PREFACE.

THE Walls and Gates of Rome are always considered as among the most interesting remains of antiquity that have been preserved to our time. Notwithstanding the numerous vicissitudes through which they have passed during so many centuries, the sieges they have sustained,—the demolition ordered by the Goths in the fifth century, and begun, but only very partially carried out,—and the numerous repairs by successive Popes, each in the bad style of his period, together with the recent so-called restorations, we still have many parts remaining of the time of the early Empire, including several miles of the great wall of Aurelian, of the third century, and the gateway fortresses added by Stilicho, under Honorius, and repaired by Theodoric after the lapse of another century and the damages done by the Goths.

We have also some of the gateways of an earlier period (built upon the old earthworks), from the first century downwards, and other buildings which, standing on that outer bank, were incorporated in the great wall of Aurelian, on the extension of the boundary of the City beyond the inner works of Servius Tullius, to which it had been limited for several centuries. The Prætorian Camp and the Sessorium are the two most important ancient works included in this wall; but there are others also:-the Lateran Palace, with its gate; the Aqueducts for the space of a mile, from the Palace gardens of the Sessorium, where the water entered Rome, to the Prætorian Camp, passing over the two great eastern gates,-first, the Porta Maggiore, sometimes called the Porta Sessoriana, as well as Prænestina by those going to Præneste, Labicana by those going to Labicum, and Esquilina by those entering Rome through this gate. into the Exquiliæ, long the public burial ground, and thence onwards to the Esquiline Hill. Near the Porta di S. Lorenzo is the outer

wall of a fine reservoir of the second century, made for the Aqua Tepula, as rebuilt by Trajan: the remarkable feature in this wall is the series of marble corbels still remaining intact, which have carried a hourd (or wooden balcony). The specus or conduit of the Tepula, with its triangular head, is visible at an angle in the wall, where it entered into this great reservoir.

The Porta di S. Lorenzo was one of the gates leading to Tibur, or Tivoli, and was called the Porta Tiburtina by persons going there; but it was also called Porta Viminalis by persons entering Rome, and going through this gate to the Viminal Hill, as we are told by Frontinus, writing in the first century. The inscription of the time of Augustus, remaining on the face of the conduit over that gate, identifies it as the gate intended by him. That now called the Porta Chiusa, or the closed gate, at the south-western corner of the Prætorian Camp, was so called because people could not agree in the name of it when the gates were named in modern times. The exterior of this gateway is of the time of Honorius, but the interior is much earlier. There is no doubt that one of the roads to Tivoli went through this gate, and it was the most direct line; the old road, called Via Cupa, is very near to this at the further corner of the Prætorian Camp ;. it is a very ancient way, cut out of the solid rock of tufa for about half-a-mile; but from its depth and narrowness it was not convenient for carriages, and a new one was made from the Porta di S. Lorenzo to the church of the same name, upon a bank made across the great ancient foss of the City. This can still be seen to be the case from the vineyards, but the walls on each side conceal the fact from persons going along it; the old and the new roads met at the church. The proper name for the Porta Chiusa must be Porta Tiburtina, and the other gate is properly called after S. Lorenzo, as leading direct to that great church and burial-ground.

Near the Porta di S. Lorenzo, and close to the great reservoir of the Tepula before mentioned, is a square gate in the wall long closed; it was probably there before the time of Aurelian, and was closed at the time that wall was built. The old road from Præneste is believed to have passed through that gate, as it runs in a straight line.

towards it as far as the edge of the great external foss; but the part nearest Rome is closed for about two miles, and is accessible on foot or on horseback only. Another ancient gate, the Porta Ardeatina, leading to Ardea, was probably closed at the same time; the construction of its arch and piers is clearly of the time of Nero, the best period of brickwork; and the old way from that gate for half-a-mile out of Rome can be traced in the vineyards as far as the chapel called "Domine quo vadis," and the tomb of Priscilla opposite to it, with a round tower of the Medieval period built upon it. This is just the corner of the Via Ardeatina, at its junction with the Via Appia, and it is evident that the Via Ardeatina is older than the Via Appia, as the latter is made to deviate to the east, to allow space for the tombs on each side.

The usual manner of seeing the walls and gates is to take a drive along the outside of the walls on the eastern side of Rome, from the Porta del Popolo near the Tiber on the north, to the Porta di S. Paolo and Monte Testaccio near the Tiber again on the south, and this is a most interesting drive (or walk, for good walkers). This is the line described in the fourth section of this chapter, the description of the circuit of the walls, in which we have followed the Itinerary of Einsiedlen. We have endeavoured to shew what still remains of the objects described in that minute account of the ninth century. The writer begins with a part of the wall along the bank of the Tiber on the west side of Rome, which is now either entirely destroyed, or what does remain is no longer visible, owing to the space being occupied by modern Rome, but when the water is low in the river the lower part of several towers can be seen. He also crosses the Tiber and gives an account of the wall in the Trastevere on the Janiculum, but not of the Leonine City, as he wrote before the time of Pope Leo, who founded it. He does, however, include the Hadrianum, the fortress to defend the gate of S. Peter, now the castle of S. Angelo. It is probable that the Mausoleum of Hadrian was always intended to be the centre of a great fortress, to defend a weak side of Rome, as, near this bend of the

So called, because the manuscript ginning of the ninth century, was found of the ancient Itinerary, of the be- in the convent library there.

river there is a ford when the water is low; there appears, indeed, to be no other motive for making a road for animals to the top of the Mausoleum within the original outer wall of this tomb.

Our description begins, therefore, at the Porta del Popolo, near the Tiber on the north, and is continued to the Porta di S. Paolo, near the Tiber again on the south. There is reason to believe that the celebrated Muro Torto was part of the foundations of the palace of Sylla the dictator, which occupied all that portion of the Pincian Hill, as far as the Villa Medici, now the French Academy, and the angle of the wall beyond it. Some think this was the Villa of the Domitii. The Porta Pinciana is one of the old gateway fortresses little altered, having long been closed. The Porta Salaria has been entirely destroyed in 1871; the remains of it were, however, in a bad state, and it did not differ from the other gateways of the same period, of which several remain. These were built by Stilicho, under the Emperor Honorius, A.D. 403, and several of them were repaired and restored by King Theodoric about the year 500, as appears from his letters preserved by Cassiodorus. The most perfect of these gateway fortresses is the Porta Ostiensis, or di S. Paolo, where we have the two inner gates of the time of Claudius, the outer gateway with its towers, and the barbican of the time of Theodoric. The modern Porta Pia takes the place of the old Porta Nomentana, which is almost destroyed. This is near the Prætorian Camp, the northern wall of which is original, of the time of Tiberius, and very interesting. At the foot of the wall is an aqueduct, a branch of the Anio Vetus, faced with opus reticulatum of an early character; it was evidently made upon the old earthwork before the fine brick wall of Tiberius was built upon it. In the upper part of the same wall are remains of a hourd, but the marble corbels to carry this wooden balcony have been chopped off to obtain the marble, probably to burn it into lime. The east and south walls of the Prætorian Camp were rebuilt after it had been demolished by Constantine, and part of it after it had again been destroyed by the Goths. The interior of the ancient wall, with the sleeping-places for the guards in it, and other portions of this inner side, are more interesting than the outer facing.