Note 1359 — AGE OF THE FLAVIAN AND ANTONINE EMPERORS (continued 2)
Reading edition
Apol 47 XV liberi homines populus est, totidem servi familia, totidem vincti ergastulum. See Norden p 87. ergastulum = the inmates of a lock-up, regarded as a body. See quotations from Columella p 263 and Pliny p 285, Mayor on Juvenal XIV 24, and cf Lucan II 95. So operae is used = ‘hands.’