Porta Querquetulana

The Porta Querquetulana was one of two known gates in the *Servian Wall on the *Caelian. It stood between the *Porta Caelimontana and *Porta Esquilina. The name ‘Porta Querquetulana’ (given by Pliny, NH 16.37) is derived from a grove or wood of oaks that stood just inside the gate (Festus 314; Paulus, in Festus 315, who calls it porta Querquetularia). In this grove was a shrine, the Larum Querquetulanum sacellum, which stood on the *Esquiline (Varro, Ling. 5.49). Some place the gate in the valley between the Caelian and the *Oppian (Häuber; Coarelli; Lanciani, FUR pl. 30), but there is no evidence of a Republican street here (s.v. *“Via Tusculana”). The gate must have stood on the crest of the Caelian (Richardson), on the “Via Tusculana”, the road which led SE from the *Colosseum valley to the *“Via Caelimontana”. As for its lateral E–W position, most scholars place it near the Church of SS. Quattro Coronati (Coarelli; Colini; Richardson; Lanciani, FUR pl. 30). Some place it on the site of the mediaeval Arco di Basile, a monumental aqueduct arch which served as the entrance to the Lateran precinct until demolished in 1604 (Säflund; cf. Platner–Ashby; for its position, see Lanciani, FUR pl. 36). However, the discovery of an extra-mural Republican cemetery zone just to the W of the Arco di Basile makes it almost certain that the wall and the gate are both to be found in the area of SS. Quattro Coronati (s.v. *Muri: Caelius Mons).