he most
ancient of these, and the ones which were in the earliest circle of the
cyclopean wall, are five in number: Porta S. Francesco,[67] the gate
into the arx, Porta S. Cesareo,[68] Porta dei Cappuccini, and the
postern at the corner where the early cyclopean cross wall struck the
main wall.

The second wall of the city, which was rather an enlargement of the
first, was cyclopean on the east as far as the present Porta del Sole,
and either scarped cliff or opus quadratum round to Porta S. Martino,
and up to Porta S. Francesco.[69] At the east end of the modern Corso,
there was a gate, made of opus quadratum,[70] as is shown not only by
the fact that this is the main street of the city, and on the terrace
level of the basilica, but also because the mediaeval wall round the
monastery of the Madonna degl'Angeli, the grounds of the present church
of Santa Maria, did not run straight to the cyclopean wall, but turned
down to join it near the gate which it helps to prove. Next, there was a
gate, but in all probability only a postern, near the Porta del Sole
where the cyclopean wall stops, where now there is a narrow street which
runs up to the piazza Garibaldi. On the south there was the gate which
at some time was given the name Porta Triumphalis. It was at the place
where now there is no wall at all.[71] At the southwest we find the next
gate, the one which is now closed.[72] The last one of the ancient gates
in this second circle of the city wall was one just inside the modern
Porta S. Martino, which opened west at the end of the Corso. All the
rest of the gates are mediaeval.

A few words about the roads leading to the several gates of Praeneste
will help further to settle the antiquity of these gates.[73] The oldest
road was certainly the trade route which came up the north side of the
Liris valley below the hill on which Praeneste was situated, and which
followed about the line of the Via Praenestina as shown by Ashby in his
map.[74] Two branch roads from this main track ran up to the town, one
at the west, the other at the east, both in the same line as the modern
roads. These roads were bound for the city gates as a matter of course
and the land slopes least sharply where these roads were and still are.
Another important road was outside the city wall, from one gate to the
other, and took the slope on the south side of the city where the Via
degli Arconi now runs.[75]

As far as excavations have proved up to thi