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

The Later Fortifications.

[chap. ii.

150

This part of the lofty brick wall of the third century is built upon
the agger of Claudius, which also turned the corner, and was con-
tinued along the bank of the river as far as the Emporium of Sylla,
and may be seen from the opposite bank of the river when the water
is low. The brick wall is not carried so far, it ceases opposite to
the line of the wall of Aurelian in the Trastevere. The interior of this
portion of the wall, from the Porta Ostiensis to the river, is mostly
of the time of Aurelian, with his lofty arches and passages as usual
on the inside of the wall; but the outside has for the most part been
badly repaired by the Popes, and is again in a ruinous state, very
picturesque, but not of much archaeological interest.

Passing over into the TRASTEVERE, the chronicler of Ein-
siedlen begins with the gate near the southern corner.
12*. “From the river Tiber to the Porta Portuensis—4 towers, 59 merlons,
10 large windows, 15 small.”
This short piece of the wall of Aurelian has been entirely de-
stroyed x, and the position of the gate altered in modern times.
The old gateway, or Porta Portuensis, was on the road to Portus
through the southern wall, which connected the Janiculum with the
Tiber at a point opposite to the Emporium, and where the wall
of Aurelian on the eastern bank commences. Whatever may have
been the date of the original gate, there was certainly a gate here in
the time of Honorius, which remained standing to the time of
Urban VIII., a.d. 1640, with the inscription upon it identical with
those which still remain upon the Porta Tiburtina and Porta
Maggiore. The new gate is in the new line of wall, which com-
mences inside the older one considerably to the north of it, but
crosses it after some distance, and then includes a much wider
space, connecting the Janiculum with the Vatican Hill.
13. “ From tlie Porta Portuensis to the Porta Aurelia—29 towers, 400 merlons,
pairs of corbels, 137 large windows, 163 small ones,”
The distance indicated by the number of towers shews that the
Porta Aurelia of this author is the same as that now called Porta S.
Pancrazio ; picturesque ruins of this part of the wall in the vineyards
and gardens within the modern wall are all that remain, but the old

x During some excavations made in
December, 1870, the foundations of the
Wall of Aurelian were found in three
places in the large vineyard outside of
the Porta Portuensis, giving the line di-

rect to the Emporium. On the banks of
the Tiber, when the water is low, the
foundations of the end towers can be
seen on each side.