Porticus: Vicus Aesc(u)leti

Remnants of a monumental, double-sided Republican portico were found in the late 19th-c. between the *Circus Flaminius and the *Tiber in the vicinity of the *Navalia, some 7 m beneath Via Arenula (Gatti; Lanciani, FUR pl. 28). The portico has a central longitudinal wall (at least 15 m long, 1 m thick) of opus incertum faced by tufa blocks and topped with profiled travertine blocks; the building techniques suggest a 2nd-c. B.C. date. On either side of this wall stood a row of columns (Lanciani, FUR pl. 28), six of which are preserved up to a height of c. 3 m (Gatti: one row with column diam. of 0.90 m and intercolumniation of 2.25 m). The portico’s total depth, c.18 m (Lanciani, FUR pl. 28), rivals that of Rome’s most notable colonnades, such as those in the *Forum Iulium or *Forum Augusti. While the total length of this monumental portico remains unknown, it clearly extended for a considerable distance in an E–W direction parallel to an ancient thoroughfare, which has plausibly been addressed as the main avenue of the *Vicus Aesc(u)leti; across the street from the portico was the Augustan-era compital shrine of the vicus (*Compitum: Vicus Aesc(u)leti). The portico has been tentatively connected with the *Navalia (Coarelli), though a commercial function for this street-side portico in the Vicus Aesc(u)leti seems more likely (but these hypotheses are not mutually exclusive). Its probable 2nd-c. B.C. date, proximity to the Navalia, and remarkable size suggest an identification with the porticus post navalia, the ‘portico behind the Navalia’, that Livy (40.51.6) reports among the major works that M. Fulvius Nobilior let the contract for as censor in 179 B.C. (cf. *Portus Tiberinus; *Pons Aemilius). Our map shows the Republican portico, assuming it continued to exist during the Augustan era (and beyond) since its fragmentary columns do not seem to have been built over for quite some time.