PORTA OSTIENSIS
a gate in the Aurelian wall through which passed the
VIA OSTIENSIS (q.v.) (Amm.
Marcell. xvii. 4. 12-the obelisk now at the
Lateran '
per Ostiensem portam piscinamque publicam circo illatus est
Naximo '-DMH). It had acquired the name which it still bears, under
the modern form Porta S. Paolo, as early as the sixth century (Procop.
BG
ii. 4. 3, 9;
iii. 36:
πύλη ἡ Παύλου τοῦ ἀπ̀οστόλου ἐπώνυμός ἐστι ; Aethicus,
p. 716 Gronov. (83 Riese):
Ostiensem portam quae est domni Pauli
apostoli). It seems to be mentioned as porta Latina by Magister Gregorius, who describes what should be the pyramid of Cestius in conjunction
with it (
JRS 1919, 20, 46, 56).
It is probable that, like the porta Appia and the porta Flaminia, it
originally had a double arch; and this explains why there are two arches
of travertine side by side in the inner gateway (Ill. 41), which belongs
to a later restoration, as Aurelian does not appear to have constructed
any of his gates with courtyards. The two arches of the outer gateway
were suppressed at some unknown date, and replaced by a single arch
in travertine with a very wide curtain, flanked by two semi-circular brick
towers. Such towers should as a rule be attributed to Aurelian, but
here they have been strengthened at a later date, and there are considerable traces of alterations throughout, though parts of the original
curtain still remain. The rise in level at the time of Honorius has been
greatly overestimated (LD 54, fig. 13). See
BC 1927, 57-59.
Adjacent to the gate on the right is the
SEPULCRUM C. CESTII (q.v.),
and beyond it again was a postern for the exit of the road from the porta
Trigemina, which fell into the via Ostiensis. Some of its pavement,
discovered in 1824, may be seen in the ditch of the old Protestant cemetery. This postern was, according to some authorities, closed by Honorius
(Jord. i. I. 368; Mon.
L. i. 512; LF 44; T iv. 7-13); but it can well have
happened much earlier (
PBS x. 21).