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

SECT. VIII.]

Gates of Servius Tullius.

73

name, but it was also called Quirinalis from the adjacent temple of
Quirinusr.
VIII. Porta Viminalis.—This is mentioned by Frontinus as
the gate to which some of the aqueducts were brought to be dis-
tributed over the city'; it is also mentioned by Strabo and Festus.
Its site is believed to have been at the south-east corner of the
Thermae of Diocletian, on the line of the old road which ran through
the outer gate, (now called Porta Clausa or Chiusa,) and passed along
the south side of the Praetorian Camp. This gate was therefore about
the middle of the agger of Servius Tullius.
“ Servius raised upon the agger a wall and towers from the Porta Collina, as far
as the Porta Esquilina. About the middle of the agger is the third gate, of the
same name as the Viminal Hill4.”
IX. Porta Esquilina u.—This was at the south end of the agger
of Servius Tullius, where it joined the cliff of the Esquiline Hill;
the same name was given to the outer gate in the moenia, over which
the aqueducts were carried. Several passages in Livy and Strabo
(given below) confirm this, and the text of Frontinus cannot be
reconciled with the existing remains in any other manner. Strabo
says that the two roads, Praenestina and Labicana, began at this gate,
and they now begin at the Porta Maggiore, in the exterior circuit,
which being at least as old as the time of Claudius, as is proved
by the inscription upon it, must have been in existence in the time
of Strabo. Frontinus says that the Aqua Marcia enters Rome at the
Porta Esquilina, then passes under some high ground, and emerges
on an arcade near the Porta Viminalis. The remains are distinctly
visible entering Rome through the outer wall by the side of the
Porta Maggiore, then passing underground, (where a part has been
excavated in 1871,) in the direction of the Porta di S. Lorenzo, all
on the outer wall, and near that part of the arcade with the specus
of the aqueduct upon it which was excavated in 1870.

' Festus, s. v. Quirinalis.
s In this instance, as in some others,
there must have been another gate in
the outer mcenia called by the same
name ; the words of Frontinus, com-
pared with the existing remains, are
decisive on this point. The remains of
the gate in the agger were destroyed in
making the railway.
4 Strabo, lib. v. c. iii. s. 7. See
Note C, at the end of this Section.
u “. . . postero die frequentis porta
Esquilina. . . expellerunt pecus.” (Livii
Hist., lib. ii. c. 11.)

“. . . ad moenia ipsa Romce popula-
bundi regione Portae Esquilinse acces-
sere vastationem agrorum urbi per con-
tumeliam ostentantes.” (Ibid. iii. 66.)
“. . . iisdern istis ferocibus animis
egredissimi extra portam Esquilinam,
aut ... ex muris visite agros vestros.”
(Ibid., iii. 68.)
“. . . media urbe per carinas Esqui-
lias contendit ; inde egressus inter Es-
quilinam Collinamque portam posuit
castra.” (Ibid., xxvi. 10.)
“ . . . lupus Esquilina porta in-
gressus.” (Ibid., xxxiii. 26.)