Name given to the roman slave which penis was transfixed by a ring through the prepuce ( if he had
one ) or through the
shaft ( if circumcised ) to turn it improper to practice sex, in order to make him exclusively devoted to
work.
The two
naked circumcised roman slaves represented by the statues in the Louvre Museum, in
Paris, have their penises
bent double so that the head points towards the body. In the one on the left, the penis head lies on
top of the
shaft; in the other the penis head is on the left of the
shaft. Taking the one on the left first, the ring is clearly quite large, possible an inch in the original. The ring passes horizontally through the shaft of the penis, a little behind the glans. The other half of the ring is attached close to the trunk of the slave, and, judging from its position, passes horizontally either through the shaft at its point of attachment or through the suspensory ligament. In the second case, the ring is a little smaller. It has passed vertically through the shaft, again close behind the glans and a little to the side of the urethra and the other half also attached to the suspensory ligament, near the trunk.
