PORTA FLAMINIA
a gate in the Aurelian wall through which the VIA FLAMINIA (q.v.) issued from the city (DMH; Procop. BG i. 14. 14; 23. 2). In the Middle Ages it was also known as Porta S. Valentini, Porta S. Mariae de Popolo, and Porta Flumentana,1 and after the fifteenth century by its present name Porta del Popolo (T x. 202-206). It is generally thought that Sixtus IV destroyed the old gate and built that which is now standing, replacing the semi-circular towers of Honorius by square bastions. These bastions, however, were faced with blocks of marble, which had upon them circular bosses similar to those on the bastions of the PORTA APPIA (q.v.). Several of them bore inscriptions (CIL vi. 13552, 28067, 30464, 31455, 31689, 31714, 31771) and most, if not all, were taken from tombs; see SEPULCRUM P. AELII GUTTAE CALPURNIANI, SEP. GALLONIORUM, SEP. L. NONII ASPRENATIS. It seems therefore very doubtful whether the inscriptions would not have been copied by the antiquaries of the period, had they come to light in the time of Sixtus IV; and it is probably better to suppose the bastions to belong to the time of Honorius, while the semi-circular brick towers which were discovered in 1877 within them may then be attributed to the original gate of Aurelian (BC 1877, 186-213 pass.; 1880, 169-182; 1881, 174-188; cf. Jord. i. I. 353; Reber 516; LS i. 80; iii. 234, 235; Town Planning Review xi. (1924), 76-79; Discovery vi. (1925), 294; cf. supra, 403).