Samuel Ball Platner, Thomas Ashby, A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome

PORTA LATINA

a gate in the Aurelian wall through which passed the VIA LATINA (q.v.) (DMH). It has a single arch (Ill. 40) of irregular blocks of travertine, with a row of five windows above on the outside, and a sixth in brick, at the south end, surmounted by stone battlements, and flanked by two semi-circular towers of brick-faced concrete (almost entirely rebuilt), which do not rise above the top of the central section. The north tower rests on a foundation of masonry which may have belonged to a tomb (PBS iv. 13). Most of the structure dates from Honorius, including the voussoirs of the arch; though they are often (wrongly) attributed to a restoration of the sixth century, because a cross and circle is sculptured on the inner keystone, and on the outer the monogram of Christ between A and Q. It retained its name throughout the Middle Ages (T ii. 18-24; xi. 6-10; Jord. i. I. 366 ; Reber 537; ZA 320; BC 1927, 57).