ergastulum

Latin

Etymology

Probably from Ancient Greek ἐργαστήριον (ergastḗrion, “workshop”), from ἐργαστής (ergastḗs, “worker, employee”), from ἐργάζομαι (ergázomai, “to work, do labor”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ɛrˈɡas.tʊ.ɫũː]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [erˈɡas.tu.lum]

Noun

ergastulum n (genitive ergastulī); second declension

1. penitentiary, workhouse (or its residents)
   • 158 CE – 159 CE, Apuleius, Apologia sive pro se de magia 47 (nominative):

     XV līberī hominēs populus est, totidem servī familia, totidem vīnctī ergastulum.

     Fifteen free men are a people, as many slaves are a household, as many shackled men are a chain-gang.

2. slave prison
   • 27 BCE – 25 BCE, Titus Livius, Ab urbe condita 2.23.6 (accusative, one other accusative occurrence in Livy):

     id cumulātum ūsūrīs prīmō sē agrō paternō avītōque exuisse, deinde fortūnīs aliīs; postrēmō velut tābem pervēnisse ad corpus; ductum sē ab crēditōre nōn in servitium, sed in ergastulum et carnificīnam esse.

     He had first paid off the accumulated interest from his father's and grandfather's farm, then from other assets; finally, it had reached the very substance of his body, and he was led by the creditor not into servitude, but into a prison and a place of torture.

   • c. 4 BCE – 65 CE, Seneca Minor, De Ira 5.15.3 (nominative):

     nōn cōnsōlābimur tam trīste ergastulum, nōn adhortābimur ferre imperia carnificum; ostendēmus in omnī servitūte apertam lībertātī viam.

     We will not be consoled by such a gloomy prison, nor will we be urged to bear the orders of executioners; we will show in every servitude an open path to freedom.

   • c. 27 CE – 66 CE, Petronius, Satyricon 105.11 (nominative):

     Tryphaena lacrimās effūdit dēcepta suppliciō—vēra enim stigmata crēdēbat captīvōrum frontibus impressā—scīscitārīque submissius coepit, quod ergastulum intercēpisset errantēs, aut cujus tam crūdēlēs manūs in hōc supplicium dūrāssent.

     Tryphaena shed tears, deceived by the punishment—for she truly believed the marks to be imprinted on the captives' foreheads—and she began to ask more submissively what prison had intercepted the wanderers, or whose hands had grown so cruel in inflicting this punishment.

   • c. 35 CE – 100 CE, Quintilianus, Declamationes maiores 9.21 (nominative):

     in lūdō fuī, quā poenā nūllam ulteriōrem scelera nōvērunt, cujus ad comparātiōnem ergastulum leve est.

     I have been in a gladiatorial school, a punishment beyond which crimes know no further extreme, and in comparison to which a slave-prison is a light matter.

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

	singular	plural
nominative	ergastulum	ergastula
genitive	ergastulī	ergastulōrum
dative	ergastulō	ergastulīs
accusative	ergastulum	ergastula
ablative	ergastulō	ergastulīs
vocative	ergastulum	ergastula

Related terms

• ergastulāris (adjective)
• ergastulārius m (adjective; “ergastulum overseer”, noun)

Descendants

• Italian: ergastolo
• Portuguese: ergástulo
• Sicilian: ergàstulu
• Spanish: ergástulo

References

• “ergastulum”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “ergastulum”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• "ergastulum", in Charles du Fresne du Cange, Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• “ergastulum”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “ergastulum”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper’s Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “ergastulum”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin