Porta Portuensis
The Porta Portuensis was a gate in the Aurelian Wall in Rome , built between 271 and 275 AD, and was located at the point where the Via Portuensis, which connected Rome to the port of Portus Romae , started.
The gate, which is no longer preserved today, is only known from drawings, including a very precise engraving. It was flanked by two semicircular towers made of brick masonry and had two arched passages. In this respect, the gate resembled the Porta Appia , the Porta Flaminia and the Porta Ostiensis , all of which have passed on these characteristics from their original Aurelian building.
The gate bore a large inscription that said Honorius had completely restored the gate and the towers. However, Honorius' interventions could not have been that fundamental; they were rather limited to the construction of a gate courtyard and the raising of the tower and gate heights. The inscription is important because of the mention of Stilichos , the magister utriusque militiae of Honorius who fell victim to the damnatio memoriae , because his name has been removed from most of the inscriptions.
In 455 the Vandals under Geiseric entered Rome through the Porta Portuensis and plundered the city for a fortnight. At some point in the Middle Ages or early modern times, the eastern passage of the gate was closed. Under Urban VIII it was demolished and replaced by his successor Innocent X in the middle of the 17th century with Porta Portese 450 meters to the north.
literature
- Samuel Ball Platner , Thomas Ashby : A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome . Oxford University Press, London 1929, p. 412 ( online ).
- Filippo Coarelli : Rome. An archaeological guide. Herder, Freiburg (Breisgau) et al. 1981, ISBN 3-451-17247-X , p. 32.