STUDIES IN ROMAN REPUBLICAN TOPOGRAPHY: THE SERVIAN WALL AND THE PORTA TRIUMPHALIS

by HERNANDEZ, DAVID RAY

The objective of this thesis is to determine the location of the porta Triumphalis in Rome. The study begins with a reevaluation of the evidence for the Servian wall in the area of the Aventine, Palatine, and Capitoline, stemming from I. Ruggiero’s discovery that the hypothesis reconstructing the course of the Servian wall as running close to and parallel with the Tiber is based on erroneous data. A new model for the course of the Servian wall is proposed (i.e., one running to the Palatine and forming a closed-circuit fortification around Rome). It is argued that the porta Triumphalis was located at the northern entrance of the Circus Maximus. A drawing in the Codex Coburgensis bolsters this topographical reconstruction. The thesis concludes that the porta Triumphalis was located in the sanctuary of Hercules, implying that sanctuaries of Hercules and Jupiter constituted the binary topographical poles of every Roman triumphal procession.