The Porta Nomentana was one of the gates in the Aurelian Walls

Aurelian Walls

The Aurelian Walls is a line of city walls built between 271 and 275 in Rome, Italy, during the reign of the Roman Emperors Aurelian and Probus....

 of Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

, Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

. It is located along viale del Policlinico

Policlinico Umberto I

Located in the Quartiere San Lorenzo, the Policlinico Umberto I of Rome is the polyclinic of the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery of the Sapienza Università di Roma...

, around 70 m east of Porta Pia

Porta Pia

Porta Pia is a gate in the Aurelian Walls of Rome, Italy. One of Pope Pius IV's civic improvements to the city, it is named after him. Situated at the end of a new street, the Via Pia, it was designed by Michelangelo in replacement for the Porta Nomentana situated several hundred meters...

. It is now blocked and merely a boundary wall for the British Embassy.

History

It was built as a single-arch gate between 270 and 273 AD by the emperor Aurelian

Aurelian

Aurelian , was Roman Emperor from 270 to 275. During his reign, he defeated the Alamanni after a devastating war. He also defeated the Goths, Vandals, Juthungi, Sarmatians, and Carpi. Aurelian restored the Empire's eastern provinces after his conquest of the Palmyrene Empire in 273. The following...

. Its original right-hand semicircular tower (on quadrato foundations) is still to be seen, while its left-hand one incorporated a tomb, presumed to belong to Quintus Aterius, a famous orator at the court of Tiberius

Tiberius

Tiberius , was Roman Emperor from 14 AD to 37 AD. Tiberius was by birth a Claudian, son of Tiberius Claudius Nero and Livia Drusilla. His mother divorced Nero and married Augustus in 39 BC, making him a step-son of Octavian...

, called by Tacitus

Tacitus

Publius Cornelius Tacitus was a senator and a historian of the Roman Empire. The surviving portions of his two major works—the Annals and the Histories—examine the reigns of the Roman Emperors Tiberius, Claudius, Nero and those who reigned in the Year of the Four Emperors...

 "an old man made rotten by flattery" (senex foedissimae adulationis) and mentioned by him as the first to get up to refute Tiberius's feigned refusal of the imperial crown. Marble from that tomb was used to cover the gate in restorations by Honorius

Honorius (emperor)

Honorius , was Western Roman Emperor from 395 to 423. He was the younger son of emperor Theodosius I and his first wife Aelia Flaccilla, and brother of the eastern emperor Arcadius....

 in 403

403

Year 403 was a common year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Theodosius and Rumoridus...

, who at the same time blocked the two nearby postern

Postern

A postern is a secondary door or gate, particularly in a fortification such as a city wall or castle curtain wall. Posterns were often located in a concealed location, allowing the occupants to come and go inconspicuously. In the event of a siege, a postern could act as a sally port, allowing...

s in the direction of Castra Praetoria

Castra Praetoria

Castra Praetoria were the ancient barracks of the Praetorian Guard of Imperial Rome.-History:According to the Roman historian Suetonius, the barracks were built in 23 AD by Lucius Aelius Sejanus, the praetorian prefect serving under the emperor Tiberius, in an effort to consolidate the several...

 and restored the porta Salaria

Porta Salaria

Porta Salaria was a gate in the Aurelian Walls of Rome, Italy, demolished in 1921.-History:Porta Salaria was part of the Aurelian Walls built by emperor Aurelian in the 3rd century, including pre-existing constructions in order to hasten the works. Under it passed the Via Salaria nova, which joined...

.

It was turned into a two-arch gate by Pope Pius IV

Pope Pius IV

Pope Pius IV , born Giovanni Angelo Medici, was Pope from 1559 to 1565. He is notable for presiding over the culmination of the Council of Trent.-Biography:...

 in 1564 (as told in a papal inscription on it), the same year as it was replaced by Porta Pia as the access route to the via Nomentana

Via Nomentana

Via Nomentana is an ancient road of Italy, leading North-East from Rome to Nomentum , a distance of . It originally bore the name Via Ficulnensis, from the old Latin village of Ficulnea, about from Rome. It was subsequently prolonged to Nomentum, but never became an important high road, and merged...

. This phase's brick arch, topped by the papal arms, and the original right-hand semicircular tower (with quadrato foundations) are still to be seen. Ten years later, the Porta Asinaria

Porta Asinaria

The Porta Asinaria is a gate in the Aurelian Walls of Rome. Dominated by two protruding tower blocks and associated guard rooms, it was built between 270 and 273, at the same time as the Wall itself...

 also closed to be replaced by the new Porta San Giovanni

Porta San Giovanni (Rome)

Porta San Giovanni is a gate in the Aurelian Wall of Rome, Italy, named after the nearby Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano.-History:It is made up of a single grand arch built for pope Gregory XIII in "opera forse" by Giacomo della Porta or, it is argued, Giacomo del Duca, who had collaborated...

. The original 3rd-century left-hand tower was demolished in 1827 to excavate the 1st-century AD tomb built into it (previous to the gate the area had been outside the city centre and thinly populated, and thus ideal for a cemetery).