Carcer

(akin to arceo, i. e. an enclosure (Gr. ἕρκος ). (1) A prison. (2) The circus. At Rome the prisons were divided into three stages: the first, which formed a story above ground ( carcer superior ), was for prisoners who had only committed slight offences; the carcer interior, or stage on a level with the ground, served as a place of confinement in which criminals were placed to await the execution of their sentence; lastly there was the carcer inferior, or subterranean dungeon called robur, for criminals condemned to death. Fig. 137 represents the carcer built at Rome by Ancus Martius and Servius Tullius; Fig. 138 the car ceres of the circus. IMG:6949005855195395773_fig_138.jpg: Fig. 138. Car ceres. Stables in the circus at Rome.