Julia Lepida continues to narrate:
After what seemed a very long time, her legs quivered and began to move. She moaned as feeling returned and she realized where she was. She lifted her head, dazed with agony, and gave a loud groan through gritted teeth. It was time to continue her execution.
The executioner and his helpers sidled around beside the cross, watching her, in no hurry, getting ready for the next parts of her punishment.
The carnifex, Quintus Caelius Balbus also describes the action from his point of view:
I watched as the slave worked her feet up close underneath her ass and tried to push herself up. She only succeeded in arching her body outward toward the crowd as if she was trying to present them with a closer look at her cunnus. Some motherless maggots had bright things to say about that and there was a lot of laughter.
She continued trying to push upwards, but suddenly her feet slipped and she dropped heavily, tits bouncing and more agonized screaming. Then the screaming stopped, her eyes rolled back and her head fell forward on her chest, her body going limp in a faint.
"Damned inconsiderate of her to faint on us right now," I allowed, studying her pulsing abdomen. "She could have waited and done that on her own time!"
“Quintus Caelius, shouldn’t they nail her feet now?” Julia Lepida asked me.
“Not yet. She’ll be back with us in a moment. She’ll be ready then and we’ll nail her feet,” I answered. “Don’t worry, that girl still has at least three days in her, maybe four. She doesn’t know what pain is yet. Give those nails some time to twist around and work back and forth in those wounds for a few hours, then she’ll know.”
We waited. I heard some of the crowd exchanging bets as to how long this slave girl would be unconscious. Romans will bet on anything!
“Gundericus, this happens. It’s normal,” I said. “They come back to us in a few moments if their hearts don’t give out. Now if she stops breathing, that’s different. Best thing to do is lift her up and ram that cornu up her cunnus. She won’t slip off, and she’ll breathe whether she wants to or not.
“Sometimes they faint because of the pain, but most of the time, it's panic. They breathe so fast and hard it puts them out. I see them do it almost every time.
“After a few hours, when they're tired and hanging by their wrists, they can't suck in a full breath. It makes them feel like they're being smothered or strangled, so they panic and try to get more breath. Then they get too much and that makes them faint. Their body knows how much air it needs, and once they faint, their breathing slows down to normal. It’s always like this.
“So, nailing the feet? How to tell the best place for the feet?”
“Up close to her ass, but not so high that she can rest her ass on her heels, no punishment in that. Best is with her lower legs square with the cross. The only thing we let them rest their bare asses on is one of those narrow-edged sediles or the point of a cornu, like this one gets. Fancier, more painful things sometimes, if I feel like it or some dominus asks.
“But when she’s down, you want her to hang with all of her weight on her wrists. As she starts to tire, she'll hang longer, it will get harder and harder for her to breathe, and finally she'll begin to feel like she can't get enough air. That will keep her moving and slowly using up her strength. It shows off her cunnus, too, more humiliating that way. The best way to find the position for the feet is with her hanging free by the wrists, so her body is nicely stretched out and you can see where her ass comes to.”
Just then the slave girl moaned and stirred as she began to awake and remember where she was. She tilted her head back and stared upward at the nails in her wrists, groaning. Her legs began to flail weakly. She looked around, dazed, saw her Domina and asked for mercy. Julia Lepida actually smiled at her as she told her no.
I nodded to Antius. Time to nail her feet.
Sabina also narrates what it is like to wake up on the cross:
I awoke gradually, my head spinning, not knowing what happened or where I was. And then, oh gods, the agony! I groaned, gritted my teeth, opened my eyes, looked up and with horror, saw the nails protruding from my wrists, the ooze of blood around them and the trickle down my forearms. I looked down, saw my bare breasts, uncovered legs below, the livid marks where the whip had wrapped around and stung my breasts, my stomach, my hips. I saw no sign of a loincloth, felt nothing between my legs but the air on my bare skin. Rough wood scraped the welts on my bare buttocks.
I’m naked! I thought. I’m hanging here naked, with all these people staring at me. I remember now, they took away my loincloth before… before they started driving the nails.
This can’t be real! This is a nightmare! I’m not supposed to be here!
I blinked, shook my head, struggled to wake up, trying to grope my way out of it. This couldn’t be real, couldn’t be! My mind wouldn’t work, couldn’t process this.
I can’t wake up! Why can’t I wake up?
And I panicked as I finally understood that yes, this horror is real.
I’m crucified.
Through the fog of pain, my head swimming, I moaned and tried to get the soles of my bare feet against the cross to hold myself up, but I was so tired, my strength used up. Then it dawned on me.
Hanging by two nails… Four nails always, always, oh gods! Always used when they crucify a slave. My feet! They aren’t nailed to the cross!
They haven’t finished crucifying me! Oh gods, oh no, please no! Two more… nails! They’re going to nail my feet… nail my feet to the cross! I can’t bear this, can’t bear that too!
With sweat stinging my eyes, I made out the faces of the crowd, laughing, jeering and staring at me. I looked at them in wonder. What had I done to deserve their ridicule? My Domina was to my right, watching me, expressionless.
“D-Domina,” I rasped, “please stop them, my feet, two more nails, I can’t… oh gods, don’t let me die on this cross!”
She looked me in the eyes, smiled, and said, “You earned this when you struck me, slave. Your punishment hasn’t even begun.”
I was crushed. After all our years together, she was throwing me away as easily as if I were a toy she had grown tired of. That pain only added to the agony and humiliation I felt. My vision blurred as tears filled my eyes.
Here is the scene:
Here are some victim's eye views: