It is certainly not without interest, before studying the actual sufferings of Jesus, to investigate what archӕology, in all its forms, literary texts and artistic documents, has to tell us about crucifixion. For this chapter I am specially indebted to Father Holzmeister, S.J., who has published a masterly and almost exhaustive study on the subject, in Verbum Domini, the review of the Pontifical Biblical Institute (May, July, August, September, 1934), under the title Crux Domini ejusque crucifixio ex archӕologia romana illustrantur. The abundance and the precision of his sources have enabled him to reach conclusions, most of which seem to be irrefutable. As I do not propose to give all his references here, apart from a few of those which I have verified, and others which did not come from him, I would strongly recommend anyone who can obtain the articles, or the booklet which was made up from them, and who can read Latin, not to be content with the extracts which I have made. I shall, however, venture to point out the very few questions on which I disagree with him. I shall reserve the causes of the death of Jesus for a special chapter; medical knowledge is, indeed, required for this chapter, which was not possessed by the ancient authors, nor by exegetes in general, nor by this special author.
I shall also deal with certain information which we can obtain from the history of art. But, out of respect for the value of this work, I wish on the whole to keep to its order and to its divisions.