Ancient Mediterranean IncarcerationA free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press’s Open Access publishing program. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more. This book examines spaces, practices, and ideologies of incarceration in the ancient Mediterranean basin from 300 BCE to 600 CE. Analyzing a wide range of sources—including legal texts, archaeological findings, documentary evidence, and visual materials—Matthew D. C. Larsen and Mark Letteney argue that prisons were integral to the social, political, and economic fabric of ancient societies. Ancient Mediterranean Incarceration traces a long history of carceral practices, considering ways in which the institution of prison has been fundamentally intertwined with issues of class, ethnicity, gender, and imperialism. By foregrounding the voices and experiences of the imprisoned, Larsen and Letteney demonstrate the extraordinary durability of carceral structures across time and call for a new historical consciousness around contemporary practices of incarceration. |
Contents
| 1 | |
Incarceration and the Law | 19 |
Spaces of Incarceration | 45 |
Cuicul civic prison complex | 53 |
Amphitheater of Carales with Gladiator Prison and Prison | 60 |
Late Roman prison at Corinth | 67 |
Sufetula proposed civic prison underneath the central temple | 79 |
Experiences of Incarceration | 91 |
Ancient Mediterranean Prison Societies | 123 |
Mosaic of the Captives | 137 |
Roman terracotta plaque | 145 |
Prison Management | 154 |
The Prisons Antiquity | 197 |
Acknowledgments | 203 |
Source Index | 221 |
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Common terms and phrases
accused Alba Fucens amphitheater ancient Mediterranean appears archaeological architecture archive argued arrest attested Bauschatz bodies Cair captives Carales carceral facilities carceral practices carceral spaces carceral system Cassius Dio cells century BCE chains chamber Christian civic basilica civic prison common condemned convicted crime Cuicul custody debt depicted discussed documentary sources documents early second century Egypt emperor enslaved evidence fourth century governor Hillner ideology imperial imprisonment incar incarceration inside instance jurists Kleon labor Lambaesis late antique late Roman legal sources letter Libanius limited-term literary sources Mediterranean basin mines Mosaic Nevertheless Oxyrhynchus papyrus Pavón Torrejón penal incarceration perhaps Perpetua and Felicity Pompeii prison guards Ptolemaic Egypt Ptolemaic period public prison punishment punitive purpose-built record release repurposed Roman period Rome Sarmizegetusa secure sentence Simitthus slaves social soldiers Sufetula suggests temple tion Tipasa transport treasury Tullian Prison Ulpian underground underneath visual sources Zeno