ance to the city, below
the basilica, the temple, and the main open square, which faced out over
the great forum below, there must have been a monumental gate in the
wall. As a matter of fact there was such a gate, and I believe it was
called the PORTA TRIUMPHALIS. An inscription of the age of the Antonines
mentions "seminaria a Porta Triumphale," and this passing reference to a
gate with a name which in itself implies a gate of consequence, so well
known that a building placed near it at once had its location fixed,
gives the rest of the proof necessary to establish a central entrance to
the city in front, through a PORTA TRIUMPHALIS.[54]

Before the time of Sulla there had been a gate in the south wall of the
city, approached by one road, which ascended from the east on the arches
facing the present Via degli Arconi. After entering the city one went
straight up a grade not very steep to the basilica, and to the open
square or ancient forum which was the space now occupied by the two
modern piazzas, the Garibaldi and the Savoia, and on still farther to
the temple. When Sulla rebuilt the city, and laid out a forum on the
level space directly south of and below the town, he made another road
from the west to correspond to the old ascent from the east, and brought
them together at the old central gate, which he enlarged to the PORTA
TRIUMPHALIS. In the open square in front of the basilica had stood the
statue of some famous man[55] on a platform of squared stone 16 x 17-1/2
feet in measurement. Around this base the Sullan improvements put a
restraining wall of opus quadratum.[56] The open square was in front of
the basilica and to its left below the temple. There was but one way to
the terrace above the temple from the ancient forum. This was a steep
road to the right, up the present Via delle Scalette. Another road ran
to the left back of the basilica, but ended either in front of the
western cave connected with the temple, or at the entrance into the
precinct of the temple.

THE GATES.

Strabo, in a well known passage,[57] speaks of Tibur and Praeneste as
two of the most famous and best fortified of the towns of Latium, and
tells why Praeneste is the more impregnable, but we have no mention of
its gates in literature, except incidentally in Plutarch,[58] who says
that when Marius was flying before Sulla's forces and had reached
Praeneste, he found the gates closed, and had to be drawn up the wall by
a rope. The mos