Diary 
Mary Beard
The practical mechanics of crucifixion have had a lurid hold on the popular imagination for at least two millennia. The idea that St Peter was crucified upside down was no sooner taken as a sign of his self-proclaimed unworthiness to share the fate of Jesus, than it was reinterpreted as a mark of his common sense. Even a poor fisherman knew that hanging head down brought the oblivion of unconsciousness much more quickly than the usual upright, and excruciatingly painful, position.
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Mary Beard is a fellow of Newnham College, Cambridge and classics editor of the TLS. Her books include a Life of Jane Ellen Harrison and The Parthenon.
Other articles by this contributor:
Lucky City · Cicero
What Might Have Happened Upstairs · Pompeii
Don’t forget your pith helmet · The Tourist Trap
Four-Day Caesar · Tacitus and the Emperors
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