Porticus Gai et Luci

A series of 15 shops (tabernae) and a two-storey arcaded portico ran in front of the *Basilica Paulli and shielded it from the *Forum (LTUR I, fig. 102). It is commonly identified as the Porticus of Gaius and Lucius (mentioned by Suet., Aug. 29.4: porticum basilicamque Gai et Luci; cf. Dio Cass. 56.27.5), but sometimes as the porticus Iulia (*Divus Iulius, Aedes). At the E end of the portico a small porch extended out toward the Temple of Divus Julius, and this too has been identified as the Porticus of Gaius and Lucius, based on the discovery in this area of a dedicatory inscription to Lucius Caesar (CIL VI 36908). Monumental foundations at the S end of this porch have led some scholars further to posit an archway connecting the portico with the Temple of Divus Julius (Coarelli’s Parthian arch of Augustus, s.v. *“Arcus Augusti”). But the proximity of the *Fornix Fabianus militates against a second monumental entrance to the Forum here, and the inscription to Lucius Caesar is not enough to identify this small porch as the Porticus of Gaius and Lucius. The most likely solution is that the arcaded portico in front of the Basilica Paulli was dedicated as the Porticus of Gaius and Lucius (Richardson, Mattern, Palombi; but cf. Ackroyd for the suggestion that the Porticus of Gaius and Lucius never existed as an independent monument). Addendum The complexities of this portico's identification (along with the problems of the so-called Stoa of Livia of Dio Cass. 56.27.5) are presented in Urbem 215 nn.276-277. Ibid. 213 with n.275 on the close-by, but unlocated, honorific monument for Gaius and Lucius Caesar, based on inscription CIL VI 36908.