PORTA CAPENA
a gate in the Servian wall on the south-west slope of the
Caelian. It was near the grove of the Camenae, and from it the via Appia
issued (
Liv. i. 26. 2;
iii. 22. 4; Serv.
Aen. vii. 697; Frontinus, aq.
i. 5, 19; Ov.
Fast. iv. 343;
v. 673;
vi. 192;
Dionys. viii. 4; Fest.
110, 115, 347). The ancient derivation of the name from the Etruscan
Capena (Serv. loc. cit.) is highly improbable, and no satisfactory explanation has been found (Jord. i. I. 270-271). The discovery of several
portions of the wall in 1867-1868, and of what is probably a pier of the
gate itself during the recent construction of the Passeggiata archeologica,
has definitely established its location (see Jord. i. I. 228;
Gilb. ii. 293,
for references to the literature of earlier excavations;
NS 1909, 427;
BC 1908, 109-150; Bartoli, Rassegna Cont. iii. No. 2, 1910, 19 ; T ix. 19).
Domitian is said to have restored the porta Capena (Chron. 146), but as
a mere gateway would have had no meaning then, the restoration was
probably in connection with the extension of the aqua Marcia, which
was brought across the Caelian by a branch, the rivus Herculaneus,
and ended supra portam Capenam (
Frontinus i. 19). This aqueduct
was at too low a level to have crossed to the Aventine; but there was
another and higher branch which crossed the gateway, as is clear from
references in literature (
Frontinus ii. 76-the Caelian and Aventine
priusquam Claudia perduceretur, utebantur Marcia et Iulia;
Mart. iii. 47;
Iuv. iii. 11 and Schol.). The latest investigation, however, of the remains
of the arches of this branch shows them to be of the time of Nero. See
p. 23, n. I, p. 26; and cf.
ARCUS STILLANS.
