PORTA SEPTIMIANA
the modern gate of the same name, just south of the
Palazzo Corsini, on the right bank of the river. The first mention of this
gate by name is in the twelfth century (Mirab. 4), where a fanciful
etymology is given-
septem Naiades iunctae Iano-which later gave rise
to still more fanciful ideas (Jord. i. I. 373;
ii. 378; Pr. Reg. 216-217;
Urlichs 92, 115, 127, 143 (Septinea), 151 ;
BC 1914, 83. It was rebuilt
in 1498 by Alexander VI a fundamentis (
LS i. 161), and given its present
form in 1798. It is stated that there was an inscription of Septimius
(Severus) on the arch before its reconstruction, and it is probable, there-
fore, that this was the gate referred to by Severus' biographer (Hist. Aug.
Sever. 19):
balneae in Transtiberina regione ad portam nominis sui, that
is, a gate opening into the area occupied by the buildings of Severus
(cf. Septimianum, HJ 656) in this region, and afterwards incorporated
in the wall of Aurelian. That it is not mentioned in DMH, GMU, or
any early mediaeval documents, is strange, but there must have been
at least one gate in the wall between the porta Aurelia and the river,
and this lies on the line which the wall would naturally have followed
(HJ 650; Richter 72, 281 ; T ix. 476). For the church of S. Johannes
de Porta, cf. HCh 275, and for
S. Silvester iuxta Portam Septimianam
ibid. 468
(1123); cf. also ciii.
