The Porta Capena was a gate in the Servian Wall in Rome, Italy. The gate was located in the area of Piazza di Porta Capena, where the Caelian,

Palatine A palatine or palatinus (Latin; : ''palatini''; cf. derivative spellings below) is a high-level official attached to imperial or royal courts in Europe since Roman Empire, Roman times.

and Aventine hills meet. Probably its exact position was between the entrance of Via di Valle delle Camene and the beginning of Via delle Terme di Caracalla (known as the "Archaeological Walk"), facing the curved side of the

Circus Maximus The Circus Maximus (Latin for "largest circus"; Italian language, Italian: ''Circo Massimo'') is an ancient Roman chariot racing, chariot-racing stadium and mass entertainment venue in Rome, Italy. In the valley between the Aventine Hill, Avent ...

. Nowadays Piazza di Porta Capena hosts the FAO Headquarters. Between 1937 and 2004, it was home to the obelisk of Axum.

History

The valley around what is now the avenue of the

Baths of Caracalla The Baths of Caracalla () in Rome, Italy, were the city's second largest Ancient Rome, Roman public baths, or ''thermae'', after the Baths of Diocletian. The baths were likely built between AD 212 (or 211) and 216/217, during the reigns of empero ...

was in ancient times covered with woods, caves, and freshwater springs. In this area (called the valley of the '' Camenae''), considered sacred and mysterious, it is said (and

Livy Titus Livius (; 59 BC – AD 17), known in English as Livy ( ), was a Roman historian. He wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people, titled , covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome before the traditional founding i ...

punctually reports) that the peaceful king

Numa Pompilius Numa Pompilius (; 753–672 BC; reigned 715–672 BC) was the Roman mythology, legendary second king of Rome, succeeding Romulus after a one-year interregnum. He was of Sabine origin, and many of Rome's most important religious and political ins ...

, the first successor of

Romulus Romulus (, ) was the legendary founder and first king of Rome. Various traditions attribute the establishment of many of Rome's oldest legal, political, religious, and social institutions to Romulus and his contemporaries. Although many of th ...

, had his nocturnal encounters with the goddess (or nymph) Egeria, who on those occasions provided him with all the necessary information for the institution of the rites most pleasing to each divinity, as well as the related priestly functions. Whether he was in good or bad faith, with this expedient the king managed to keep calm for several years a rough and ignorant people, who could not let off steam in the war. Therefore, this area can be considered the cradle of the religion of

ancient Rome In modern historiography, ancient Rome is the Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of Rome, founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, collapse of the Western Roman Em ...

. Its location and some testimonies suggest that the gate was originally called ''Camena'' and that its construction may even be earlier than that of the Servian Wall. The first historical-legendary mention dates back to the time of King

Tullus Hostilius Tullus Hostilius (; r. 672–640 BC) was the legendary third king of Rome. He succeeded Numa Pompilius and was succeeded by Ancus Marcius. Unlike his predecessor, Tullus was known as a warlike king who, according to the Roman historian Livy, b ...

(mid-7th century BC): it refers to the fact that the funerary monument to Horatia – the sister of the Horatii, killed because she was guilty of falling in love of one of the Curiatii – was erected close to the gate. In 489 BC, it was from Porta Capena that a multitude of young

Volsci The Volsci (, , ) were an Italic tribe, well known in the history of the first century of the Roman Republic. At the time they inhabited the partly hilly, partly marshy district of the south of Latium, bounded by the Aurunci and Samnites on the ...

was driven out of Rome, while they waited for the

games A game is a Structure, structured type of play (activity), play usually undertaken for entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an Educational game, educational tool. Many games are also considered to be Work (human activity), work (such as p ...

, according to the project of

Coriolanus ''Coriolanus'' ( or ) is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1605 and 1608. The play is based on the life of the legendary Roman leader Gnaeus Marcius Coriolanus. Shakespeare worked on it during the same ...

to foment their animosity against Rome and prepare for the subsequent war. In 312 BC the

Appian Way The Appian Way (Latin and Italian language, Italian: Via Appia) is one of the earliest and strategically most important Roman roads of the ancient Roman Republic, republic. It connected Rome to Brindisi, in southeast Italy. Its importance is in ...

was built, starting from the gate and having the city of

Capua Capua ( ; ) is a city and ''comune'' in the province of Caserta, in the region of Campania, southern Italy, located on the northeastern edge of the Campanian plain. History Ancient era The name of Capua comes from the Etruscan ''Capeva''. The ...

as its arrival point: for this reason, the name of the gate was changed into Capena and the whole area, already relevant for various reasons, assumed a very important role as a major point of transit and contact with

southern Italy Southern Italy (, , or , ; ; ), also known as () or (; ; ; ), is a macroregion of Italy consisting of its southern Regions of Italy, regions. The term "" today mostly refers to the regions that are associated with the people, lands or cultu ...

. In literary evidence, the gate is also mentioned for another important event that deeply marked the history of Rome: as Livy reports, after the disastrous

battle of Cannae The Battle of Cannae (; ) was a key engagement of the Second Punic War between the Roman Republic and Ancient Carthage, Carthage, fought on 2 August 216 BC near the ancient village of Cannae in Apulia, southeast Italy. The Carthaginians and ...

, the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

met to assess the situation ''"ad portam Capenam"'', which was one of the three meeting places of the assembly. The procession that introduced in Rome the goddess

Cybele Cybele ( ; Phrygian: ''Matar Kubileya, Kubeleya'' "Kubeleya Mother", perhaps "Mountain Mother"; Lydian: ''Kuvava''; ''Kybélē'', ''Kybēbē'', ''Kybelis'') is an Anatolian mother goddess; she may have a possible forerunner in the earliest ...

(the ''"Magna Mater"''), which was one of the first representatives of foreign cults and rites later culminated with the affirmation of Christianity, also passed through Porta Capena.

Decline and destruction

According to

Juvenal Decimus Junius Juvenalis (), known in English as Juvenal ( ; 55–128), was a Roman poet. He is the author of the '' Satires'', a collection of satirical poems. The details of Juvenal's life are unclear, but references in his works to people f ...

, in the 1st century A.D., the area of Porta Capena had lost its historical and legendary importance and had become a meeting place for beggars, especially those of the Jewish religion.Decimus Junius Juvenalis 3.10–16. The last use of the gate was as a supporting arch for the passage of the

Aqua Marcia The Aqua Marcia () is a long Roman aqueduct, and the longest of List of aqueducts in the city of Rome, eleven aqueducts that supplied the city of ancient Rome, Rome. The aqueduct was built between 144–140 BC. The still-functioning Acqua Fe ...

aqueduct. Porta Capena was destroyed and the entire area restructured by Emperor

Caracalla Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (born Lucius Septimius Bassianus, 4 April 188 – 8 April 217), better known by his nickname Caracalla (; ), was Roman emperor from 198 to 217 AD, first serving as nominal co-emperor under his father and then r ...

; the access to Rome was later transferred a little further on, through the new Porta Appia which opened into the Aurelian Wall. Its remains, while no longer visible today, were traced during the excavations carried out in 1867.

In popular culture

*Porta Capena was featured as a location visited by the Cornelii family in the popular Latin textbook series, ''Ecce Romani''.

References

Bibliography

* M. Modolo, "Il rudere anonimo del Parco di Porta Capena a Roma", in: D. Manacorda, R. Santangeli Valenzani (edited by), Il primo miglio della Via Appia a Roma, Croma, Rome 2010, pp. 24–38. * L. G. Cozzi: ''Le porte di Roma''. F. Spinosi Ed., Rome, 1968. {{coord, 41.884, N, 12.491, E, display=title, source:dewiki Ancient Roman buildings and structures in Rome Capena Rome R. XII Ripa Rome R. XIX Celio Rome R. XXI San Saba