Aurelian Walls

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South section of the walls

The Aurelian Walls were city walls built between 270 and 273 in Rome during the reign of the Roman Emperor Aurelian. The 12.5-mile-long wall was intended to defend the city from barbarian attacks. At the time, the city had been grown well beyond the old Servian Wall, built during the late 4th century BC, and had been relatively safe during the centuries of Roman expansion and consolidation. However, by the 3rd century, the menace of barbarian tribes flooding through the Germanic frontier could not be easily stopped by the Roman Army, with the empire in a heavy crisis.

[edit] History

In order to quickly build the wall, to save money, and to further fortify the structure, many existing buildings were included in the Wall, including the Amphitheatrum Castrense, the Pyramid of Cestius, and a section of the Aqua Claudia aqueduct near the Porta Maggiore. While the Aurelian Wall seems not to have been built along the Tiber River, which forms a natural barrier, a salient enclosed part of the Transtiberim (trastevere) across the river.

In 401, under Honorius, the walls and the gates were improved. At this time, the Tomb of Hadrian across the Tiber was incorporated as a fortress in the city defenses. Totila, king of the Ostrogoths, decided to destroy the walls in 545, to remove from the Byzantines the possibility of defending Rome in the ongoing Gothic War. According to Procopius, one-third of the walls were razed.

The Aurelian Wall continued as a significant military defense for the city of Rome until September 20, 1870, when the Bersaglieri of the Kingdom of Italy breached the wall near the Porta Pia.

Due to the need to maintain its defensive ability through the centuries, the Aurelian Wall remains remarkably well-preserved today, especially in its southern extent. The Museo delle Mura near the Porta San Sebastiano offers information on its construction and how the defenses operated.

[edit] Gates

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Gates of Rome

Porta Tiburtina

List of gates (porte), from the northernmost and clockwise:

Porta del Popolo – here begins via Flaminia
Porta Pinciana
Porta Salaria – here begins via Salaria
Porta Pia – here begins the new via Nomentana
Porta Nomentana – here began the old via Nomentana
Porta Praetoriana – old entrance to Castra Praetoria, the camp of the Praetorian Guard
Porta Tiburtina – here begins via Tiburtina
Porta Maggiore – here three aqueducts meet, and via Praenestina begins
Porta San Giovanni – near Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano
Porta Asinaria – here begins the old via Tuscolana
Porta Metronia
Porta Latina – here begins via Latina
Porta San Sebastiano – here begins Appian Way
Porta Ardeatina
Porta San Paolo – next to the Pyramid of Cestius, leading to Basilica di San Paolo fuori le Mura, here via Ostiense begins