ERGA´STULUM
ERGA´STULUM was a private prison attached to most
Roman farms, called
carcer rusticus by Juvenal
(14.24), where the inferior class of slaves were kept during the night in
chains. It appears to have been usually under ground, and according to
Columella (1.6, 3) ought to be lighted by narrow windows, which should be
too high from the ground to be touched by the hand. The slaves confined in
an ergastulum were usually employed to cultivate the fields in chains.
(
Plin. Nat. 18.21;
Flor. 3.20,
6.) Slaves
who had displeased their masters were punished by imprisonment in the
ergastulum; and in the same place all slaves who could not be depended upon
or were barbarous in their habits were regularly kept. A trustworthy slave
had the care of the ergastulum, and was therefore called
ergastularius. (
Col. 1.8,
7;
Amm. Marc. 14.11.)
According to Plutarch (
Plut. TG 8), these
prisons arose in consequence of the conquest of Italy by the Romans, and the
great number of barbarous slaves who were employed to cultivate the
conquered lands. In the time of Hadrian and Antoninus, many enactments were
made to ameliorate the condition of slaves; and among other measures,
Hadrian attempted to abolish the ergastula, but they were never entirely
suppressed. They are mentioned by Apuleius,
de Mag. c.
xlvii., where fifteen is given as the minimum number of imprisoned slaves,
which constituted an ergastulum. Sometimes the word is used for the body of
slaves confined in such a barracoon. (Spart.
Hadrian, 18,
compared with Gaius, 1.53.) For further information on the subject, see
Brissonius,
Antiq. Select. 2.9; Lipsius,
Elect. 2.15, Opera, vol. i. p. 317, &c.; Mayor's
notes on Juvenal, 8.180, 14.24.
[
W.S] [
A.S.W]
