Crucifixion is a method of capital punishment in which the victim is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross or beam and left to hang until eventual death from exhaustion and asphyxiation. It was used as a punishment by the Persians, Carthaginians and Romans, among others. Crucifixion has been used in parts of the world as recently as the twentieth century. The crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth is central to Christianity, and the cross (sometimes depicting Jesus nailed to it) is the main religious symbol for many Christian churches. Terminology Ancient Greek has two verbs for crucify: (), from (which in today's Greek only means "cross" but which in antiquity was used of any kind of wooden pole, pointed or blunt, bare or with attachments) and () "crucify on a plank", together with ( "impale"). In earlier pre-Roman Greek texts usually means "impale". The Greek used in the Christian New Testament uses four verbs, three of them based upon (), usually translated "cross". The most common term is (), "to crucify", occurring 46 times; (), "to crucify with" or "alongside" occurs five times, while (), "to crucify again" occurs only once at the Epistle to the Hebrews 6:6. (), "to fix or fasten to, impale, crucify" occurs only once at the Acts of the Apostles 2:23. The English term cross derives from the Latin word , which classically referred to a tree or any construction of wood used to hang criminals as a form of execution. The term later came to refer specifically to a cross. The related term crucifix, derives from the Latin or , past participle passive of or , meaning "to crucify" or "to fasten to a cross". Detail Cross shape The gibbet on which crucifixion was carried out could be of many shapes. Josephus says that the Roman soldiers who crucified the many prisoners taken during the Siege of Jerusalem under Titus diverted themselves by nailing them to the crosses in different ways; and Seneca the Younger recounts: "I see crosses there, not just of one kind but made in many different ways: some have their victims with head down to the ground; some impale their private parts; others stretch out their arms on the gibbet." At times the gibbet was only one vertical stake, called in Latin crux simplex. This was the simplest available construction for torturing and killing the condemned. Frequently, however, there