Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities (1898)

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Porta

（πύλη). The gate of a city as opposed to ianua or ostium, the door of a house. City gates from very early times were flanked by bastions, which ultimately gave way to flanking towers. Additional security was given by double gates, an outer and an inner, with a space between. In some cities the gates had two passages close together, one for carriages entering and one for those leaving the place. There were also, as at Pompeii, small side-passages for persons on foot. Gateways usually had a small chamber on one side or both, for the use of the guard or porter, and resembling the cella ostiaria in a private house (Polyb. viii. 20, 23, 24). It was called πυλών. The contrivances for fastening a gate were about the same as those used for doors, only larger in proportion. See Ianua; and for illustrations of ancient gates the articles Falerii; Mycenae; Thoricus; Treviri.