Peace, yes, that makes the point well.

Another thing that the article on crucifixion brought home to me is that you have to think of the psychologies and politics of minorities when the dominant discourse is a reign of terror or the constant threat of a reign of terror. Maybe comparisons between the Roman Empire and the Third Reich would not be out of place, and how some people knuckle under and compromise, become Quislings, form Vichy states, act as some religious leaders (the church hierarchies, Jewish leaders in the ghettos and the model camps that were opened to view) did under the Nazis, hoping and praying for survival but always sensing any shift in the winds could lead to their liquidation.

Of course, there was the well-known religious "tolerance" of the Romans, who accepted all kinds of cults as long as they paid obeisance to the official idolatry. That too (the "carrot") must have made for an enormous pressure on people to reframe their beliefs in ways that conformed to the sanctioned models.

It makes the stories of the few who found a way to "dance in the dragon's jaws" (as Bruce Cockburn said--hey, I'm not so far off-topic, I hope) all the more amazing.