PORTA LAVERNALIS
a gate in the Servian wall, named from a neighbouring
altar and grove of Laverna (Varro,
LL v. 163; Fest. 117; CIL i.' 446
1;
Rosch. ii. 1917-1918). It is mentioned by Varro after the Naevia and
Raudusculana, and is therefore generally supposed to have been west of
these two on the Aventine, where an ancient road, corresponding to the
present Via del Priorato, passed through the wall (Jord. i. I. 234; HJ
168; Merlin 119-121). According to a scholiast (Ps. Acro ad Hor. ep. i.
16. 60):
Laverna viae Salariae lucum habet, and this has been used to
support a theory that this gate was in the northern part of the city and
not on the Aventine at all (
BPW 1913, 980-1). See also WR 236;
RE
xii. 998, 999.
