in the Tullianum before his baroque execution, which involved the Gemonian stairs, and the conflicting accounts of the end of Pleminius include a timely death in jail during trial. Some Gracchan sympathizers ended up in the Carcer, where the haruspex Herennius Siculus hit his head on an architrave and died before he could be executed. There is no evidence that the Tullianum was used for long-term incarceration, and the lowest dungeon was unsuited for the purpose; the level above, however, in theory might have been. In general, long-term incarceration was more widely practiced in the later Empire, and from the 4th century, under Christian rule, Roman laws and occasional personal intervention on the part of an emperor indicate a growing need to crack down on abuses such as filthy conditions and torture. In some cases, it is unclear whether a source using the word carcer means "the" Carcer, or imprisonment in some other facility. High-status prisoners, whether Roman or foreign, were typically held in the custody of individual Romans, sometimes at their homes or country estates. The line between being a war captive and a hostage lawfully held by treaty was thin, and conditions of captivity could vary widely, from abject misery and humiliation to relative luxury. As a prisoner of war, Perseus of Macedon was placed in a foul, overcrowded dungeon at Alba Fucens; the son of Tigranes was kept at a praetor's house in Rome, where he could be trotted out as a dinner-party guest. The Tullianum only rarely played a role in these detentions. Captured foreign rulers or generals were paraded in a Roman conqueror's triumph, and on a few occasions the "most prominent, famous, or dastardly" were executed afterward at the Tullianum. These were "strikingly few" in number, and included the Samnite Gaius Pontius, the Gaul Vercingetorix, some "Cilician" pirates, and the Galatian Adiatorix. Jugurtha, king of Numidia, may have been executed at the conclusion of Marius's triumph, or he may have died in prison several days afterward. Most high-status war captives were neither executed nor held for any substantial length of time in the Tullianum. Christian significance It is not known when the prison went out of service permanently, but the site has been used for Christian worship since medieval times, and is currently occupied by two superimposed churches: S. Giuseppe dei Falegnami (upper) and S. Pietro in Carcere (lower). The Cross on the altar