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Portae

Collecting all the individual porta entries on pp402‑419 of

Samuel Ball Platner (as completed and revised by Thomas Ashby):
A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome,
London: Oxford University Press, 1929.

p402 Porta Agonensis: see Porta Collina.

Porta Ardeatina: assumed to be the gate through which the Via Ardeatina passed, although such a gate is nowhere mentioned in ancient or mediaeval literature. The most probable line of the road from the porta Naevia of the Servian wall passes through the part of the wall which was destroyed by the erection of the bastione di Sangallo in 1538, and there are indications in the architect's drawings of a small gate at this point. Whether it was like the other principal gates or merely a postern (posterula) is uncertain. Poggio says that it had an inscription of Honorius upon it, but no copy is known (Jord. I.1.367; Mitt. 1894, 320‑327; RE II.613; T II.410‑411). See Via Laurentina. p404

Porta Argiletana: mentioned only once (Serv. Aen. VIII.345), but evidently an entrance into the Argiletum (q.v.).

Porta Asinaria: see separate page.

(p405) Porta Aurelia (2 different gates): see separate page.

Porta Caelimontana: see separate page.

Porta Capena: see separate page.

Porta Carmentalis: see separate page. p406

Porta Catularia: known only from a statement in Festus (45): catularia porta Romae dicta est quia non longe ab ea ad placandam caniculae sidus . . . rufae canes immolabantur. Its size is quite uncertain, as well as its purpose (CIL I2 p317; Gilb. I.90‑91; Richter 385; WR 196); and it certainly was not in the city wall.

Porta Chiusa: the modern appellation of a nameless postern in the Aurelian wall immediately to the south of the Castra Praetoria (q.v.), which served for the exit of the road from the porta Viminalis of the Servian wall (see Via Tiburtina). It has a stone curtain with six windows like those of the porta Latina, and is still in a good state of preservation (Jord. I.1.355; NS 1899, 403; PBS III.86, 199, 200).

Porta Collatina: * mentioned only by Festus (37): Collatia oppidum fuit prope Romam . . . a qua porta Romae Collatina dicta est, who has probably confused Collatina with Collina. The via Collatina diverged to the southward from the via Tiburtina outside the porta Tiburtina (Jord. I.1.245; Richter 385; PBS I.139; RE IV.364; BC 1915, 79‑80).

Porta Collina: see separate page.

Porta Cornelia: mentioned only in a seventh (?) century document (GMU 87; R. ii.404; Jord. II.580). It was on the right bank of the Tiber, near the south-west corner of the mausoleum of Hadrian, and spanned the Via Cornelia (q.v.), which ran from the head of the pons Aelius. p407 The date of the first porta Cornelia is not known, but in the time of Procopius (B. G. I.22) a portico was already in existence from near the mausoleum to S. Peter's, by which time also the fortifications of the mausoleum were continued down to the bank of the river, and the porta Cornelia must have formed a passage through them (Jord. I.1.375‑377, 390; II.166; T IX.473; cf. also Porta Aurelia). It seems very doubtful whether any remains of this gate survived as late as the sixteenth century (Richter 72).

Porta Esquilina: see separate page.

Porta Fenestella: a gate of some sort, not in the city wall, that seems to have stood on or near the summa Sacra via, close by a shrine of Fortuna, but is otherwise unknown (Ov. Fast. VI.578; Plut. q. R. 36; Gilb. III.427; Jord. I.1.245; RE VI.2180). Fenestella may simply mean 'postern' (Rose, Plutarch, Roman Questions, in loc.).

(p408) Porta Flaminia: see separate page.

Porta Flumentana: see separate page.

Porta Fontinalis: see separate page.

Porta Ianualis: see Ianus Geminus.

Porta Labicana: see Porta Praenestina.

(p409) Porta Latina: see separate page.

Porta Lavernalis: see separate page.

Porta Maior: see Porta Praenestina.

Porta Metrovia, Metrobi, Metronia, Metroni, Metrosi, etc.: see separate page.

(p410) Porta Minucia: see separate page.

Porta Mugonia: one of the three gates of the early Palatine city (Varro, LL V.164), also called vetus Porta Palatii (Liv. I.1.12; III.9). It was on the north side of the hill, near the temple of Jupiter Stator (Liv. locc. citt.; Solin. I.24; Dionys. II.50; Non. 531; cf. Ov. Trist. III.1.31), where the ridge of the Velia joins the Palatine and the cattle of the early settlers must have been driven in and out (Jord. I.1.174, 176, 177; Richter 34, 133, 140, 145; Gilb. I.159, 309; III.46, 423). The existing street of imperial times (see Clivus Palatinus) corresponds in general with the early one.

The name appears in several variants — Mugionis (Non.), Mugionia (Festus 144), Mucionis (Varro), Mugonia (Solin.), and is derived by Varro from the lowing (mugitus) of the cattle, but by Festus a Mugio quodam qui eidem tuendae praefuit. The true derivation is not known (Jord. I.1.176, n39; cf. BC 1914, 78‑79).

Porta Naevia: see separate page.

Porta Navalis: see Navalia.

Porta Nomentana: see separate page.

(p411) Porta Ostiensis: see separate page.

Porta Pancratiana: see Porta Aurelia (1).

Porta Pandana: a gate in the fortifications of the Capitoline hill, which was said to have been called porta Saturnia at first, as the hill was called mons Saturnius (Varro, LL V.42; Solin. 1.13). According to one story (Fest. 220, 363) the name was changed because Tatius forced Romulus to an agreement that this gate should always be open to the Sabines — quod semper pateret; according to another version (Polyaen. VIII.25) the attack on the Capitoline was made by the Gauls, and the agreement was with them. This gate is referred to by Dionysius (X.14) as ἄκλεισται πύλαι, through which Appius Herdonius stormed the Capitol in 460 B.C., although he confuses it with the porta Carmentalis. Evidently it was on the Capitolium (ἐπὶ πέτρας ἀπροσβάτον, Polyaen. loc. cit.), not on the Arx, and presumably near the south corner and the Tarpeian rock. In historical times it can hardly have been anything else than a gate in the enclosure of the area Capitolina, perhaps used principally by those who ascended and descended by the Centum Gradus (q.v.) (Jord. I.2.122; Gilb. I.229‑230; Richter 118; University of p412 Michigan Studies I.34‑39; cf., however, BC 1914, 77‑78, for a theory that it opened on the clivus Capitolinus).

Porta S. Petri: see Porta Aurelia (2).

Porta Piacularis: so‑called propter aliqua piacula quae ibidem fiebant (Fest. 213), but otherwise wholly unknown. It can hardly have been a gate in the city wall.

Porta Pinciana: see separate page.

Porta Portuensis: see separate page.

(p413) Porta Praenestina: see separate page.

Porta Querquetulana: see separate page.

(p414) Porta Quirinalis: see separate page.

Porta Ratumenna: a gate said to have been named after an Etruscan charioteer, whose horses, after having won a race at Veii, were frightened, ran to Rome, threw their driver out and killed him at this gate, and finally stopped on the Capitolium in front of a terra cotta statue of Jupiter (Fest. 274, 275; Plin. NH VIII.161; Solin. XLV.15; Plut. Poplic. 13). It has been explained by some as a gate in the Servian wall between the Capitoline and the Quirinal,1 by others as an entrance into the Capitoline enclosure, but its site is entirely a matter of conjecture (Jord. I.1.209‑210, 271; RhM 1904, 412‑413; Richter 44; Gilb. II.280), and it was probably not a city gate at all.

Porta Raudusculana: see separate page.

(p415) Porta Romana: see separate page.

(p416) Porta Salaria: see separate page. º

Porta Salutaris: a gate on the Collis Salutaris (q.v.), said to have derived its name from the temple of Salus (Fest. 326, 327). The Clivus Salutaris (q.v.) probably led up to it, and its site was therefore just south-west of the temple, at the upper end of the present Via della Dataria (Jord. I.1.213, II.264; HJ 399; Hermes 1891, 142‑144; RhM 1894, 405, 411; BC 1876, 126).

Porta Sanqualis: see separate page.

Porta Saturnia: see Porta Pandana.

Porta Scelerata: see Porta Carmentalis.

(p417) Porta Septimiana: see separate page.

Porta Stercoraria: a gate on the Clivus Capitolinus, opening into an alley (angiportus). It was opened once a year, on 15th June, in order that the stercus — ashes, rubbish, etc. — from the temple of Vesta might be removed and thrown into the Tiber (Fest. 344; cf. ib. 258; Varro, LL VI.32; Ov. Fast. VI.713; Fast. ap. CIL I2 p319, and NS 1921, 98). It was probably about halfway up the clivus, but there is no clue to its exact location (Jord. I.2.64; Gilb. II.316; Richter 117).

Porta Taurina: see Forum Tauri.

Porta Tiburtina: see separate page.

(p418) Porta Trigemina: see separate page.

(p419) Porta Triumphalis: see separate page.

Porta Vetus Palatii: see Porta Mugonia.

Porta Viminalis: see separate page.

The Authors' Note:

1 This view is maintained in BPW 1912, 1734 — despite the fact that at that time there was no via Flaminia nor pons Mulvius, and that the road from Veii probably crossed the pons Sublicius — considerations which would not have occurred to those who handed down the story. For the name cf. Rosch. IV.62.

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Portae

Collecting all the individual porta entries on pp402‑419 of

Samuel Ball Platner (as completed and revised by Thomas Ashby): A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome, London: Oxford University Press, 1929.

The Authors' Note:

Samuel Ball Platner (as completed and revised by Thomas Ashby):
A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome,
London: Oxford University Press, 1929.