Porta Settimiana

Porta Settimiana is one of the gates of the Aurelian walls in Rome (Italy). It rises at the northern vertex of the rough triangle traced by the town walls - built by Emperor Aurelian in the 3rd century - in the area of Trastevere an up through the Janiculum.

The gate marks the beginning of Via della Lungara and is the only gate, on the right bank of the Tiber (the other ones are Porta Portuensis, no more existing, and Porta San Pancrazio), that rises just in the place where it was built, despite its restorations and rebuildings.

There are several theories about the meaning of the name. An etymology related to its location north of the Temple of Janus (septentrio and Ianus in Latin) looks plausible. The most recent hypotheses take into account the possibility that the name comes from the proximity to a monument of the age of Septimius Severus: maybe it was an arch of the aqueduct bringing water to the thermal baths dedicated to the Emperor; maybe the entrance of the Horti Getae, the gardens owned by the Emperor's son Publius Septimius Geta, the brother of Caracalla and co-Emperor for few months; maybe a real gate giving access to the quarter of Trastevere, within walls that had no military importance at that time. In this case, the gate should be dated back to at least 60 years before the building of the Aurelian walls. During the Middle Ages there was a proliferation of legends: according to one of them, Augustus, before becoming Emperor, had raised seven hymns while making a pilgrimage to the Temple of Janus (”septem Iano laudes”).

A passage of Livy, that nonetheless doesn't mention the gate explicitly, could indicate that it was built during the monarchy; however, at that time there was no wall on the right bank of the Tiber (the first one was built in 87 BC), but just a fortress protecting Pons Sublicius; therefore the citation appears to be totally unreliable.

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