Nelson Mandela said you can't truly know a nation until you've been inside its jails,

but today we're going beyond nations. We're going back through the centuries.

From unimaginably hellish prison pits to very literal suspended sentences,

wave by-bye to the free world as we step inside the worst prisons in all of history from ancient times to the day you're listening to be amazed Mamertine Prison

With society's pension Mamertine Prison

With society's pension for violence and war, pervasive slavery, and harsh punishments, life as a citizen in ancient Rome could be pretty grim.

But have you ever stopped to imagine just how horrible life as a prison inmate would have been under the Roman Empire?

Well, buckle up Centurion.

Known as Carcer in Latin, Mamertine prison was an ancient maximum security prison that dates back to as early as the 7th century BC.

Commissioned by the 4th King of Rome,

Ancus Marcius, between 640 and 616 BC,

Mamertine largely consisted of a network

of dank subterranean dungeons.

The lowest of these dungeons was known as the Tullianum,

which was located within the city's subterranean sewer system.

This truly hellish pit was only accessible via a small manhole in the upper south floor through which prisoners of the state were thrown to await their fate.

With the only way in and out just above arms reach for those thrown into the pit,

it's easy to imagine how torturous it must have been.

Long-term imprisonment wasn't a sentence under Roman law,

and any kind of incarceration was usually intended to be a temporary measure prior to trials and executions.

Even so, some very famous faces reportedly spent time in this hellhole.

Legend has it that Jesus' very own apostles, St. Peter and Paul, were both held in

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