PORTA RAUDUSCULANA
a gate in the Servian wall, mentioned next to the
porta Naevia by Varro (
LL v. 163), who says that it was called
raudusculana quod aerata fuit. Festus (275) gives alternative explanations:
Rodusculana porta appellata, quod rudis et inpolita sit relicta, vel quia,
raudo, id est aere, fuerit vincta, while according to Val. Maximus (v. 6. 3)
the name came from bronze horns affixed to the gate in memory of the
praetor Genucius Cipus, from whose forehead horns had sprung as he was
passing through it on his way to war. This was interpreted as an augury
that he would be king if he returned to Rome, and to avoid this disaster
to his country, he remained abroad. The most probable explanation of
the name is that the gate was strengthened with plates or hinges of
bronze.
The existence of a vicus portae R(a)udusculanae in
Region XII (
CIL
vi. 975) is evidence for the location of this gate on the eastern part of the
Aventine. The vicus is generally thought to be a continuation of the
VICUS PISCINAE PUBLICAE (q.v.), and if so, the porta was in the depression
between the two parts of the hill, at the junction of the modern Viale
Aventino and the Via di Porta S. Paolo (Jord. i. I. 234; HJ 184;
Gilb.
ii. 295-296, 308-309; Merlin 120, 129;
BC 1891, 211 n.).
