This undergraduate lecture course traces the long history of an institution typically thought to be thoroughly modern: the prison. Beginning in the 24^th century BCE and continuing through the present day, we will investigate the various forms of coercive control and the different ideals that these practices express, paying special attention to the implementation of carceral reform by Christians in Late Antiquity and the variety of relationships between religious communities, theological ideals, and carceral regimes. Perhaps the only truly novel aspect of the contemporary prison is its putative separation from explicitly religious ideals about social order. In other words, the history of incarceration is in some ways the history of coercive implementation of theological concepts. Students will learn to integrate literary, documentary, material, and visual evidence into a composite picture of the ancient precursors to our modern carceral state.