jno, not necessarily, the end result of death was more often the intention. you are reight about the romans being ingeniious and they employed many forms of torture that ultimatley bought about a slow painful death. often i would have thought death was a release so they pronlonged it as much as possible.
a case in point was andrew in 60ad (the andrew cross). the tradition is that andrew was bound, not nailed, to a decussate cross in order to prolong his sufferings; he was an old man and might have died too quickly if a square cross was used, so denying the crowd a show and with insufficient deterrent effect.
crucufixion was a slow ignominious death, not least because vital organs remained undamaged.