Porta Caelimontana and Porta Querquetulana

Porta Caelimontana and Porta Querquetulana were two city gates that opened in the Servian Wall in Rome (Italy); only the first one is still existing.

History

The two gates opened on the eastern side of the Caelian Hill. Only in recent times (although some doubts still persist), it has finally been established that Porta Caelimontana was the westernmost one, while Porta Querquetulana was located further east.

Until a few years ago the arguments of some scholars tended to support the exact opposite, on the basis of both toponymic and archaeological evaluations. In the absence of clear indications from the classical sources (whose quotations in this regard are almost non-existent), the hypothesis was based on the assumption that both gates derived their name from that of the hill on which they were located. Querquetulum (meaning "covered with oak woods" in Latin) was in fact the ancient name of what was only later called Caelius: it could therefore be assumed that the two gates could have been opened in succession: the Querquetulana first and then - maybe in an expansion of the Servian walls, when the oaks were no longer there - the Caelimontana.

The only surviving remains belong to the westernmost gate, still existing, which was transformed into what is currently known as the Arch of Dolabella and Silanus, and consist of blocks dating back to the beginning of the fourth century BC, when the first republican walls were built: it can be therefore deduced that this should have been Porta Querquetulana. An indirect (although a bit weak) confirmation of such conclusion is provided by Livy, who mentions Porta Caelimontana for the first time (XXXV, 9) to report a lightning that struck it in 193 BC.

Despite some residual doubts, the hypothesis that places Porta Querquetulana to the east - within the perimeter of the current San Giovanni Hospital, close to the intersection between Via dei Santi Quattro and Via di Santo Stefano Rotondo - and Porta Caelimontana further west - at the beginning of Via San Paolo della Croce, on the route of the former Clivus Scauri - is currently more accredited.

This turnaround about the real location of the two gates is not due to an argument that's considered no longer valid, but to an incorrect chronological evaluation, according to which the fourth-century wall was thought the oldest one on the hill. In fact Porta Querquetulana, as well as Porta Viminalis, Porta Esquilina and Porta Collina, actually dates back to a very ancient period, about two centuries before the construction of the Servian wall: the four original gates can be traced back to the enlargement of Rome by king Servius Tullius, which included in the territory of the city three of the historical "seven hills", the Quirinal, the Viminal, the Esquiline and the Querquetulan.