PORTA METROVIA
PORTA METROBI
PORTA METRONIA
PORTA METRONI
PORTA METROSI
etc. (the
various forms of the name are discussed by T loc. cit.), is first mentioned
in DMH (Metrovia) and then by Gregory the Great (
Ep. vi. 44, Metroni).
Cf. GMU 88;
R. ii. 406, Metrosi. The metropi via mentioned in the
Sylloge Turonensis (De Rossi, Inscr.
Christ. ii. 64. 5) is the road from this
gate to the via Latina. It was in origin only a postern, as it has no towers,
and no important road left it; it corresponded to the
PORTA QUERQUETULANA (q.v.) of the Servian wall. It was blocked up at an uncertain
date-certainly before the middle of the fifteenth century. The Marrana,
a stream which passes under the Aurelian wall at this point, was brought
into the city by Calixtus II in 1122, and he must have closed the gate at
the same time,
1 even though it continues to be mentioned throughout
the Middle Ages. An inscription of 1157 recording the restoration of
the walls at this point is built into the interior of the tower which blocks
it (Jord. i. I. 364; T ii. 6-17;
xi. 13-17;
PBS iv. 40-42;
BC 1927, 63).
