APPENDIX TO CHAPTER II., SECTION IV.

NAMES OF THE GATES.

THE names of the gates are very puzzling to those who have not studied the subject. The same name is often given to two gates, and the same gate is called by different names according to circumstances, but the matter is very simple when once properly explained and understood. Each gate must be considered with reference to the road for which it was made. Every town, and every pagus or fortified village, on the hills round Rome, had its own road direct to the City. This road was intended for horses and cattle only, not for carriages; it therefore was made in a straight line over hill and dale, and across the great trenches or fosses round the City, whether of the outer mania or of the inner wall. Each road passed across these either in a straight line, or obliquely, as convenient. The road was directed to the gate in the inner wall of the City, the wall commonly called the Wall of Servius Tullius, who completed the fortifications of the City, when the seven separate fortresses were combined into one City. These roads had previously to pass across the outer vallum, or agger, or bank, which, with the trench on each side of it, was called the mania, and gates had to be provided in this bank for them to pass through. Two or three of these roads usually met at one of the gates of the City, but in the outer wall there was often only a postern provided for it. The use of carriages on four wheels was not permitted within the walls of Rome in the time of the Republic, but the carts on two wheels must have been used to carry salt from the salt-wharf to the town or village from which they came, and to bring the puzzolana sand in exchange for it (such having been the trade at a very early period). We know also that the triumphal cars went through the principal streets. Nevertheless there were no carriage roads until the time of the Empire; these were made chiefly in the second and third centuries, originally at the low level of the bottom of the trenches, and the foss-ways in the Campagna, many of which can still be seen by the side of the present roads, still remaining in a trench, and still often used for cattle. Postern-gates were made through the wall of Aurelian in many places for these roads, and may be seen in the walls, though they have been built up for many centuries, probably when the gateway fortresses were made, in the time of Honorius, about the year 400. At that time two or three

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of these old bridle-roads were made into one carriage-road on the higher level, that is, on the natural level of the ground. In some instances this was not done until a much later period, as at the Porta S. Giovanni, the road on the high level was not made until the seventeenth century, when that gate was made. The new road from it was carried upon an embankment across the valley (here used as the great outer foss of the Empire), in an oblique direction for about half-a-mile, when it joined the old road on the outer bank of this valley. The old road at the bottom of the valley that passed through the Porta Asinaria, and was called the Via Asinaria, still remains in use as a cart-road, and a continuation of it runs between the Via Appia Antiqua and the Via Appia Nova, as far as the Via Latina, and beyond that for some miles as a farmer's road only.

The Porta Maggiore, which is the principal gate on the eastern side of Rome, is called by several names. The original name was probably Porta Sessorii, for it was the principal entrance to the Sessorium, the great fortified palace of the later kings, and this name would be used by persons going there. It was also called Porta Labicana by the natives of Labicum going along that road to their home, and Porta Prænestina by those of Præneste, who went along the other road that passed through this gate, thus passing either along the Via Collatina, the road through Collatia, or the Via Gabina or road to Gabii. Præneste was the more important town, and therefore gave its name to the gate. It is probable that the original carriage-road passed over the Ponte di Nona, a very ancient bridge, at the ninth mile on this road, after which one road goes to the right through Gabii, and the other to the left direct to Præneste. Frontinus, in describing the Aqua Appia, gives the name of Via Prænestina to the Via Collatina; it was therefore considered in his time as the direct road to Præneste, but the road through Gabii is not much longer, and was afterwards used for the carriage-road. The two carriage-roads, Labicana and Prænestina, passed through the Porta Maggiore side by side, but through different arches of the aqueduct, and immediately diverge. The Baker's tomb is built between them, close to the gate. Frontinus also calls this gate Porta Esquilina, which was natural in speaking of the Aqueducts, which entered Rome at that gate, passing immediately through the Exquiliæ, the great burial-place in the time of the Republic. Persons entering by this gate would also go direct through the Porta Esquilina of the inner line to the Esquiline Hill. We still see the three conduits called specus of the Marcia, Tepula, and Julia, carried on one arcade, one arch of which remains on the inside of

the wall, and the section of the three specus is very distinct, carried upon the stone pier of this arch, which is incorporated in the wall, with remains of the Aqua Claudia passing over it at a right angle. The Marcia passes under some high ground along the bank on which the wall stands. Part of this was visible in 1871 in the excavations made near the Minerva Medica. After passing under some higher ground, half way between the two gates it again emerges, and is carried on another stone arcade of the same character to the Porta S. Lorenzo, called by Frontinus the Porta Viminalis, because persons entering by that gate passed immediately through the valley of the Viminal to the Porta Viminalis in the inner line upon the Viminal Hill, which was destroyed in making the railway station. This was the gate in the middle of the great agger of Servius Tullius, and the three aqueducts of the Marcian arcade probably passed over that gate. Two cippi with inscriptions upon them, recording that the three aqueducts passed there, were found in the excavations in 1870. These cippi were placed one on either side of the specus of an aqueduct; the upper one of the three was then also thrown open by removing the vault.

At the present time, all the gates on the north side of the Leonine City are in pairs, one in the inner wall, the other in the outer one, and both are called by the same name. This is only a continuation of the old custom of Rome.

THE PORTA AURELIA, AND HADRIANUM, (p. 98).

THE Porta Aurelia was at the entrance into Rome of the Via Aurelia, this then passed through the Hadrianum, which was a fortress to protect that bend of the river, which would otherwise have been a weak point, as the river there is fordable when the water is low, as it is at some seasons of the year. The mausoleum of Hadrian appears to have been always intended to have formed the keep of a fortress, as there is a winding passage for horses or mules up to the top, made in the thickness of the wall when it was built, which could not have been required for a tomb only. The mausoleum was surrounded by an outer wall with towers in it, and the whole fortress was called the Hadrianum; it served as a tetê du pont for the bridges. When the Pons Ælius was built, which was at the same time as the tomb, it is probable that it became the Pons Triumphalis; or there may have been two bridges, one at each end of the fortress, with the walls carried upon them across the

river, and meeting in one gate on the south side. There are reImains of the bridge at the bend of the river, opposite to the modern hospital of S. Spirito. In the same manner another fortress included the island in the river, the walls being carried across the bridges. The name of gate of S. Peter was probably given both to the gate from the Hadrianum to S. Peter's Church in the Vatican, with a porticus or covered way from one to the other, and to the entrance to the Hadrianum on the other side of the river. In all the gates of the Leonine City the same name appears to have been given both to the inner and the outer gates. But all these arrangements belong to a later period than the time of Pliny.

Such a gatehouse or gateway-fortress as still remains perfect at the Porta Ostiensis of the time of Claudius, restored by Theodoric, would require nearly all the space between the two bridges. The remains of an early gate at Pæstum shew two roads forking off immediately outside the gate, and each passing upon a bridge over the Euripus at a short distance from it. The Porta Flumentalis in Rome was probably on the same plan. The branch of the Via Aurelia which passed through the Hadrianum fortress was also called Via Cornelia, and the gate was called Porta Aurelia.

PORTA FLAMINIA, (p. 101). TOMB OF NERO.

A CURIOUS account of the foundation of the church of S. Maria del Popolo at this gate is given in the work of Jacobus de Albericis, Prior of the small Cluniac monastery attached to it". From this it is clear that Paschal II. built this church to allay the superstitious fears of the people, on the site of what was then believed to have been the burying-place of Nero, under a walnut-tree,—

"of which a crowd of devils and a number of infernal spirits had charge, (a terrible thing to hear of). These malignant and ferocious spirits infested the gate and tormented all who passed that way. Wherefore the most holy Pope Pascal, commending himself to the special protection of the most blessed Virgin, and ordering a public and general fast of three days to all his people . . . adding fasting to prayer. . . . On the third night of his fasting and praying, the most blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God,. appeared to him in a dream, and spoke to him in the most benignant manner, saying, 'O Pascal! O Pascal! let your mind be cheerful and joyful, your abstinence and your prayers have been pleasing to God. . . . Wherefore do not doubt or hesitate, but go to the Flaminian gate, purge and irrigate (with holy water) around it, where you will find a certain

...

n (6 'Historiarum Sanctissimæ et Gloriosissimæ Virginis Deiparæ de Populo Almæ Urbis Compendium Aucto R.

P. F. Jacobo de Albericis a. Sarnico Bergonensi Sacræ Theo. Lectore, et hujus Coenobii Priore." Romæ, MD XCIX.

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walnut-tree, higher and spreading much further than any other tree. Upon it all our common enemies dwell and assemble ; . . . cause it to fall without delay, and tear out the roots of it, under which you will find the body of the miserable and always cursed Nero, which you will immediately cause to be removed and thrown into the Tiber, and on the same site you will cause a church to be erected and consecrated in my name.'. . . Accordingly on a subsequent day, in a general Council of the Cardinals, Clergy, and people of Rome, which was called for the purpose, he went to the Porta Flaminia with great pomp, and approached the walnut-tree, and there abjured and commanded the infernal spirits to retire; and then taking a saw in his hand with courage and intrepidity, began to cut down the walnut-tree; and while he was sawing (a dreadful thing!) the demons descended with great clamour and noises like the roaring of lions, the howling of wolves, the barking of dogs and other wild animals. . . . Nothing daunted the valiant Pope completed the ceremony, and the Roman people were freed on that happy day from their tormentors. The body of the wicked Nero was found there, and cast into the Tiber. The most holy Father then with his own hands laid the foundations of the high altar, which he ordered to be speedily completed, and called it by the name of S. Maria del Popolo, which it still retains ; . . . he consecrated the high altar, which still exists, on the spot where the walnut-tree had stood."

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It is probable that this walnut-tree was on the summit of a lofty conical tumulus or mound similar to that of Augustus, but without the marble chambers at the base. Under the circumstances in which the body of Nero was buried, there is no probability of any great building being erected, and yet it was visible from the Campus Martius; it was therefore probably placed on the slope of the Pincian, in the garden of the Domitii, and the space was levelled when the church was built, the present high altar marking the exact spot where the body was found that was traditionally called the body of Nero.

The cliff in this part has evidently been scarped, and a wall built up against it. There is a straight joint in the wall at the angle where it joins to the cliff of the Pincian, which seems to indicate the exact site of the gate. That part of the wall is medieval, but not all built at the same time, and thus the vertical joint remains. From the circumstance mentioned by Procopius, that this gate was high and inaccessible, it seems to have been on the upper side of the tumulus between that and the hill, and therefore higher up on the slope. There is reason to believe that the old Via Flaminia ran close under the cliff on the eastern side of the Via del Babbuino, where a narrow lane now runs, called Via Margutta, and continued in a straight line. Within the town it would therefore have run along the line of the Via dei Due Macelli, then under the foot of the Spanish steps, and at the back or under the modern houses on that side of the Piazza di Spagna, then keeping to the east of the Via del Babbuino still in