Abstract
As seen at Abu Ghraib (2004), and in many military detention centres, punitive stripping is commonly used to humiliate and shame prisoners during torture. In recognition of this, recent work has argued for closer attention to the political and theological significance of the punitive stripping and forced nakedness of Jesus during crucifixion. This chapter will (1) briefly review the punitive stripping of Jesus; (2) examine Roman perceptions of punitive stripping and forced nudity, with particular attention to Roman conceptions of masculinity, power, and subjugation. Livy reports that Roman soldiers were forced to undress and go 'under the yoke' (sub iugum), wearing a single garment (cum singulis vestimentis), after defeat at the Caudine Forks during the Samnite Wars (321 BCE). Livy's language of overwhelming shame and horror in his description leaves little doubt that in his own day (late First Century BCE) Livy saw the forced stripping of soldiers as an extreme form of disgraced masculinity. The trauma is brought out in his words that those who emerged from the yoke, 'seemed like men raised from the dead, who beheld for the first time the light of day, yet the very light itself, which allowed them to see that dismal throng, was gloomier than any death' (Livy, History, 9.6.3-4).