Mamertine Prison
The church of San Giuseppe dei Falegnami now stands
Prison of the Holy Apostles Peter & Paul (Mamertinum)
The Mamertine Prison in Rome, with an altar commemorating
the legendary tradition that Saints Peter and Paul were impris-
oned there
The Mamertine Prison (Italian Carcere Mamertino), in
antiquity the Tullianum, was a prison (carcer) located
in the Comitium in ancient Rome. It was located on the
northeastern slope of the Capitoline Hill, facing the Curia
and the imperial fora of Nerva, Vespasian, and Augustus.
Located between it and the Tabularium (record house)
was a flight of stairs leading to the Arx of the Capitoline
known as the Gemonian stairs.
1
above the Mamertine.[1]
1 Name and origin
The origins of the prison’s names are uncertain. The tra-
ditional derivation of “Tullianum” is from the name of
one of the Roman kings Tullus Hostilius or Servius Tul-
lius (the latter is found in Livy, Varro, and also Sallust);
there is an alternative theory that it is from the archaic
Latin tullius “a jet of water”, in reference to the cistern.
The name “Mamertine” is medieval in origin, and may be
a reference to a nearby temple of Mars.
According to tradition, the prison was constructed around
640–616 BC, by Ancus Marcius. It was originally created
as a cistern for a spring in the floor of the second lower
level. Prisoners were lowered through an opening into the
lower dungeon.
2 Use
Imprisonment was not a sentence under Roman statutory
law,[2] though detention is mentioned in the Twelve Ta-
bles and throughout the Digest.[3] “Detention,” however,
includes debt bondage in the early Republic;[4] the wear-
ing of chains (vincula publica), mainly for slaves; and dur-
ing the Imperial era a sentence of hard labor, as at the
mills, mines or quarries.[5] Slaves or lower-status citizens
sentenced to hard labor were held in prison camps.[6]
Incarceration (publica custodia) in facilities such as the
Tullianum was intended to be a temporary measure prior
to trial or execution; abuses of this principle occurred but
were officially censured.[7] Located near the law courts,
the Tullianum was used as a jail or holding cell for short
periods before executions and as a site for executions.
In 63 BC, certain co-conspirators of Catiline, including
Publius Cornelius Lentulus Sura, were held briefly in the
Tullianum and executed there for their alleged plot to
overthrow the government.[8] In this case, the executions
were conducted hastily, without due process of appeal,
during the consulship of Cicero, who was later exiled
for his actions.[9] Sejanus was held in the Tullianum be-
fore his baroque execution, which involved the Gemonian
stairs, and the conflicting accounts of the end of Plem-
inius include a timely death in jail during trial. Some
Gracchan sympathizers ended up in the Carcer, where the
2 4 PEOPLE IMPRISONED AT THE TULLIANUM

unfortunate haruspex Herennius Siculus hit his head on an It is not known when the prison went out of service per-
architrave and died before he could be executed.[10] manently, but the site has been used for Christian worship
There is no evidence that the Tullianum was used for since medieval times, and is currently occupied by two
long-term incarceration, and the lowest dungeon was un- superimposed churches: S. Giuseppe dei Falegnami (up-
suited for the purpose; the level above, however, in theory per) and S. Pietro in Carcere (lower). The Cross on the
might have been.[11] In general, long-term incarceration altar in the lower chapel is upside down, since according
was more widely practiced in the later Empire, and from to tradition Saint Peter was crucified that way. A tradition
the 4th century, under Christian rule, Roman laws and oc- has long held that St. Peter was imprisoned at the Tul-
lianum, and that the spring in the bottom of the pit came
casional personal intervention on the part of an emperor
indicate a growing need to crack down on abuses such as into existence miraculously to enable him to conduct bap-
tisms, but the Catholic Encyclopedia points out that the
filthy conditions and torture.[12]
spring had existed long before, and that there is no “reli-
In some cases, it is unclear whether a source using the able evidence” of St. Peter’s imprisonment there.[19]
word carcer means “the” Carcer, or imprisonment in
some other facility. High-status prisoners, whether Ro-
man or foreign, were typically held in the custody of indi- 4 People imprisoned at the Tul-
vidual Romans, sometimes at their homes or country es-
tates. The line between being a war captive and a hostage lianum
lawfully held by treaty was thin, and conditions of captiv-
ity could vary widely, from abject misery and humiliation
to relative luxury. As a prisoner of war, Perseus of Mace-
don was placed in a foul, overcrowded dungeon at Alba
Fucens;[13] the son of Tigranes was kept at a praetor's
house in Rome, where he could be trotted out as a dinner-
party guest.[14] The Tullianum only rarely played a role
in these detentions. Captured foreign rulers or generals
were paraded in a Roman conqueror’s triumph, and on a
few occasions the “most prominent, famous, or dastardly”
were executed afterward at the Tullianum.[15] These were
“strikingly few” in number, and included the Samnite
Gaius Pontius, the Gaul Vercingetorix, some “Cilician”
pirates, and the Galatian Adiatorix.[16] Jugurtha, king of
Numidia, may have been executed at the conclusion of
Marius's triumph, or he may have died in prison several
days afterward.[17] Most high-status war captives were
neither executed nor held for any substantial length of
time in the Tullianum.[18]

3 Christian significance

Gravestone in Mamertine Prison, with the names of illustrious

prisoners who were locked up, awaiting execution.

• Publius Cornelius Lentulus Sura, Catiline co-

The entrance to the prison records the tradition that Saint Peter
and Saint Paul were imprisoned there
conspirator. Executed with other conspirators.
• Herennius Siculus, Gracchan sympathizer, hit his
head on an architrave in his cell and died before he
could be executed.
• Quintus Pleminius, propraetor. Arrested then exiled
after fell from power.
• Gaius Pontius, leader of the Samnites during the
Second Samnite War. Arrested and executed.

• Vercingetorix, leader of the Gauls during the Gallic
War. Executed at Caesar’s Triumph in 46 BC.
• Adiatorix, tetrarch of Galatia. Imprisoned there for
having put all Roman colonists to death at Heracleia.
• Jugurtha, King of Numidia. Died of starvation there
in 104 BC.
• St. Paul.
• St. Peter, imprisoned there before being crucified.
According to legend performed baptisms in a spring [13] Peters, “Prison before the Prison,” p. 18.
at the bottom of the pit.[20]
• Sejanus, soldier and confidant of the Emperor
Tiberius. Fell from power, was imprisoned there
and then executed.
• Simon bar Giora, Jewish revolutionary leader. Cap-
tured in Judea and brought to Rome to be displayed
during the triumphal procession. Executed in 70
AD.
5 See also
• Lautumiae, quarries adjacent to or near the Tul-
lianum also used as dungeons [16] Beard, The Roman Triumph, pp. 129–130.
6 References
[1] David Watkin, The Roman Forum (Profile Books, 2009)
p. 128, ISBN 0-674-03341-8.
[2] Richard A. Bauman, Crime and Punishment in Ancient
Rome (Routledge, 1996), p. 23.
[3] Fergus Millar, “Condemnation to Hard Labour in the Ro-
man Empire, from the Julio-Claudians to Constantine,” in
Rome, the Greek World, and the East: Society and Culture
in the Roman Empire (University of North Carolina Press,
2004), vol. 2, p. 131.
[4] Edward M. Peters, “Prison before the Prison: The An-
cient and Medieval Worlds,” in The Oxford History of the
Prison: The Practice of Punishment in West Society (Ox-
ford University Press, 1995), p. 14.
[5] Millar, “Condemnation to Hard Labour,” pp. 123, 131 et
passim.
[6] Millar, “Condemnation to Hard Labour,” p. 122ff.
[7] Bauman, Crime and Punishment in Ancient Rome p. 23;
Millar, “Condemnation to Hard Labour,” p. 122 (“the
carcer was employed for the retention of prisoners await-
ing trial or punishment,” but “any tendency for it to be
used as a place of sentence was always resisted”) and p.
130.
[8] Watkin, The Roman Forum, p. 79.
3
[9] Bauman, Crime and Punishment in Ancient Rome, pp. 27–
38.
[10] Ann Thomas Wilkins, “Sallust’s Tullianum: Reality, De-
scription, and Beyond,” in Rome and Her Monuments:
Essays on the City and Literature of Rome in Honor
of Katherine A. Geffcken (Bolchazy-Carducci, 2000), p.
108.
[11] Peters, “Prison before the Prison,” p. 19.
[12] Peters, “Prison before the Prison,” pp. 19–22.
[14] W. Jeffrey Tatum, The Patrician Tribune: Publius Clodius
Pulcher (University of North Carolina Press, 1999), p.
170.
[15] The Roman triumph emphasized splendor and the nobility
and ethnicity of captives, sometimes in chains, sometimes
not: “The successful general accrues little glory for repre-
senting his victory as won by thrashing a mangy band of
feeble and unimpressive suppliants. The best conquests
are won against tough and worthy opponents, not against
those who look as though they could not have put up much
of a fight in the first place.” For an overview, see Mary
Beard, The Roman Triumph (Harvard University Press,
2007), chapter 4, “Captives on Parade,” pp. 107–142,
quotations on pp. 128 and 134.
[17] Beard, The Roman Triumph, p. 130.
[18] Beard, The Roman Triumph, pp. 128–131. Some were
released, either becoming part of Roman society or re-
turning home to rule as a Roman client. Others might
be kept in custody as they were before the triumph, that
is, not in the Tullianum or any other dungeon, but under
the close scrutiny of Roman officials and away from other
prisoners they might incite: Beard, The Roman Triumph,
pp. 134–137 et passim.
[19] Maurice Hassett, “Mamertine Prison,” in The Catholic
Encyclopedia (New York: Robert Appleton Company,
1910), vol. 9, New Advent edition online.
[20] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/7852507/
Archeologists-find-evidence-of-St-Peters-prison.html
7 Other sources
• Carcer ( Platner’s Topographical Dictionary of An-
cient Rome)
• Chapter Carcer in Hülsen’s Foro Romano
• Catholic Encyclopedia on the prison and related
Christian traditions
• Virtual tour to the prison and surroundings
Coordinates: 41°53′36″N 12°29′04″E / 41.89333°N
12.48444°E
4 8 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

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