DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42497#0230
Section IV.
Description of the Circuit of the Wales.
In the previous section a rapid survey has been taken of the
events which had any influence on the destruction, repair, or altera-
tion of the wall, from the time of Aurelian down to the fifteenth
century. Incidental notices of historians and poets have been
referred to, and though few in number, and seeming of little im-
portance, they are on the whole not difficult of reconciliation with
the existing remains.
To avoid repetition, and to make the account clear, it will be best
to follow a topographical arrangement, and pass round the circuit of
the wall, pointing out as far as possible the work of the different
periods already briefly referred to.
In this the description of the anonymous writer of the Itinerary
of Einsiedlin will be of service, as he describes exactly what he saw
existing in his own time, namely, in the ninth century.
He begins his survey at the north-west corner, starting from the
gate of S. Peter’s in the direction of the Porta Flaminia [or del
Popolo], and going round the whole circuit of the city returns to
the same point again.
I. “ From the gate of S. Peter’s, with its gate (towers), to the Flaminian gate—•
16 towers, 782 merlons of the battlement, 3 postern gates, 4 pairs of corbelsb,
107 large external windows, 66 small windows, (or oillets?).”
It is probable that this gate of S. Peter, from which he commences
his circuit, was at the city end of the fortress connected by two
bridges with the Hadrianum, one the Pons PElius °, the other usually
called by modern topographers the Pons Triumphalis. The remains
of this bridge are visible some hundred yards westward of the Ponte
S. Angelo, but all traces of the gate have disappeared. It probably
stood between the two bridges, and had two roads branching from it.
The Via Triumphalis, which went under the Porta Triumphalis in
b The necessaria (which is the word
used by the Chronicler) were construc-
tions corbelled out from the wall. They
were used primarily for getting rid of
the refuse from the camp, but in case of
the wall being attacked, they also served
for throwing down missiles on the heads
of the enemy beneath.
c Tt is called tt? tt) Alx'ia
(Pons JElius) by Dion Cassius (Cassii
Dionis Cocceiani Rerum Romanarum,
1. Ixix. c. 23 ; ed. Imm. Bekker, t. ii.
p. 332, Lipsise, 1849, 8vo.), who says,
“His body was placed in the tomb
which he had built on the bank of the
Tiber, near the Lilian bridge, because
the tomb of Augustus was full.” The
writer, however, of Hadrian’s life, Spar-
tianus, gives the honour of a bridge, as
well as the tomb, to that Emperor. See
note at the end of this Section.
Description of the Circuit of the Wales.
In the previous section a rapid survey has been taken of the
events which had any influence on the destruction, repair, or altera-
tion of the wall, from the time of Aurelian down to the fifteenth
century. Incidental notices of historians and poets have been
referred to, and though few in number, and seeming of little im-
portance, they are on the whole not difficult of reconciliation with
the existing remains.
To avoid repetition, and to make the account clear, it will be best
to follow a topographical arrangement, and pass round the circuit of
the wall, pointing out as far as possible the work of the different
periods already briefly referred to.
In this the description of the anonymous writer of the Itinerary
of Einsiedlin will be of service, as he describes exactly what he saw
existing in his own time, namely, in the ninth century.
He begins his survey at the north-west corner, starting from the
gate of S. Peter’s in the direction of the Porta Flaminia [or del
Popolo], and going round the whole circuit of the city returns to
the same point again.
I. “ From the gate of S. Peter’s, with its gate (towers), to the Flaminian gate—•
16 towers, 782 merlons of the battlement, 3 postern gates, 4 pairs of corbelsb,
107 large external windows, 66 small windows, (or oillets?).”
It is probable that this gate of S. Peter, from which he commences
his circuit, was at the city end of the fortress connected by two
bridges with the Hadrianum, one the Pons PElius °, the other usually
called by modern topographers the Pons Triumphalis. The remains
of this bridge are visible some hundred yards westward of the Ponte
S. Angelo, but all traces of the gate have disappeared. It probably
stood between the two bridges, and had two roads branching from it.
The Via Triumphalis, which went under the Porta Triumphalis in
b The necessaria (which is the word
used by the Chronicler) were construc-
tions corbelled out from the wall. They
were used primarily for getting rid of
the refuse from the camp, but in case of
the wall being attacked, they also served
for throwing down missiles on the heads
of the enemy beneath.
c Tt is called tt? tt) Alx'ia
(Pons JElius) by Dion Cassius (Cassii
Dionis Cocceiani Rerum Romanarum,
1. Ixix. c. 23 ; ed. Imm. Bekker, t. ii.
p. 332, Lipsise, 1849, 8vo.), who says,
“His body was placed in the tomb
which he had built on the bank of the
Tiber, near the Lilian bridge, because
the tomb of Augustus was full.” The
writer, however, of Hadrian’s life, Spar-
tianus, gives the honour of a bridge, as
well as the tomb, to that Emperor. See
note at the end of this Section.