infuriated ox. So that nothing unseemly might spoil the spectators viewing pleasure, the bull was usually designed in such a way that its smoke rose in spicy clouds of incense. The victim was shut up in the bull and a fire was set under it, heating the metal until it became 'red hot' and causing the victim inside to slowly roast to death.
An execution device designed in ancient Greece, and one of my favorites!Ī brazen bull, life-sized, made totally of brass, was hollow, with a door in the side.