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© ALINARI ARCHIVES / ART RESOURCE, NY

ROMAN REPRESENTATIONS. There are no pictorial representations of crucifixion from the time of Jesus. Nevertheless, two pre-Constantinian inscriptions seem to portray the type of suspension with soles together and knees apart, as may be inferred in the Yehohanan ossuary inscription. This evidence includes the famous Alexamenos graffito, which shows a portrait of a person worshiping his deity. Scratched into a plastered wall on the Palatine Hill near the imperial residence in Rome, it likely dates to the early third century. Remarkably, the deity has the head of a donkey, in what must have been a mockery of Christian beliefs.