Parker, John Henry: The archaeology of Rome (1,text): I. The primitive fortifications (Oxford [u.a.], 1874)

Section VIII. Gates of Servius Tullius.

The fortifications of Servius Tullius, as we have seen, consisted
for the most part of strengthening the outer line of the old fortifi-
cations of the separate hills chiefly along the base of cliffs, and
connecting them together by short pieces of wall and foss across
the valleys at their narrowest points, making gates wherever they
crossed a road, and on the side, where there was no cliff, making
a large agger.
It has been contended that the passage in Pliny which gives
thirty-seven as the total number of the gates, involves the suppo-
sition that there were at least twenty-five (according to another
opinion thirty gates) in the line of the enceinte of Servius Tullius.
An examination of the existing remains of this wall of enceinte,
together with the evidence to be derived from scarped cliffs and
ancient roadways, renders it probable that this number is exces-
sive. In the next section the questions involved in the interpreta-
tion of the passage in question will be discussed. It is only neces-
sary to say here that Pliny, in enumerating the gates, refers in all
probability to the outer line of enceinte, which is usually attributed to
Aurelian, but which was already recognised in Pliny’s time as the
wall of Rome (although not of the City), and which, as has already
been said, although raised and mainly rebuilt in the time of Aure-
lian, contains portions of an older wall, so that there must have been
gates in it before his time.
In the older line of enceinte there are places for, and probably
were, some fifteen or sixteen gates. No list is preserved to us, but
in default it has been usual to take the name of the gates inci-
dentally mentioned in ancient authors. From Varro, the most
important authority on this question, as being the earliest, we obtain
three names, viz. Naevia, Rauduscula, and Lavernalis, as in the cir-
cuit, and Mugionis, Romanula, and Janualis, as within the walls.
The following is a list of those which we think there is reason to
place in the enceinte of Servius Tulliusk, and we have, as far as
possible, assigned to them their probable position :—

k See Nibby, le Mura di Roma, di-
segnate da W. Gell, illustrate con testo
e note. 8vo., Roma, 1820. G. A. Becker,
de Romae veteris muris atque portis,

8vo., Lipsise, 1842 ; and Dyer, in Smith’s
Dictionary of Antiquities, 8vo., Lond.
1856. Burn’s Rome and the Campagna,
chap. iv. Cambridge, 1871, 4to.