Aurelian Walls
The Aurelian Walls are a line of city walls built between 271 AD and 275 AD in Rome, Italy, during the reign of the Roman Emperors Aurelian and Probus. They superseded the earlier Servian Wall built during the 4th century BC.
The walls enclosed all the seven hills of Rome plus the Campus Martius and, on the right bank of the Tiber, the Trastevere district. The river banks within the city limits appear to have been left unfortified, although they were fortified along the Campus Martius. The size of entire enclosed area is 1,400 hectares (3,500 acres).
Construction
The full circuit ran for 19 kilometres (12 mi) surrounding an area of 13.7 square kilometres (5.3 sq mi). The walls were constructed in brick-faced concrete, 3.5 metres (11 ft) thick and 8 metres (26 ft) high, with a square tower every 100 Roman feet (29.6 metres (97 ft)).
In the 4th century, remodelling doubled the height of the walls to 16 metres (52 ft). By 500 AD, the circuit possessed 383 towers, 7,020 crenellations, 18 main gates, 5 postern gates, 116 latrines, and 2,066 large external windows.
List of gates (porte), from the northernmost and clockwise:
Porta del Popolo (Porta Flaminia) – 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 (Porta Praenestina) – 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 (Porta Appia) – here begins the Appian Way
Porta Ardeatina
Porta San Paolo (Porta Ostiense) – next to the Pyramid of Cestius, leading to Basilica di San Paolo fuori le Mura, here via Ostiense begins
Gates in Trastevere (from the southernmost and clockwise):
Porta Portuensis
Porta Aurelia Pancraziana
Porta Settimiana
Porta Aurelia-Sancti Petri
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