Porta Septimiana
The Porta Septimiana was one of four gates on the western side of the Tiber in Rome , which were part of the Aurelian Wall in Rome, built between 271 and 275 AD . The gate opened onto a street that ran along the Tiber and corresponds to today's Via della Lungara. It connected the built-up area between the Circus Gaii et Neronis , the circus built by Caligula on the Vatican Hill , and the Hadrian's mausoleum with the walled Transtiberim .
The gate was first mentioned in the 12th century. It was at that point on the western bank of the Tiber, the ripa Veientana , where Pope Alexander VI. demolished a dilapidated ancient gate and built a new one in 1498. This demolished gate is said to have had an inscription from Septimius Severus . The current state of the gate dates from 1798.
An allusion to the name of the gate can be found in the Historia Augusta , in which it is said that the baths of Septimius Severus are "near the gate of his name". The name was probably given as a reminder of the buildings of Septimius Severus, which had lost their functions in this area due to the construction of the Aurelian Wall because the course of the wall intersected them. It remains unclear whether the name can be traced back to Aurelian himself or to a popular name given by the population. It is even possible that there was a reminiscence of a Severan gate that opened to the buildings of Septimius Severus or that such a gate was integrated into the wall. Remnants of the original building have not been preserved.
literature
- Samuel Ball Platner , Thomas Ashby : A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome . Oxford University Press, London 1929, pp. 416-417 ( online ).
- Lawrence Richardson Jr .: A New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore MD et al. 1992, ISBN 0-8018-4300-6 , p. 309.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Historia Augusta, Septimius Severus 19: [...] et thermae Severianae, eiusde (m) que etiam ian (u) ae in Transtiberina regione ad portam nominis sui [...] .