Porta Romana (Rome)

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The Porta Romana , also called the porta Romanula , was one of the gates of the Palatine Rome , the Roma quadrata .

The topographical evidence of the written tradition suggests that the porta Romana was on the west side, possibly at the foot of the Palatine . The gate was therefore at the connection between via Nova and clivus Victoriae , on or near the area called Velabrum . More recent studies localize the porta Romana rather in archaeological findings on the north corner of the hill.

The porta Romana was not a gate in the classical sense, but merely a platform accessible from four sides via steps. So it was little more than the name of a square, so that attempts were made in ancient times to transfer the name to real buildings in the area. The name is not easy to understand. Gate names usually denoted the place to which the gate opened. According to Sextus Pompeius Festus , it got its name from the Sabines, for whom the gate provided the shortest connection to the city. The settlement on the Palatine would then not have been part of Rome, but originally only the area of ​​Velabrum and Forum Boarium would have to be addressed as Rome . An obvious explanation is based on the derivation of the name from the words ruma or rumen , which denote a river or watercourse. So the gate would have been the river gate. However, with this derivation it remains unclear how the name could be transferred to the city.

literature

  • Samuel Ball Platner , Thomas Ashby : A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome . Oxford University Press, London 1929, p. 415 ( online ).
  • Lawrence Richardson Jr .: A New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome . Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 1992, p. 308 (Porta Romana) .
  • Henry Hurst: The 'Murus Romuli' at the northern corner of the Palatine and the Porta Romanula: a progress report . In: Anna Leone, Domenico Palombi, Susan Walker (eds.): Res bene gestae: ricerche di storia urbana su Roma antica in onore di Eva Margareta Steinby . Lexicon Topographicum Urbis Romae , Supplementum Volume IV. Edizioni Quasar, Rome 2007, pp. 79-102.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Marcus Terentius Varro , De lingua Latina 5, 164 : alteram Romanulam from Roma dictam, quae habet gradus in nova via ad Volupiae sacellum ; 6, 24 ; Sextus Pompeius Festus 262 ( online ): Sed porta Romana instituta est a Romulo infimo clivo Victoriae [...] ; 263: Romana porta apud Romam a Sabinis appellata est quod per eam proximus eis aditus esset .
  2. ↑ Sextus Pompeius Festus 263 ( online ).