Porta Triumphalis

The ‘Triumphal Gate’ of Rome, reserved for the spectacular ceremony of a victorious general and his troops entering the Urbs ‘in triumph’ (Cic., Pis. 55; cf., for the Flavian period: Joseph., BellJ<a class="" href="http://example.com/new.php?page=BellJ">?</a> 7.130; for a concise overview: Bonfante Warren 577-79; Gagé 133-38). In A.D. 14, as an unprecedented honor (eventually not utilized), the gate was proposed for the passage of Augustus’ funeral procession to the Campus Martius (Suet., Aug. 100.2: funus Triumphali porta ducendum; Tac., Ann. 1.8, 1.10; Dio Cass. 56.42.1). Since Cicero (loc. cit.) is quite explicit that the prestige this gate bestowed upon entry into the city was far beyond that offered by any other gate in the *Servian Wall (such as the *Porta Caelimontana or the *Porta Esquilina), it seems safe to conclude, with Coarelli (1988, 368), that the Porta Triumphalis was situated along the course of the city walls (rather than at some distance inside or outside them; separate triumphal arches, modeled upon the Porta Triumphalis, may have stood in the Forum Bovarium area and elsewhere: Coarelli 1988, 372, cf. 443-59; id., LTUR III, 334). After a long history of scholarly dispute, the Porta Triumphalis is now placed NW of the twin temples of *Fortuna and Mater Matuta and identified with one of the double gates of the *Porta Carmentalis (itself unlocated; Coarelli 1988, 368, 409-10; id., LTUR III, 324; Richardson 301; Bonfante Warren 578; cf. *Porta Ratumenna). Based on Livy 2.49, Bonfante Warren has coined the important notion of a “triumph in reverse” which took place at the Porta Carmentalis when the Fabii left the city for their disastrous Veii campaign. Since it was the right-hand portal of the double gate (the ominous porta Scelerata) through which the Fabii marched out (Livy 2.49.8; Ov., Fast. 2.201-4), the other — the left gate when leaving, and the right when entering — must have been the Porta Triumphalis (Richardson; contra, Coarelli 1988, 399, who finds the cause of the Fabian disaster in their use of the “wrong” gate, that destined for entries only, when they exited the city — a conclusion which implausibly equates the Porta Triumphalis with the porta Scelerata; cf. id., LTUR 324). As the needle’s eye in the still-unresolved route, or routes, of the triumphal processions between the *Circus Flaminius and the *Velabrum (Coarelli 1988, 365-68; s.v. *Theatrum Marcelli), the precise placement of the Porta Triumphalis (and, likewise, the Porta Carmentalis) must be left open; our map denotes the gates with adjacent index numbers.