Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Tullianum

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Rich, Anthony (1849). The illustrated companion to the Latin dictionary, and Greek lexicon. p. vi. OCLC 894670115. https://archive.org/details/illustratedcompa00rich. 

TULLIA'NUM. An underground dungeon belonging to the state-prisons at Rome; so termed after the name of Servius Tullius, by whose orders it was made. (Sall. Cat. 58. Varro, L. L. v. 151. Liv. xxix. 22. xxxiv. 44. Festus, s. v.) The Tullianum is still in existence, retaining all the features minutely described by Sallust, and is exhibited by the annexed engraving (Tullianum/1.1). It consists of an elliptical chamber, nineteen feet by nine, and six and half high; but the original height may have been greater, as the present pavement is modern. The masonry is rude, but the blocks are large, and the roof possesses a slight curve. The only entrance to it is through a square opening of three feet five inches by three feet four, formed in the roof of the dungeon, which also serves as the flooring to another cell immediately over-head (see the wood-cut s. CARCER, 1.); whence the expression in Tullianum demittere. (Sall. Cat. 55.)

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