Seneca describes a similar image: “Can anyone be found who would prefer wasting away in pain, dying limb by limb, or letting out his life drop by drop, rather than expiring once for all? Can any man be found willing to be fastened to the accursed tree, long sickly, already deformed, swelling with ugly tumours on chest and shoulders, and draw the breath of life amid long—drawn-out agony?” (Ep. 101; translation in Gummere, Seneca). This text indicates that death by crucifixion took a long time. The “ugly tumors” were probably the result of the precrucifixion tortures.