Rome in the Footsteps of an XVIIIth Century Traveller

Links to this page can be found in Book 1, Map A4, Day 5, View C11, Rione Ripa and Rione Campitelli.

The page covers:
The plate by Giuseppe Vasi
Today's view
Porta S. Sebastiano
Arco di Druso
Sepolcro degli Scipioni
Along Via Appia Antica
  - Sepolcro di Geta and Vigna Casali
  - Domine Quo Vadis?
  - Tomba di Priscilla and Cappella di Reginald Pole
The Walls between Porta S. Sebastiano and Porta Ardeatina
Porta Ardeatina
Bastione del Sangallo
Horti Serviliani ?
The Walls between Bastione del Sangallo and Porta S. Paolo

The Plate (No. 10)

Porta Capena, the gate of the Republican walls from which Via Appia started, was located at the south-eastern corner of the Palatine. The new gate built by Emperor Aurelian retained the name of Porta Capena, but was more commonly known as Porta Appia. Later on it was called Porta S. Sebastiano with reference to the basilica dedicated to that saint along Via Appia and today this is the prevailing name. In 1747 when Giuseppe Vasi made this etching the gate had minor importance because of the opening in 1574 of Porta S. Giovanni and of a new road (Via Appia Nuova) which replaced the old one (Via Appia Antica).
The view is taken from the green dot in the small 1748 map here below which shows: 1) Porta S. Sebastiano; 2) Arco di Druso; 3) Porta Ardeatina; 4) Bastione del Sangallo; 5) Sepolcro degli Scipioni. The dotted line in the small map delineates the border between Rione Ripa (left) and Rione Campitelli (right).

Today

The view in August 2008

Porta S. Sebastiano has always been regarded as the most imposing of the ancient gates and this has helped its conservation; the sections of walls at its sides are among the most evocative ones and they have not been breached to allow an easier flow of traffic. Unfortunately however the Mayors of the City of Rome have not had the strength to totally close to cars the urban part of Via Appia which starts at S. Cesareo in Palatio.

Porta S. Sebastiano

(left) The gate; (right) a "posterula" (a small opening in the wall) very near the gate

Originally the gate had two entrances between two round towers; the latter were strengthened by Maxentius and their lower sections were given a square shape during the reign of Emperor Honorius; at that time the two entrances were replaced by a single one and the gate was linked by two short walls to nearby Arco di Druso; in this way Porta S. Sebastiano became very similar to Porta S. Paolo which still retains the appearance of a small castle.

(left) Apotropaic bumps (they can be seen also at Porta Latina); (centre-above) relief portraying St. Michael and inscription celebrating a victory; (centre-below) a 1779 "I was here"; (right-above) cross on the key stone of the inner gate; (right-below) a religious inscription

Apotropaic is a word deriving from the Greek language and meaning "which turns away/averts"; the bumps on the marble facing of the towers are thought to have been placed with the purpose of averting bad luck, although a more practical explanation suggests that they were used for measuring the work completed by stone cutters.
The walls of the gate are covered with inscriptions: some of them are merely graffiti which show that this bad habit has ancient roots, but two inscriptions/reliefs are linked to historical events:
a) on St. Michael's Day (September 29) 1327 the Romans rebuked an attempt by Neapolitan troops to enter the city; the episode was part of the long fight for supremacy in Rome between Colonna and Orsini during the period the popes were in Avignon: in this instance the Colonna were among the defenders and the Orsini among the attackers;
b) it is generally thought that a cross with a Greek sentence thanking the Lord and Sts. Conon and George, patrons of the army, was placed on the keystone by Stilicho, a general of Honorius who defeated the Visigoths at Pollentia in 402

(left) Walkway along the internal side of the walls; (right) a medieval painting in a stretch of the walkway where a hermit settled (see an enlargement of the painting in the Hall of Fame)

Today Porta S. Sebastiano houses Museo delle Mura (it opens in another window), a small museum on the history of the Walls of Rome, but the main reason for visiting it is that it allows walking along a well preserved stretch of the walls.

Ancient materials

Fragments of reliefs, of marble decorations and of inscribed tombstones can be noticed here and there in the walls of the gate and in the steps of the walkway.

Views from the top of the gate towards Rome: (left/centre) private houses; (right) statues at the top of the façade of S. Giovanni in Laterano

From the terrace of one of the towers it is possible to see some private houses along Via Appia; many of them are residences of ambassadors (you may wish to see other such residences in Parioli).
In 1940-1943 Porta San Sebastiano was turned into the luxury residence of Ettore Muti, a high-level member of the Fascist Party. Some modern black and white mosaics which embellished it are still in place. Not far away, at Via di Porta Latina, Dino Grandi, another Fascist politician, had a villa.

Views outside Rome: (left) eastwards; (centre) towards Via Appia Antica; (right) westwards

The views testify to the effectiveness of the laws which have protected the landscape along Via Appia Antica.

Arco di Druso

(left) The arch; (right) the same seen from the top of the gate

Via Appia was very often the scene of the triumphal entrance to Rome of a victorious general or emperor returning from a campaign in the eastern provinces of the empire. For this reason the crossing of Via Appia by the branch of an aqueduct built by Emperor Caracalla to supply water to the baths he built was given the appearance of a triumphal arch. It is unclear why the arch was subsequently associated with Drusus, a name born by many members of the family of Livia, Emperor Augustus' third wife and in particular by a brother and a son of Emperor Tiberius.

Sepolcro degli Scipioni

(left) IIIrd century AD house and medieval tower which were built above the tomb; (right-above) one of the underground rooms; (right-below) a funerary relief and a cinerary urn

The laws of Rome did not permit the construction of funerary monuments within the pomerium, the city boundary, but when the Scipio family built a large complex for their dead, Via Appia was entirely outside it. The small necropolis which was made up of several large underground rooms was first discovered in 1616, but only in 1780 it was inspected in a thorough manner.
The Scipio family is best known for the role its members played during the Macedonian Wars (the link leads to other images of Sepolcro degli Scipioni). You may wish to see a 1909 watercolour by Yoshio Markino depicting the access to the site.

Musei Vaticani: Sarcophagus of Lucius Cornelius Scipio Barbatus

This may be; but the handsome though plain sarcophagus of Barbatus may, by those of a certain taste, be thought more attractive than any of the masterpieces of the Vatican. The eloquent simple inscription becomes the virtues and the fellow countrymen of the defunct, and instructs us more than a chapter of Livy in the style and language of the republican Romans.
John Cam Hobhouse - Dissertations on the Ruins of Rome - 1818
In the room is one of the most interesting objects in Rome, - the sarcophagus of gray stone found in the tomb of the Scipios, the shape of which is so well known by the many copies which have been spread over the world. The works of the republic are not numerous in Rome; and this venerable monument attracts us as well by its antiquity, as by its association with the illustrious family whose name it bears. Impressive - as it is, it seemed out of place in this modern and airy room, so richly lighted and commanding so living a landscape. It was an exotic torn from its native soil. Half of its significance and meaning is lost by its being thrust upon the eye in the broad glare of noon, and surrounded by such different and exciting objects. How much better would it have been, had it been left in the gloom and silence of the vaulted niche for which it was prepared! How much more impressive would the simple inscription have been, if we had been compelled to spell it out, in sepulchral darkness, by the flickering light of a torch!
George Stillman Hillard - Six Months in Italy in 1847-1848
The funerary complex was founded in ca 280 BC by Lucius Cornelius Scipio Barbatus, whose sarcophagus is one of the earliest examples of Hellenistic art in Rome (see the 1821 Monument to Anne Elizabeth Synnot at the Protestant Cemetery, a copy of that of Barbato).

Sepolcro di Geta and Vigna Casali

(left) Sepolcro di Geta; (right) building of former Vigna Casali which incorporates some ancient walls; (inset) 1924 map showing the initial section of Via Appia Antica from Porta S. Sebastiano to Domine Quo Vadis

A walk along the initial stretch of Via Appia Antica is marred by having to pass under the railway ring which surrounds a large section of the walls of Rome and a modern road.
Sepolcro di Geta anticipates a feature of many large tombs along Via Appia Antica, i.e. their reuse for farming or defensive purposes as at Casale Rotondo and at Torre in Selci. It is highly unlikely that Emperor Geta was buried in this tomb. He was killed by his brother Caracalla, who erased references to him from all monuments and inscriptions.
In the XVIIIth century Cardinal Antonio Casali gathered a fine collection of antiquities in his villa near S. Maria in Domnica. Some pieces of his collection were found in a large farm he owned outside Porta S. Sebastiano.

Musei Vaticani: Marble console table which was found at Vigna Casali

Cardinal Casali donated some pieces of his collection to Pope Clement XIV and Pope Pius VI. This console table was placed in the new halls of Museo Pio-Clementino at Palazzo del Belvedere where the masterpieces of the papal collections were on display. It has a very elaborate decoration and it houses a complex scene depicting Hercules in one of his labours or killing Hippocoons, king of Sparta and his sons. In line with the usage of the time it was overly restored.

Domine Quo Vadis?

(left) Façade; (right-above) copy of a relief showing the imprints of two feet; (right-below) stoup decorated with a bee, the heraldic symbol of the Barberini

Quo Vadis is an 1896 historical novel by Polish writer Henryk Sienkiewicz, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1905. In 1951 it was adapted to the screen for a blockbuster film by the same name starring Deborah Kerr, Robert Taylor and Peter Ustinov. It is based on an event described in the Acts of Peter, an apocryphal text. During the persecution of Emperor Nero St. Peter was fleeing Rome by Via Appia when he met Jesus Christ whom he asked Domine quo vadis? (Lord, where are you going?); the reply was Venio Romam iterum crucifigi (I am going to Rome to be crucified again). St. Peter understood he should not try to escape his fate and returned to Rome.
In the IXth century a small chapel was built on the site where a slab with a relief showing the imprints of two feet was found; a copy of the relief is kept in the chapel, while the original is in Basilica di S. Sebastiano with other holy relics, because the feet were thought to be those of Jesus Christ; most likely the relief was an ancient ex-voto for a happy return.
The chapel was rebuilt in 1637 by Cardinal Francesco Barberini, nephew of Pope Urban VIII.

Two modern paintings re-enacting the meeting between Jesus Christ and St. Peter and a small monument to Henryk Sienkiewicz

Tomba di Priscilla and Cappella di Reginald Pole

(left) Tomba di Priscilla; (right) chapel built by Cardinal Reginald Pole

Opposite Domine Quo Vadis there is a Roman circular tomb upon which the Caetani, the family of Pope Boniface VIII, built a round tower (they had a small fortress not far away). Priscilla was a wealthy lady of the end of the Ist century AD. The lower part of the building shows evidence of opus reticulatum (see a page on Roman Construction Techniques), while the upper one is medieval and it was built with stones taken from other tombs.
A chapel was built near Domine Quo Vadis in memory of another encounter which occurred in 1539 between Cardinal Reginald Pole and assassins sent by King Henry VIII of England. In 1521 the King was granted the title of Defensor Fidei by Pope Leo X, but later on his relations with the Church of Rome turned sour. Cardinal Pole managed to escape from the ambush and as an ex-voto he built the chapel; King Henry took revenge on him by executing his mother in London. The use of brickwork pillars was maybe inspired by a nearby ancient tomb, known as Sepolcro di Annia Regilla.

You may wish to continue your walk along Via Appia Antica by visiting the following pages:
Via Appia Antica from Basilica di S. Sebastiano to Cecilia Metella.
Via Appia Antica from Cecilia Metella to Torre in Selci.
Via Appia Antica from Torre in Selci to Frattocchie.

The Walls between Porta S. Sebastiano and Porta Ardeatina

Walls between Porta S. Sebastiano and Porta Ardeatina

The walk along this section of the walls is very interesting and it offers great views: the walls are south facing and not overwhelmed by nearby buildings. The towers are placed at a distance of one hundred Roman feet (the Roman foot is very slightly shorter than the English one). This measure corresponded to a standard arrow shot and Roman architects used it in the design of many buildings and in that of castra, the Roman military encampments.

Porta Ardeatina

(left) Porta Ardeatina and in the foreground a section of the ancient road leading to it; (right) Porta Ardeatina, the arches opened for Via Cristoforo Colombo leading to EUR and in the distance Bastione del Sangallo

Porta Ardeatina is in between a gate and a posterula: it did not have the size of a major gate, but it had some sort of decoration and it actually had a road departing from it; Via Ardeatina today branches off Via Appia Antica at Domine Quo Vadis, but in the past it started at this point. It led to Ardea and to Anzio, where Emperor Nero had a villa by the sea.

Museo Nazionale Romano: IIIrd century AD sarcophagus of Iulius Achilleus, commander of Ludus Magnus, which was found in 1939 in a necropolis near Porta Ardeatina during the opening of Via Cristoforo Colombo

The relief of this sarcophagus depicts a complex scene where three shepherds take care of their animals, mainly sheep. The choice of a pastoral idyllic subject, rather than a thiasos, a Dionysiac scene, marks a change in the tastes of Roman society which eventually led to the depiction of the Good Shepherd as an early Christian symbol (see also the Sarcophagus of the Shepherds at Porto).

Museo Nazionale Romano: Detail of a mosaic (early IInd century AD) from the necropolis

The depiction of Medusa, a Gorgon, was a popular evil averting image and it can be seen in many floor mosaics throughout the Empire, in particular in the Roman province of Africa which included Tunisia and parts of Algeria and Libya. See examples at Sousse and Mahdia.

Museo Nazionale Romano: Detail of a mosaic (IIIrd century AD) found near Porta Ardeatina. Another mosaic found in the area was relocated to S. Balbina

Bastione del Sangallo

(left) Bastione del Sangallo; (right) coat of arms of Pope Paul III between those of the Senate of the City of Rome (left) and of Camera Apostolica (right), the board of finance of the Papal State, which contributed to financing the construction of the bastion. It is shown also in the image used as background for this page

The 1527 Sack of Rome by the German mercenary troops of Emperor Charles V led the Popes to worry about the defence of Rome. The Aurelian walls not only were ruined at many locations, but they were built before the development of gunpowder and cannon and they could be easily breached. In 1536 Pope Paul III entrusted Antonio da Sangallo the Younger with the task of upgrading them. Sangallo, with the assistance of military experts, built a large bastion as a real life sample of the new wall; it is actually a very imposing and elaborate construction which can be regarded as state-of-the-art Italian military architecture. It had only one drawback: its cost. The idea of surrounding the whole city with new walls was abandoned in 1542, but the walls around the Vatican were rebuilt according to the standard set by this bastion (starting from Porta S. Spirito). Michele Sammicheli, an assistant to Antonio da Sangallo, designed imposing fortifications at Verona, Venice and Candia (Iraklion).

Horti Serviliani ?

Musei Vaticani: Mosaic of the "asarotos oikos" (unswept house/floor)

When meanwhile word came that the other armies had revolted Nero tore to pieces the dispatches which were handed to him as he was dining. (..) Then taking some poison from Locusta and putting it into a golden box, he crossed over into the Servilian gardens, where he tried to induce the tribunes and centurions of the Guard to accompany him in his flight, first sending his most trustworthy freedmen to Ostia, to get a fleet ready.
Suetonius - The Lives of the Twelve Caesars - translation by J. C. Rolfe
At the break of day, then, Milichus went straight to the Servilian Gardens. He was turned from the door; but, on insisting that he was the bearer of great and terrible news, was escorted by the porters to Nero's freedman Epaphroditus, and by him in due course to Nero.
Tacitus - Annales - Loeb Edition
At Rome there are, by Praxiteles, a Flora, a Triptolemus, and a Ceres, in the Gardens of Servilius; (..) Scopas (..) there are by him (..) a Vesta seated, in the Gardens of Servilius (..) I find it stated, also, that the Apollo by Calamis, (..) the Pugilists by Dercylides, and the statue of Callisthenes the historian, by Amphistratus, all of them now in the Gardens of Servilius, are works highly esteemed.
Pliny the Elder - Historia Naturalis - Book XXXVI:4 - Translation by J. Bostock and H. T. Riley.
Until 1833 archaeologists and historians were unable to establish the location of the Servilian gardens, although the passage by Suetonius suggested they were not too far from the imperial palaces on the Palatine and they were conveniently placed to reach Ostia. In that year the discovery of a very fine floor mosaic at Vigna Lupi, a farm on the downward sloping ground south of Bastione del Sangallo, was regarded as evidence of the location of Horti Serviliani because it was consistent with the historical accounts.
The gardens were named after the Servilii, an important patrician family and it is possible that they belonged to Servilia, mistress of Julius Caesar and mother of M. Junius Brutus. They were most likely confiscated by Octavian after the battle of Philippi; the passage by Pliny indicates that they were very well kept at the time of Emperor Vespasian; they were particularly suitable for being used in winter because of their southern exposure and their being sheltered from northern winds by the hill. A funerary monument to M. Servilius was found in 1808 along Via Appia and more recent archaeological campaigns indicated that the Mausoleum of Romulus, son of Maxentius, incorporated a funerary complex of the Servilii.

Musei Vaticani: Mosaic of the "asarotos oikos": detail of the unswept floor with a mouse to the right

Pavements are an invention of the Greeks, who also practised the art of painting them, till they were superseded by mosaics. In this last branch of art, the highest excellence has been attained by Sosus, who laid, at Pergamus, the mosaic pavement known as the "Asarotos oikos"; from the fact that he there represented, in small squares of different colours, the remnants of a banquet lying upon the pavement, and other things which are usually swept away with the broom, they having all the appearance of being left there by accident. There is a dove also, greatly admired, in the act of drinking, and throwing the shadow of its head upon the water; while other birds are to be seen sunning and pluming themselves, on the margin of a drinking-bowl. Pliny - XXXVI:60
The floor mosaic found at Vigna Lupi was the first one to perfectly fit the description by Pliny. Floor mosaics depicting xenia, fruit and food which were offered to guests, are rather common, see examples in Tunisia, but this particular type of xenia is very rare (another example was found at Aquileia in 1859).

Musei Vaticani: Mosaic of the "asarotos oikos": (left) theatrical masks and part of the signature "Eraclitus worked"; (right) central part of the floor mosaic with a "Nilotic" subject; see mosaics which were found near S. Prisca which show the same subjects

It is very likely that the floor mosaic was made at the time and probably for Emperor Hadrian. He was a great admirer of the Greek and Egyptian cultures and the mosaic is a tribute to both of them.

The Walls between Bastione del Sangallo and Porta S. Paolo

Views of the walls between Bastione del Sangallo and Porta S. Paolo

The section of the walls between the bastion and Porta S. Paolo is very evocative; fragments of ancient Roman buildings can be spotted on its towers and some of the restorations made by the popes are celebrated by coats of arms; today the walls protect S. Saba, a very peaceful neighbourhood, from the chaotic traffic of modern Rome.

(left) Coat of arms of Pope Innocent X (now in the Museum of the Walls); (centre-above) coat of arms of Pope Nicholas V; (centre-below) coat of arms of Pope Pius IV; (right) walled fragments of ancient buildings

Next plate in Book 1: Porta S. Paolo.
Next step in Day 5 itinerary: Basilica di S. Sebastiano.
Next step in your tour of Rione Campitelli: Chiesa di S. Sisto Vecchio.
Next step in your tour of Rione Ripa: Porta S. Paolo.

Excerpts from Giuseppe Vasi 1761 Itinerary related to this page:

Porta Capena, o di s. Sebastiano Teneva un tal nome questa porta, perchè portava al tempio o bosco delle Camene fatto da Numa, o secondo altri alla città di Capena, che Italo fabbricò presso Alba; in oggi però prende il nome dal cimiterio e basilica di s. Sebastiano, che poco più di un miglio le sta discosto. Da questa porta principiava la celebre via Appia, lastricata da Claudio Appio Censore fino a Capua, e poi da altri distesa fino a Brindisi in Calabria, spianando monti ed inalzando valli, per renderla agiata e comoda a' passaggieri, e alle spedizioni, che continuamente facevansi per levante; e però vi erano ad ogni miglio poste delle colonnette, che indicavano il numero delle miglia, come oggidì si costuma; ed ogni tanto vi erano de' seditori di marmo e comodi opportuni, e sopra tutte era ornata di magnifici edifizj di tempj, e tombe sepolcrali di nobili famiglie. Or camminandosi per questa via, si trova in primo luogo la piccola Chiesa di Domine, quo vadis? Appresso a questa piccola chiesa fu il tempio dedicato a Marte, sostenuto da cento maravigliose colonne, la maggior parte delle quali cadde, come dicemmo, allor quando vi fu martirizzato s. Sisto Papa. Sulle rovine di questo fu dipoi eretta una chiesa in onore della ss. Vergine col titolo delle Palme, per le palme delle quali era circondato l'antico tempio. E perchè quivi presso, come è tradizione, apparve il divin Redentore colla croce in spalla a s. Pietro, mentre fuggiva l'ira di Nerone, il quale maravigliato gli disse, Domine, quo vadis? e Gesù Cristo per istruirlo, che era sua volontà, che egli in Roma soffrisse volentieri la morte, li rispose; Eo Romam iterum crucifigi; e lasciando impresse le vestigie de' suoi santi piedi fu di una pietra, disparve; perciò conservarono i Cristiani per molto tempo quivi la memoria di un tal fatto, e la pietra colle sante pedate. Ma poi vi eressero una cappelletta, che, secondo alcuni scrittori, è quell'altra rotonda, che poco lungi si vede discosto da questa, e che nell'an. 1536. fu rinnovata dal Card. Reginaldo Polo Inglese; umilmente stando questa per cadere nel 1610. fu ristaurata, e per maggior devozione vi fu posta la copia delle pedate ricavate dalla vera, che si custodisce nella basilica di s. Sebastiano, a cui ci incammineremo.