Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Carcer

Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary, and Greek Lexicon (Rich, 1849)

CARCER (κάρκαρον). A prison or gaol. The Roman prisons were divided into three stories, one above the other, each of which was appropriated to distinct purposes. The lowermost (carcer inferior, γοργύρη) was a dark underground dungeon, having no other access but a small aperture through the floor of the cell above, and was used not for detention, but as the place of execution, into which the criminal was cast in order to undergo his sentence, if condemned to death. The middle one (carcer interior), constructed immediately over the condemned cell, and on a level with the ground, but having, like the preceding, its only access through an aperture in the roof, served as a place of confinement where the punishment of imprisonment in chains (custodia arcta) was expiated, or until the sentence, if a capital one, was about to be carried into effect. The upper one, forming a story above the ground, was provided as a place of detention for those convicted of minor offences, or who were only condemned to an ordinary term of imprisonment (custodia communis), in which the confinement was much less severe, the prisoners not being chained, nor excluded from the enjoyment of air and exercise. Thus we may understand with precision the sort of confinement to which Dolabella was subjected by Otho — neque arcta custodia, neque obscura (Tac. Hist. i. 88.); i. e. in the upper chamber of all, not in the close confinement of the carcer interior (the upper one in engraving), nor in the dark underground dungeon below. All these three divisions were apparent in the gaol of Herculaneum, when it was excavated; and the two lower ones still remain entire in the prisons constructed by Ancus and Servius, near the Roman Forum, a section of which (Carcer/1.1) is introduced above, showing their relative positions and plan of construction. The wall at the top, with the inscription, commemorating the person by whom it was repaired, faced the forum, and enclosed the upper story, now decayed.

2. The stalls in the Circus where the chariots were stationed before the commencement of a race, and to which they returned after its conclusion. (Ovid. Her. xviii. 166. Auct. ad Herenn. iv. 3.) These were vaults closed in front by large wooden gates, and usually twelve in number (Cassiodor. Var. Ep. iii. 51.), whence the word is mostly used in the plural (Cic. Brut. 47. Virg. G. i. 512.); one for each chariot, and situated at the flat end of the race course under the oppidum, six on each side of the porta pompae, through which the procession entered. Their relative position as regards the course is shown on the ground-plan of the CIRCUS (s. v.), on which they are marked A. A, and an elevation of four carceres, with their doors open (cancelli), is here given (Carcer/2.1), from a bas-relief in the British Museum.

• 
  Carcer/1.1
• 
  Carcer/2.1