Stakes were largely employed and in manifold ways by the heathen Devil-worshippers for the tormenting of Christians. Fastening the blessed Martyrs thereto, after stripping their bodies as near naked as might be, either by means of iron nails or with ropes, they would then tear their flesh mercilessly with claws of iron or hooks or currycombs, transfix them with arrows, beat them with cudgels, scourges, and the like, expose them to the bites of wild beasts, pull out their teeth, cut out their tongues, in the case of women amputate the bosoms, in a word torture them in every horrid fashion possible, after first attaching them to stakes or poles set in the ground.
This is confirmed by numberless Acts of the Holy Martyrs, as those of Gregory Thaumaturgus, Polycarp, Gaiana, and Febronia, Virgins, and a well-nigh countless host of others of either sex. The same is shown likewise by Classical authors, amongst the rest by Cicero (Philippics), Valerius Maximus, Suetonius (Claudius), etc.
It should be noted here that the Martyrs which were nailed to stakes with iron nails and so tortured, were sometimes also bound with ropes, it may be for their yet greater torment.