Porta Pinciana is a gate

Gate

A gate is a point of entry to a space enclosed by walls, or a moderately sized opening in a fence. Gates may prevent or control entry or exit, or they may be merely decorative. Other terms for gate include yett and port...

 of 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....

 in 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...

.

The name derives from the gens

Gens

In ancient Rome, a gens , plural gentes, referred to a family, consisting of all those individuals who shared the same nomen and claimed descent from a common ancestor. A branch of a gens was called a stirps . The gens was an important social structure at Rome and throughout Italy during the...

Pincia, who owned the epponymous hill (Pincian Hill

Pincian Hill

The Pincian Hill is a hill in the northeast quadrant of the historical center of Rome. The hill lies to the north of the Quirinal, overlooking the Campus Martius...

). In ancient times it was also called Porta Turata ("Plugged Gate", for it was partially closed) and Porta Salaria vetus, as the oldest Via Salaria

Via Salaria

The Via Salaria was an ancient Roman road in Italy.It eventually ran from Rome to Castrum Truentinum on the Adriatic coast - a distance of 242 km. The road also passed through Reate and Asculum...

 passed under it (the Via Salaria nova passed under 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...

).

The gate was built under the emperor 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 the early 5th century, by adapting a previous smaller service entrance. The two side passages are a modern addition. The gate remained closed until the early 20th century.

During the Middle Ages a legend told that the Roman general Belisarius

Belisarius

Flavius Belisarius was a general of the Byzantine Empire. He was instrumental to Emperor Justinian's ambitious project of reconquering much of the Mediterranean territory of the former Western Roman Empire, which had been lost less than a century previously....

, who here had defended Rome against the Ostrogoths in the siege of 537-538

Siege of Rome (537-538)

The First Siege of Rome during the Gothic War lasted for a year and nine days, from 2 March 537 to 12 March 538. It was fought between the defending East Romans, under general Belisarius, and the Ostrogothic army under king Vitiges...

, had been seen here as a beggar.