carcer

carcer , eris, m.: a dungeon, hold, prison, 1.54; carcer, or pl., carcerēs, the stalls; the starting place or barrier in the circus or race-course, 5.145.

carcer, ĕris, m. [Sicilian κάρκαρον; cf. O. Müll. Etrusk. 1, p. 13; etym. dub.; cf. scrinium], an enclosed place; hence,

• I A prison, jail (syn.: custodia, vincula): si tresviri me in carcerem conpegerint, Plaut. Am. 1, 1, 3 (155); id. Poen. 3, 3, 79 (693); Lucr. 3, 1016; Cic. Verr. 2, 5, 9, § 22 sq.; Liv. 6, 36, 112 al.: carcer, quem vindicem scelerum majores nostri esse voluerunt, Cic. Cat. 2, 12, 27.
• • A Poet., of the custody of the winds, Verg. A. 1, 54; Ov. M. 4, 663; 14, 224; id. F. 2, 456; and of the lower world: carcer inferorum, Sen. Herc. Fur. 1222: Ditis, Luc. 6, 797.—Trop., of the chains of the body: qui ex corporum vinculis tamquam e carcere evolaverunt, Cic. Rep. 6, 14, 14; so id. Tusc. 1, 30, 74; Luc. 6, 721.—
  • B Esp., the Roman State-prison, close to the Forum, at the foot of the Capitoline Hill, on the right of the Sacra Via, built by Ancus Marcius, Liv. 1, 33, 8; extended under ground by Servius Tullius; hence this part of the prison is called Tullianum. Varr. L. L. 5, § 151, p. 42 Bip.; Cic. Sull. 25, 70; Sall. C. 55, 3; Liv. 1, 33, 8; Tac. A. 3, 51 al.; cf.: in inferiorem demissus carcerem, Liv. 34, 44, 8: in carcerem conditi, id. 29, 22, 7; cf. also Fest. p. 356 Müll., and Becker. Antiq. 1, 262 sq.; v. also Tullianum and robur, II. A.—
  • C Meton.
  • • • a The imprisoned criminals: in me carcerem effudistis, Cic. Pis. 7, 16.—
      • b As a term of reproach ( = carcerarius), jail-bird, scapegallows: carcer vix carcere dignus, Lucil. ap. Don. Ter. Phorm. 373; Ter. Phorm. l. l.—
• II The barrier or starting-place in the race-course (opp. meta or calx; v. h. vv.); usu. in plur., carceres, Varr. L. L. 5, § 153 Müll.; Lucr. 2, 264; 4, 990; Cic. Brut. 47, 173; Verg. G. 1, 512; * Hor. S. 1, 1, 114 al. —In sing. (mostly poet.), Enn. Ann. ap. Cic. Div. 1, 48, 107 (v. 88 Vahl.); Tib. 1, 4, 32 (imitated by Ov. H. 18, 166); Auct. Her. 4, 3, 4; Verg. G. 3, 104; id. A. 5, 145 Serv.; Ov. M. 10, 652; id. Tr. 5, 9, 29; 5, 12, 26; Suet. Caes. 21; Stat. Th. 6, 522.—
• • B Trop., the commencement, beginning, of a course of action or of a condition: a quibus carceribus decurrat ad metas, Varr. R. R. 1, 3; so id. ib. 2, 7, 1: ad carceres a calce revocari, i.e. to begin life anew, Cic. Sen. 23, 83; cf.: cum aequalibus, quibus cum tamquam e carceribus emissus sis, id. Lael. 27, 101.

carcer, eris, m. (sikulisch κάρκαρον), die Umfriedigung, die Umzäunung, dah. I) das Gefängnis, der Kerker, Gewahrsam, A) eig.: nervus, carcer, moletrina, Cato fr.: ostium carceris, Cic.: ianitor carceris, Cic.: custos carceris, Manil. u. carcerum custodes, Firm. math.: ratio carceris, Cic.: plenus carcer damnatis, Sen. rhet.: vadere in carcerem, Cic.: in carcerem ducere, condere, conicere, contrudere, Cic.: in carcerem includere, Cic., carcere includere, Liv.: in carcere includi, Cic.: in carcere includi inter fures nocturnos, Liv.: vinculis et carcere fatigare alqm, Cic.: emitti e carcere, Cic.: carcerem aperire, Lact.: carcerem refringere, Liv.: carcerem effringere, Tac.: sunt ita multi, ut eos carcer capere non possit, Cic. – vom Körper (als dem Gefängnis der Seele, vgl. Macr. somn. Scip. 1, 10, 9 sqq.), qui e corporum vinculis tamquam e carcere evolaverunt, Cic.: illa vincula carceris rumpere, Cic.: in corpora ire iussisse (animas), quorum indutae carceribus etc., Arnob. 2, 45: haec (mors) e carcere educit, Sen. ad Marc. 20, 2. – B) meton.: 1) = die eingekerkerten Verbrecher, in me carcerem effudistis, Cic. Pis. 16. – 2) als Schimpfwort, etwa = Schurke, Ter. Phorm. 373: carcer vix carcere dignus, Lucil. sat. 28, 62 (cf. inc. 141). – II) die Schranken der Rennbahn, gew. (in Prosa immer) im Plur., carcere od. carceribus effundi od. se effundere, Verg.: e carceribus exire, Varr. LL. u. Cic.: e carceribus emitti cum alqo, Cic.: carceribus missi currus, Hor.: exspectant vel uti consul cum mittere signum volt omnes avidi spectant ad carceris oras, quam mox emittat pictis e faucibus currus, Enn. ann. 87 sqq.: im Bilde, nemini fortuna currum e carcere intimo missum labi inoffensum per aecor (= aequor) candidum ad calcem sivit, Varr. sat. Men. 288: ad carceres a calce revocari, das Leben von neuem beginnen, Cic. de sen. 83; vgl. Cic. de amic. 101. Varr. r. r. 1, 3 u. 2, 7, 1.

carcer [CLm.; MLsts. f.] 1 prison, gaol. b imprisonment. c (w. liber) free custody. d prison of soul, Hell. genitor sobolem ‥ / truserat in tenebras conclusi carceris atras Aldh. VirgV 1140; c717 quam nunc ‥ Romana ~er includit (Eccgburg) Ep. Bonif. 13; perveniunt quo carcer erat; quem sedibus imis / tortores clausere truces Wulf. Swith. II 544; ~er vel ergastulum vel lautumia, cwærtern Ælf. Sup.; 9‥ ~er, dictus a coarcendo, witern WW; in ~erem pre ~eribus obscuriorem eum detruserat R. Cold. Cuthb. 20; 1257 cum contingit clericum pro delicto foreste defamari, ‥ vocatur coram justiciariis et, ‥ nisi prius ~eri laicali mancipetur, suo ordinario nulla[tenus] liberatur (Artic. Episc.) M. Par. Maj. VI 357; 1343 statuimus ut in omni monasterio sit ~er, in quo puniri possint enormiter delinquentes Doc. Eng. Black Monks II 42.  b ut patrem suum de longo ~ere liberavit Ord. Vit. XII 18 p. 358; 1416 ipsas [personas] ad ~eres perpetuas sive temporales ‥ ad minus usque ad proximam ‥ convocacionem duraturas ‥ realiter committant Reg. Cant. III 19; 1428 cui dominus ‥ penitenciam ‥ injunxit, ~eres viz. septennales in et sub custodia ‥ London’ episcopi Ib. 210; s1399 monachum ‥ ~eribus per regem R. detentum ‥ ab hujusmodi ~eribus liberari ‥ optinuit Ad. Usk 26; s1304 aut mortem aut perpetuas ~eres sibi preparare pensabat Plusc. IX 4.  c 1258 dicit quod senescallus ‥ optulit ei predictam marcam pro predicto T. et aliis per sic quod possunt esse in libero ~ere (JustIt 873) SelCWW 85 (cf. ib. 112: in libera prisona).  d vidit etiam suum infelix inter tales ~erem, quo miserabilius ipse desperata salute periret Bede HE V 14; priusquam me absorbeat ~er infernalis Anselm (Or. 13) III 51; ima sed eterni carceris hostis habet Garl. Tri. Eccl. 50. 2 (for animals) stall, cage, or mew. ~eres, horsa steal Ælf. Gl.; non ferens ales diuturnas et degeneres ~eris angustias W. Cant. Mir. Thom. V 22; qui [leo] cum e ~ere ‥ erupisset Gir. TH II 24.

carcĕr, (9) ĕris, m. , ¶ 1 prison, cachot : in carcerem conjicere aliquem Cic. Nat. 2, 6, jeter qqn en prison ; in carcerem demissus Liv. 34, 44, 8 ; conditus Liv. 29, 22, 7, jeté, enfermé dans un cachot || tout endroit où lʼon est enfermé : e corporum vinclis tanquam e carcere evolare Cic. Rep. 6, 14, sʼenvoler des liens du corps comme dʼune prison || ce que renferme une prison, prisonniers : in me carcerem effudistis Cic. Pis. 16, vous avez lâché sur moi les prisons || gibier de prison, de potence : Ter. Phorm. 373 ¶ 2 lʼenceinte, dʼoù partent les chars dans une course [au pl. en prose] : Cic. Br. 173 || [fig.] point de départ : ad carceres a calce revocari Cic. CM 83, être rappelé du terme au point de départ.

carcer , eris. m.
監牢。馬起跑所。Homo carcer 匪類人。A calce ad carcerem 再起。

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carcer eris, m

• a prison, jail: in carcerem duci: carcerem refringere, L.: effundere: privatus, L.: vindex scelerum: vincla carceris rumpere, i. e. of the body.—Poet., of the cave of Aeolus, V., O. — Esp., the Roman state-prison: inferior carcer, L.; cf. Tullianum.—Meton., as a term of reproach, jail-bird, scape-gallows, T.—The barrier, starting-place in the race-course: effusi carcere currūs, V.: cum carcere uterque Emicat, O. — Usu. plur: cum carceribus sese effudere quadrigae, V.: carceribus missi currūs, H.—Fig.: ad carceres a calce revocari, i. e. to begin life anew.

CARCER

CARCER(δεσμωτήριον), a prison.

1. Greek.

Imprisonment was seldom used among the Greeks as a legal punishment for offences. Among the Athenians, with whom we are chiefly concerned, it was practically unknown in the sense of confinement for a definite period after conviction. They had neither the appliances in the shape of walls and bars, nor were they willing to incur the expense; and they preferred either banishment or the death penalty. Capital punishment was inflicted without hesitation for comparatively trifling offences, but by more humane methods than those of modern Europe until quite recent times.

Imprisonment before trial, on the other hand, was common enough, though bail was freely accepted in cases other than capital ; the terror of exile was in general thought sufficient to keep a man to his bail (Demosth. c. Timrocr. p. 739.125; p. 741.131 ; ENGYE). The farmers of the taxes and lessees of other revenues (τελῶναι, μισθούμενοι), as well as their sureties (οἱ ἐγγυώμενοι), were liable to imprisonment if the duties were not paid by a specified time; and in cases where default was to be feared, they might even be imprisoned at the discretion of the senate or law-courts (Demosth. l. c. p. 713, § § 40, 41; BOULÉ, p. 312 b). This, as Demosthenes insists throughout the speech in question, was the great safeguard to insure regularity of payment. Again, persons who had been mulcted in penalties might be confined till they paid them, not only in criminal cases (Lex ap. Demosth. c. Mid. p. 529.47), but in some civil actions for damages as well, especially when the ἐπωβελία had been incurred (Demosth. c. Lacr. p. 939.46; c. Dionysod. p. 1204.4; EPOBELIA). Certain of the ἄτιμοι also, if they exercised the rights of citizenship, were subject to the same consequences (Demosth. c. Timocr. p. 732.103). We read, moreover, of δεσμὸς as a public stigma put upon disgraceful offences, such as theft; but this was a προστίμημα or additional penalty, the infliction of which was at the option of the court; and the δεσμὸς itself was not so much an imprisonment as a public exposure in the ποδοκάκκη or stocks, for five days and nights--called also ἐν ξύλψ δεδέσθαι (Demosth. op. cit., p. 700.2; pp. 732-3, § § 103, 105; p. 736.114). One more description of imprisonment remains to be noticed, that in the interval between condemnation and execution. In this last case, owing to the insecurity of the building, the prisoner was chained, and was under the special custody of the Eleven, who were also responsible for the execution itself.

There are, no doubt, several passages from which we might infer the existence at Athens of imprisonment as a punishment by itself: e. g. Plat. Apol. 37 C; Laws, 9.864 E, 880 B, and especially 10.908. In this last passage Plato proposes to have three prisons: one of these was to be a σωφρονιστήριον or reformatory, and another a place of punishment for the incorrigible--a sort of penal settlement away from the city. But such vague allusions, as Westermann rightly insists (ap. Pauly, s. v. δεσμωτήριον), prove nothing against the persistent silence of the historians and orators. The speech of Andocides against Alcibiades, where we read ( § 4) ἐξὸν κολαζειν χρήμασι καὶ δεσμῷ καὶ θανάτῳ, is a mere rhetorical exercise; and the words of Lysias, ἐν τῷ δεσμωτηρίῳ δεδεμένος ἀπέθανε (c. Agorat. § 67) may easily refer to an untried prisoner. Of imprisonment as a punishment by itself, Schömann argues, we have no certain example; and this remark in his text is supported by a good note (Antiq. 1.489, E. T.). The opposite and, as it seems to the present writer, less probable opinion has, however, been maintained by K. F. Hermann (Staatsalterth. § 139) and Caillemer (ap. Daremberg and Saglio).

The prison at Athens is frequently mentioned in the orators, both by its usual name δεσμωτήριον and the euphemistic equivalent οκημα. But the plural δεσμωτήρια does not seem to occur in any Attic writer, though there are passages (such as Demosth. c. Androt. p. 614.68; c. Timocr. p. 764, § § 208, 209) where, if a plurality of prisons existed at Athens, we should almost certainly find them mentioned. This argument seems almost decisive in favour of the opinion of Ullrich (Ueber die Elf-Männer, p. 231 f.) and J. H. Lipsius (Att. Process, p. 73 n.), that there was only one. The authority of Hesychius and the Etym. M. is insufficient to prove, in the face of probability, that there was an Athenian prison called Θησεῖον: and there is no proof that the other names for prisons recorded by the grammarians are to be referred to Athens. Among these local names was ἀναγκαῖον or ἀνάκαιον in Boeotia, κέραμος in Cyprus, κῶς at Corinth; and among the Ionians γοργύρη, as at Samos (Hdt. 3.145; Pollux, 9.45); βάλαικες or βαλαίκακες, βλέορον, ἴψον, σιρός, all mentioned by Hesychius. The appearance of the Latin carcer in the Sicilian Greek κάρκαρον, and conversely of the Greek λατομίαι in the Latin lautumiae, is noticed by Mommsen as a proof of the early intercourse between the Romans and Sicily (R. H. 1.167, E. T.). Some of the above names may be slang or nicknames, such as are often applied to prisons in our own day: thus γοργύρα is explained to mean a sewer; ἴψον may be connected with ἶπος, a mousetrap. The gate through which criminals were led to execution was called χαρώνειον or θύρα χαρώνειος (Poll. 8.102, Suidas, and several times in the Paroemiographers); a grim joke which can hardly have arisen at Athens, where executions were private.

The Attic expression for imprisonment was δεῖν, a word which by no means implies the use of chains or fetters. The phrase in the oath of the βουλευταὶ or senators, οὐδὲ δήσω Ἀθηναίων οὐδένα, is explained by Demosthenes (c. Timocr. p. 746.147) as a security against arbitrary imprisonment by the executive government without trial. It was in fact the Habeas Corpus of the Athenian constitution. But he is careful to add ( § 151) that no such words occur in the oath of the Heliastae or dicasts ; the law-courts had absolute power over men's lives, liberties, and fortunes. We have also the phrase ἄδεσμος φυλακή (as in Thucyd. 3.34), like the libera custodia of the Romans, signifying that a person was under strict surveillance and guard, though not confined within the walls of a prison.

2. Roman.

The oldest prison at Rome, traditionally the only one in early times (Juv. Sat. 3.312), was called simply Carcer; and is still to be seen on the eastern slope of the Capitoline hill, to the right of the ascent from the Forum. The name Mamertinus, usually applied to the Carcer, is mediaeval and not classical. It consists of a larger oblong upper and a smaller underground circular dungeon; the latter is that called the Tullianum, a name which has often been incorrectly explained. As the original erection of the Carcer was attributed to Ancus Marcius (Liv. 1.33), it was conjectured by the etymologists that the name Tullianum must have been derived from Servius Tullius, evidently a double mistake, as the lower chamber would certainly not have been added after the upper one. (Middleton, p. 80.) It is now agreed that it is from the tullii or springs for whose waters it formed a reservoir; that it was built in the first instance simply to protect the water supply of the Capitol, and was only in later times used as a part of the prison, when a captive, as in the well-known instance of Jugurtha, was doomed to be killed by cold and starvation (Festus and P. Diac. s. v. Tullii, pp. 352-3, Müller; Plut. Mar. 12; Burn, Rome and the Campagna, p. 81; Caillemer, ap. Daremberg and Saglio). Thus Livy speaks of the infamous Pleminius as dejectus in Tullianum (29.22), which in another passage is expressed by the words in inferiorem demissus carcerem, necatusque (34.44). It was here, too, that Lentulus and the other accomplices of Catiline were strangled by order of the Triumviri Capitales; and Sallust describes it as sunk twelve feet in the earth, strongly walled, and with a roof vaulted with stone arches ( insuper camera, lapideis fornicibus vincta, Cat. 55). In reality, as modern investigations have shown, the construction is so old that it points to a time when the arch was not used in Roman architecture; the roof being of stone slabs, each overlapping the one beneath it, an approximation to the true arch found also in the well-known treasury of Mycenae and other primitive buildings. The upper chamber is also of very early date, but later than the Tullianum ; and it is not in its primitive condition. A projecting string-course on the outside records a restoration in the reign of Tiberius by the Consules Suffecti for the year 22 A.D.: C. VIBIUS C. F. RVFINVS. M. COCCEIV[S NERVA] COS. EX S. C. Another name for this part of the prison was robur, in old Latin robus, thus explained by Festus (p. 264 M.): Robus in carcere dicitur is locus, quo praecipitatur maleficorum genus, quod ante arcis robusteis includebatur. The robur is spoken of as a place of execution in several passages. In robore et tenebris exspirare, Liv. 38.59; Robur et saxum (sc. Tarpeium) minitari, Tac. Ann. 4.29.So also we read of Catenas--et Italum robur, Hor. Carm. 2.13, 18. The concluding words of Festus, quod ante arcis robusteis includebatur, must of course be explained of the oaken planks or beams with which the dungeon was formerly lined (Rein ap. Pauly, s. v. Tullianum, Orell. ad Tac. l. c.); not as by Caillemer, of wooden cages in which dangerous criminals were confined.

This prison was obviously too small to contain any number of prisoners, and probably from the first was appropriated to those condemned to death. The earliest mention of another prison is in the days of the Decemvirate, B.C. 450. Appius Claudius is said to have built one for political purposes, to overawe the champions of plebeian liberties ( quod domicilium plebis Romanae vocare sit solitus, Liv. 3.57). It was into this prison that he was himself thrown, and committed suicide while awaiting his trial. At a later period we find an additional prison called Lautumiae or stone-quarries in the immediate neighbourhood of the original Carcer; whether this was the prison of Appius, we do not know. It is not likely that there were ever any quarries on this spot, which was to the north-west of the Forum; but it may have been named after the Syracusan λατομίαι which were thus used (Mommsen, ubi supra). Varro (L. L. 5.151, Müll.) identified the Lautumiae with the Tullianum, and has been followed by some of the moderns; but they are distinguished by the best writers on Roman topography (Becker, Röm. Alterth. 1.262-268; Burn, p. 80). The Lautumiae were clearly of much greater extent; a conflagration in the region about the Forum, B.C. 210, extended to them, but not, it would seem, to the Carcer or the Capitol (Liv. 26.27); in B.C. 198 they were again full of prisoners and hostages, and were specially guarded in a time of conspiracy (id. 32.26); a few years later no less than forty-three leading Aetolians (Aetolorum principes, id. 37.3) were confined there.

With the growth of the city other prisons became necessary; but the words of Roman historians generally refer to these alone. Close to the Carcer, and between it and the Temple of Concord, were the Scalae Gemoniae, where the bodies of criminals were exposed after execution. The cases are mentioned of Caepio, the consul defeated by the Cimbri (Val. Max., but cf. 4.7.3; Cic. pro Balbo, 111.28); Sejanus (Dio Cass.; Juv. Sat. 10.66); other victims of Tiberius (Suet. Tib. 61; cf. cc. 54, 75); Sabinus (Tac. Hist. 3.74). Compare Burn, p. 81; Middleton, Anc. Rome in 1885, p. 78 ff.

[R.W] [W.W]

Carcer

(δεσμωτήριον). A prison.

(1) Greek. Imprisonment was seldom used among the Greeks as a legal punishment for offences. Among the Athenians, with whom we are chiefly concerned, it was practically unknown in the sense of confinement for a definite period after conviction. They had neither the appliances in the shape of walls and bars, nor were they willing to incur the expense; and they preferred either banishment or the death penalty. Capital punishment was inflicted without hesitation for comparatively trifling offences, but by more humane methods than those of modern Europe until quite recent times.

Imprisonment before trial, on the other hand, was common enough, though bail was freely accepted in cases other than capital; the terror of exile was in general thought sufficient to keep a man to his bail (ἐγγύη). The farmers of the taxes and lessees of other revenues (τελῶναι, μισθούμενοι), as well as their sureties (οἱ ἐγγυώμενοι), were liable to imprisonment if the duties were not paid by a specified time; and in cases where default was to be feared, they might even be imprisoned at the discretion of the Senate or law-courts. This was the great safeguard to insure regularity of payment. Again, persons who had been mulcted in penalties might be confined till they paid them, not only in criminal cases, but in some civil actions instituted for damages as well. Certain of the ἄτιμοι also, if they exercised the rights of citizenship, were subject to the same consequences (Demosth. c. Timocr. p. 732. 103). We read, moreover, of δεσμός as a public stigma put upon disgraceful offences, such as theft; but this was a προστίμημα or additional penalty, the infliction of which was at the option of the court; and the δεσμός itself was not so much an imprisonment as a public exposure in the ποδοκάκκη or stocks, for five days and nights—called also ἐν ξύλῳ δεδέσθαι (Demosth. loc. cit., p. 700. 2; pp. 732-733. 103, 105; p. 736.114). One more description of imprisonment remains to be noticed, that in the interval between condemnation and execution. In this last case, owing to the insecurity of the building, the prisoner was chained, and was under the special custody of the Eleven, who were also responsible for the execution itself. See hendeka.

There are several passages from which we might infer the existence at Athens of imprisonment as a punishment by itself—e. g. Plato, Apol. 37 C; Laws, ix. 864E, 880 B, and especially x. 908. But such vague allusions prove nothing against the persistent silence of the historians and orators. “Of imprisonment as a punishment by itself,” Schömann argues, “we have no certain example”; and this remark in his text is supported by a good note (Antiq. i. 489, Eng. trans.). The opposite and less probable opinion has, however, been maintained by K. F. Hermann (Staatsalterth. 139) and Caillemer (ap. Daremberg and Saglio).

The prison at Athens is frequently mentioned in the orators, both by its usual name, δεσμωτήριον, and the euphemistic equivalent οἴκημα. But the plural δεσμωτήρια does not seem to occur in any Attic writer, though there are passages where, if a plurality of prisons existed at Athens, we should almost certainly find them mentioned. This argument seems almost decisive in favour of the opinion of J. H. Lipsius (Att. Process, p. 73 n.), that there was only one. The authority of Hesychius and the Etymologicum Magnum is insufficient to prove, in the face of probability, that there was an Athenian prison called Θησεῖον; and there is no proof that the other names for prisons recorded by the grammarians are to be referred to Athens. Among these local names was ἀναγκαῖον or ἀνάκαιον in Boeotia, κέραμος in Cyprus, κῶς at Corinth; and among the Ionians γοργύρη, as at Samos (Herod.iii. 145); βάλαικες or βαλαίκακες, βλέορον, ἴψον, σιρός, all mentioned by Hesychius. The appearance of the Latin carcer in the Sicilian Greek κάρκαρον, and conversely of the Greek λατομίαι in the Latin lautumiae, is noticed by Mommsen as a proof of the early intercourse between the Romans and Sicily (R. H. i. 167, Eng. trans.). Some of the above names may be slang or nicknames, such as are often applied to prisons in our own day: thus γοργύρα is explained to mean “a sewer”; ἴψον may be connected with ἶπος, “a mouse-trap.” The gate through which criminals were led to execution was called χαρώνειον or θύρα χαρώνειος (Poll.viii. 102), a grim joke which can hardly have arisen at Athens, where executions were private.

The Attic expression for imprisonment was δεῖν, a word which by no means implies the use of chains or fetters. The phrase in the oath of the βουλευταί, or senators, οὐδὲ δήσω Ἀθηναίων οὐδένα, is explained by Demosthenes (c. Timocr. p. 746. 147) as a security against arbitrary imprisonment by the executive government without trial. It was, in fact, the habeas corpus of the Athenian constitution. But he is careful to add ( 151) that no such words occur in the oath of the Heliastae or dicasts; the law-courts had absolute power over men's lives, liberties, and fortunes. We have also the phrase ἄδεσμος φυλακή (as in Thuc.iii. 34), like the libera custodia of the Romans, signifying that a person was under strict surveillance and guard, though not confined within the walls of a prison.

(2) Roman. The oldest prison at Rome, traditionally the only one in early times (Juv.iii. 312), was called simply Carcer; and is still to be seen on the eastern slope of the Capitoline Hill, to the right of the ascent from the Forum. The name Mamertinus, usually applied to the Carcer, is mediaeval and not classical. The Tullianum consists of a larger oblong upper and a smaller underground circular dungeon; the latter is that called the Tullianum, a name which has often been incorrectly explained. As the original erection of the Carcer was attributed to Ancus Marcius (Livy, i. 33), it was conjectured by the etymologists that the name Tullianum must have been derived from Servius Tullius, “evidently a double mistake, as the lower chamber would certainly not have been added after the upper one” (Middleton, Anc. Rome, p. 80). It is now agreed that it is from the tullii, or springs for whose waters it formed a reservoir; that it was built in the first instance simply to protect the water supply of the Capitol; and was only in later times used as a part of the prison when a captive, as in the well-known instance of Iugurtha, was doomed to be killed by cold and starvation (Festus and P. Diac. s. v. tullii, pp. 352-353, Müller; Plut. Mar. 12; Burn, Rome and the Campagna, p. 81). The name therefore originally meant “wellhouse.” Thus Livy speaks of the infamous Pleminius as deiectus in Tullianum (xxix. 22), which in another passage is expressed by the words in inferiorem demissus carcerem necatusque (xxxiv. 44). It was here, too, that Lentulus and the other accomplices of Catiline were strangled by order of the triumviri capitales; and Sallust describes it as sunk twelve feet in the earth, strongly walled, and with a roof vaulted with stone arches (Cat. 55). In reality, as modern investigations have shown, the construction is so old that it points to a time when the arch was not used in Roman architecture, standing next among existing remains to the prehistoric walls on the Palatine; the roof being of stone slabs, each overlapping the one beneath it, an approximation to the true arch found also in the well-known treasury of Mycenae and other primitive buildings. The upper chamber is also of very early date, but later than the Tullianum; and it is not in its primitive condition. A projecting string-course on the outside records a restoration in the reign of Tiberius by the consules suffecti for the year A.D. 22. Another name for this part of the prison was Robur, in old Latin Robus. The Robur is spoken of as a place of execution in several passages (Livy, xxxviii. 59; Tac. Ann. iv. 29), and is spoken of by Middleton as “the scene of countless butcheries and slow torture such as the Romans delighted in.” During each triumph, in his course up to the Capitol, the victorious general paused for a while near the Tullianum till word was brought him that some of his principal captives had been put to death in its gloomy vault. The Scalae Gemoniae (called by Gradus GemitoriiPliny , “stair of sighs”) led from the Forum to the door of the upper prison, and here the dead bodies of Sabinus, of Vitellius, of Seianus, and many other noted persons were exposed. (Cf. Tac. Hist. iii. 74, 85; Suet. Tib. 61; Vitell. 17; and the touching story in Pliny , H. N. viii. 145, of the faithful dog who there watched his master's body night and day and brought it food.)

The name Robur was given to the Tullianum from the oaken beams (robora) that lined it in early times. Plutarch (Marius, 12) calls the lower dungeon τὸ βάραθρον. A tradition of the Roman Church makes St. Peter and St. Paul to have been imprisoned here in the time of Nero, and declares the spring which still exists to have sprung up miraculously for the baptism of the jailers by St. Peter. The building has therefore been named S. Pietro in Carcere. See Middleton, Remains of Ancient Rome, i. pp. 151 foll., where a plan and section are given (London, 1892); and Mommsen, Hist. of Rome, i. 308 (American ed. 1888).

Sallust, in the passage already cited, gives an impressive picture of the lower vault in which Iugurtha and also Vercingetorix perished. “There is,” he says, “in the prison a chamber named the Tullianum, about twelve feet below the surface of the earth. It is surrounded by walls, and covered by a vaulted roof of stone; but its appearance is repulsive and fearful, because of the neglect, the darkness, and the stench.” Access to the lower dungeon was originally possible only through the hole in the ceiling. The exact proportions of the vault are 19 feet in length, 10 feet in width, and 6 1/2 feet in height.

The name Mamertinus, often applied to this prison, was bestowed upon it in the early part of the Middle Ages from a statue of Mars (Mamers) which stood near it on the Clivus Argentarius. From the same statue is derived the modern name of the street, Via del Marforio.

This prison was obviously too small to contain any number of prisoners, and probably from the first was appropriated to those condemned to death. The earliest mention of another prison is in the days of the Decemvirate, B.C. 450. Appius Claudius is said to have built one for political purposes, to overawe the champions of plebeian liberties (Livy, iii. 57). It was into this prison that he was himself thrown, and committed suicide while awaiting his trial. At a later period we find an additional prison called Lautumiae, or stone-quarries, in the immediate neighbourhood of the original Carcer. It is not likely that there were ever any quarries on this spot, which was to the northwest of the Forum; but it may have been named after the Syracusan λατομίαι mentioned above, which were thus used. Varro (L. L. v. 151, Müll.) identified the Lautumiae with the Tullianum, and has been followed by some of the moderns; but they are distinguished by the best writers on Roman topography (Becker, Röm. Alterth. i. 262-268; Burn, p. 80).

With the growth of the city other prisons became necessary; but the words of Roman historians generally refer to these alone. Close to the Carcer, and between it and the Temple of Concord, were the Scalae Gemoniae (q.v.), where the bodies of criminals were exposed after execution.