The name of this prison is derived by some from a temple of Mars, by others from the name of the king Ancus Martius. According to Festus, Mars was sometimes called Mamers, Mamertes, or Mamertus.. It was originally built by King Ancus Martius, as stated by Livy, and enlarged by Servius Tullius, who added what was called the Robur Tullianum, the underground chambers for the more dangerous malefactors, as mentioned by Lucretius, and Varro, and Festus '. These underground chambers were also called Latomiæ or Lautumia; the latter is only an old mode of spelling the same word, which signifies stone quarries, and it is probable that these chambers after a short time Signor Gori and his friend Signor de Mauro, the engineer who assisted him, succeeded in getting the obstruction removed from the old drain under the passage, and the opening was closed by an iron door to keep out the smell. The British Archæological Society of Rome had thus done as much as they could afford, and sufficient for the strictly archæological purpose of indicating what was there and what might be done. "Mamercus prænomen Oscum est ab eo, quod hi Martem Mamertem appellant.' (Festus in v., p. 130, edit. Mueller.) "Tullianum, quod dicitur pars quædam carceris, Ser. Tullium regem ædificasse aiunt." (Festus, p. 356.) Robur quoque in carcere dicitur in locus, quo præcipitatur maleficorum genus, quod ante arcis robusteis includebatur." (Festus, p. 264.) "Curia locus est, ubi publicas curas gerebant... iisque curiis singulis nomina Curiarum virginum imposita esse dicuntur, quas virgines quondam Romani de Sabinis rapuerunt." (Festus in v., p. 49.) This mention of the rape of the Sabine women in connection with this curia, or law court, seems to agree remarkably with the first curia having been in the Capitolium, the great public building erected for the united city immediately after that event, or perhaps over these subterranean chambers of the prison. e Verbera, carnifices, robur, pix, lammina, tædæ." (Lucretius, lib. iii. 1016, 17.) "Carcer a coercendo, quod exire prohibentur. In hoc pars quæ sub terra, Tullianum, ideo quod additum a Tullio rege. Quod Syracusis, ubi (simili) de causa custodiuntur vocantur Latomiæ, et de Lautumia translatum, quod hic quoque in eo loco lapidicinæ fuerunt." (Ter. Varro de Lingua Lat., v. 32.) f Festus in v. Tullianum et Robur. "Per eosdem dies principes tolorum tres et quadraginta, inter quos Damocritus et frater ejus erant, ab duabus cohortibus missis a M. Acilio, Romam deducti, et in Lautumias conjecti sunt." (Livii Hist., iv. xxxvii. 3.) were "About this time forty-three of the principal Ætolians, among whom were Damocritus and his brother, brought to Rome by two cohorts, sent by Manius Acilius, and were thrown into the prison called Lautumiæ, or the quarry. (Livy, bk. xxxvii. c. iii.) "Lentulus, who had been consul, and was then in his second prætorship, Cethegus, and several others of great note, were, by the consul's order, under the authority of the senate, put to death in prison." (Velleius Paterculus, bk. ii. c. xxxiv.) were made originally in the old quarries of the tufa, which had been dug out of the hill to build the walls. These were the "condemned cells" of the prison, that is, the cells for those condemned to death, as in a modern prison. Perhaps a better idea of the importance of this prison will be obtained by mentioning a few of the more celebrated persons who have been confined in it. The first whom we find mentioned by Livy is Manlius (A.U.C. 370, B.C. 382), who had defended the Capitol against the Gauls, but had afterwards been accused of sedition, and was then confined in this prison until he was ultimately condemned, and cast from the Tarpeian rock, then the usual place of public execution. This place was probably near the western corner of the rock, so that the bodies might be thrown out of the city into the great foss, and near to the Tiber. The foss being 20 ft. deep in addition to the height of the rock itself, made the fall more certain to produce instant death. This ancient foss surrounded the Capitoline Hill on all sides, when it was a separate fortress called the Hill of Saturn. In the year of Rome 558, or B.C. 194, Quintus Pleminius, who had been committed to prison for many offences against the laws, endeavoured to set the city on fire in several places, in order that in the confusion he might escape. He was detected and convicted, and ordered to be confined in the lowest prison, or Robur Tullianum, and executed. Appian relates that the Conspirators, with Gracchus and Fulvius, were confined in this prison by order of the Consul Opimius. Sallust also states that several of the Conspirators, with Catiline (B.C. 55), were imprisoned by order of Cicero, and were strangled "in Carcere Tulliano." "When the senate, as I have stated, had gone over to the opinion of Cato, the consul, thinking it best not to wait till night, which was coming on, lest any new attempts should be made during the interval, ordered the triumvirs to make such preparations as the execution of the conspirators required. He himself, having posted the necessary guards, conducted Lentulus to the prison; and the same office was performed for the rest by the prætors. "There is a place in the prison, which is called the Tullian dungeon, and which, after a slight ascent to the left, is sunk about twelve feet under ground. Walls secure it on every side, and over it is a vaulted roof connected with stone arches; but its appearance is disgusting and horrible, by reason of the filth, darkness, and stench. When Lentulus had been let down into this place, certain "On Manlius being thrown into prison, it appears that a great part of the commons put on mourning, and that great numbers of the people, neg lecting their hair and beard, dejectedly flocked about its gates." (Baker's Livy, bk. vi. c. xvi. p. 223.) men, to whom orders had been given, strangled him with a cord. Thus this patrician, who was of the illustrious family of the Cornelii, and who had filled the office of consul at Rome, met with an end suited to his character and conduct. On Cethegus, Statilius, Gabinius, and Cœparius, punishment was inflicted in a similar manner i." Sifax, king of Numidia, was imprisoned here at the time of the triumph of Scipio Africanus. Perseus, king of Macedonia, by Paulus Æmilius. Jugurtha, king of Numidia, and forty-three Ætolian princes were imprisoned here at the same time, as stated by Livy, after the conquest of their country by Scipio Africanus, about two centuries before the Christian era. According to Plutarch, Vercingetorix, chief of the Gauls, was first thrown into a bath of icy coldness, and then starved to death in this prison, in the time of Julius Cæsar; and Simon, a captain of the Jews, was put to death here after having been exhibited in the triumph of Vespasian and Titus, as we are told by Josephus. Valerius Maximus also relates that the body of Q. Cæpio, torn by the hands of the executioners, was exhibited on the steps, to the horror of the people in the Forum Romanum. Under the tyrant Tiberius, two of the principal officers of the Empire, Sabinus and Sejanus, were confined and executed here under circumstances of atrocity. They were beheaded, and their bodies exposed on the Gemonian steps, or steps of horror, which could only be the steps leading from the i c Postquam, ut dixi, senatus in Catonis sententiam discessit, consul, optumum factu ratus noctem quæ instabat antecapere ne quid eo spatio novaretur, tresviros quæ ad subplicium postulabat parare jubet : ipse præsidiis dispositis Lentulum in carcerem deducit: idem fit ceteris per prætores. Est in carcere locus, quod Tullianum adpellatur, ubi paululum ascenderis ad lævam, circiter duodecim pedes humi depressus. Eum muniunt undique parietes atque insuper camera lapideis fornicibus juncta, sed incultu tenebris odore fœda atque terribilis ejus facies est. In eum locum postquam demissus est Lentulus, (vindices rerum capitolium) quibus præceptum erat laqueo gulam fregere. Ita ille patricius ex gente clarissuma Corneliorum, qui consulare imperium Romæ habuerat, dignum moribus factisque suis exitium vitæ invenit. De Cethego Statilio, Gabinio, Cæpario eodem modo subplicium sumptum est. (Gai Sallustii Crispi, De Catilinæ conjuratione, c. 55.) "The conclusion of the Jugurthine War is quite as abrupt as that of the Conspiracy of Catiline. Jugurtha, being conveyed to Rome, was led in triumph, with his two sons, by Marius. But the humiliation which he experienced on that occasion, was more than his haughty spirit could endure, and he lost his senses before the termination of the procession. He was then led to the Tullian dungeon, the same into which the accomplices of Catiline were afterwards thrown, and precipitated, with great ignominy and violence, to the bottom of it. In his descent, he is said to have exclaimed, 'Heavens, how cold is this bath of yours!' He survived, according to Plutarch and others, six days. See Plutarch's Life of Marius. Eutrop. iv. II seq. Eutropius, however, says that he was strangled in prison." Watson's Sallust, Lond. 1861, p. 214. c. 5. c. 9. Josephus de Bello Judaico, lib. vii. Valerius Maximus, Epist., lib. vi. Curia or Senaculum, the highest law-court, to the great public prison". We are expressly told that the conspirators were condemned by the Senate assembled in the Temple of Concord, which has been shewn to have been the entrance to the Senate-house behind it, the passage leading under the platform on which that temple stood, and the decrees of the Senate were publicly announced from the steps of this temple. The Emperor Vitellius was confined here by his rebellious soldiers, and beheaded on the Gemonian steps. "Dio Cassius relates, that Sejanus, after sacrificing in the Capitolium, wished to descend into the Forum; his attendants found that they could not pass by the usual way on account of the crowd, and therefore turned by the way that leads to the prison, and so descended by the Gemonian steps." That is, instead of passing by the usual way that descends on the western and southern sides of the great public building that contains the Tabularium and other offices, they were obliged to pass on the northern and eastern sides of it, and descend by the steps towards the prison. These are only a few instances out of many in which this celebrated prison is mentioned. Soon after that period the prison was repeatedly filled with the Christians who refused to obey the laws imposed by the Pagan priesthood; many of them afterwards were martyrs, including SS. Peter and Paul, according to the legends of the Church, although we have no contemporary evidence of the history of these martyrs. The latest historical mention of this prison that we have met with is in A.D. 368, when a malefactor called Doriforianus, who had been imprisoned here, was taken out of the prison by order of the emperor, and tormented to death outside of the city. We are expressly told by Juvenal, that this was the only prison in Rome. Livy also says that robbers and other malefactors were confined here. It is evident also from the Digest of the Laws of the Empire, that this prison was by no means used for political offenders only. It is obvious therefore that it must have been a large prison, very much larger than the two small chambers exhibited as the prison of S. Peter. The following Christian martyrs are mentioned in the legends of the Church as having been confined in this prison :--SS. Peter and Paul; Processus and Martinianus, keepers of the prison, baptized Dion Cassius, lib. lvii. c. xi. ; called also Gradus Gemonii by Pliny, Nat. Hist., lviii. c. 40; Scale Gemoniæ by Valerius Maximus, l. vi. 3, 3; Gemoniæ only by Suetonius and Tiberius, 61, and P Cassio Dionis Hist., lib. lviii. c. 5. by S. Peter, with forty-seven prisoners; Palmatius, the consul, imprisoned by Alexander Severus, because he had become a Christian; Pope Sixtus II.; the deacons Felicissimus, Agapitus, Marcellus, Abondantius, and Sisinnius; Lorenzo, or Laurentius, the acolyte; the priests Eusebius, and Abondius; also Maximus, Hippolytus, Geminianus, Hadria, Paulina, Neo, Maria, Ciriacus, Largus, Smaragdus, and Crescentianus, with their wives Daria and Crisanta, the widow Lucia, and many other martyrs 9. In the Acts of the Martyrs, given by Surius for October 25, Daria and Crisanto are said to have been cast into this prison, of which an appalling account is given. They were first thrown into one part of it, and then, by order of the Emperor Numerianus, cast into the still lower and more filthy one called the Tullianum, where the stench was intolerable. We have ascertained that the lower end of both the passage and the drain under it terminate in a branch of the Cloaca Maxima. The upper end of it was cleared out to the length of a hundred and twenty yards, passing between the two parts of the prison, with openings at intervals both to the right and left, which were in all probability to communicate with different chambers of the prison. The passage from the "Prison of S. Peter" crosses this at right angles, and at rather a lower level, with a step up into the main passage, but also continuing beyond it in the direction of the Forum S. Augustus, but it was too much obstructed in this direction to be explored any further. The main line of the passage or tunnel also continues further than we were able to excavate it, under the Via "Iratus igitur Polemius pater Chrysantum in obscuro foedoque carcere includendum curavit, et paucissimo cibo vesperi tantum nutriendum In terea (Numerianus imperator) jussit infernali retineri custodia, ut simul cum Daria variis cruciatibus afficeretur. Conjectus est igitur in Carcerem Tullianum profundissimum ac teterrimum atque foedissimum. . . Erat igitur ima custodia in Carcere Tulliano, unde putor horribilis adscendebat, quia cloacarum cuniculis digesta domorum stercora illic jugiter decurrebant: et in hoc decursorio, ut diximus, erat ima et lutea et ita tenebrosa custodia, ut penitus lucifluus aer nec signum ibi diei nec vestigium aliquod lucis ostenderet." "Prothasi vade in carcerem Capitolii, et purifica eos. . . et omnia fundamenta carceris commota sunt, et fons aquæ invndavit." "Traditur Lucia in carcerem detrusa, et ex ejus fundamentis fluvio exundante, mediam Urbem interiisse, domum vero Diocletiani a fundamentis avulsam." (Anastasius. ) "At vero bb. apostoli (Petrus et Paulus) oraverunt Deum, orationeque expleta, b. Petrus in Monte Tarpeio signum crucis expressit in eadem custodia, atque eadem hora emanarunt aquæ a monte, baptizatique sunt Processus et Martinianus a b. Petro Apostolo. Hoc ut viderunt cuncti qui erant in custodia, prostraverunt se ad pedes b. Petri apostoli, et baptizati sunt promiscui sexus et diversæ ætatis numero quadraginta septem. Obtulit autem pro eis sacrificium laudis." (V. Surium in T. I. Julii Boll., p. 303.) Respecting these Acts of the Martyrs, various observations are made by Papebrochio, Cancellieri, and Tillemont. |