Republican Wall at Piazza dei Cinquecento
N 41° 54.099 E 012° 30.097
33T E 292764 N 4641875
The best preserved segment of the city wall dating to the Republican era of Rome can be found in front of the Rome central train station. It was later made obsolete by the Aurelian wall of the empire.
Waymark Code: WM1X3E
Location: Lazio, Italy
Date Posted: 07/24/2007
Views: 180
The Republican walls are also misleadingly known as the Servian Walls after Rome's sixth king Servius Tullius. However it was probably built well after the kingdom in the Republican era.
The actual wall was built according to the dry-stone technique, i.e. without any mortar; large square blocks (opus quadratum) were piled one on top of the other, in multiple rows. The porous stone is tufa (which in Rome was used for the making of buildings up to the early 1930s!).
By the end of the 4th century BC, the city boundaries enclosed the famous seven hills, or Septimontium, over which the city was originally built: the Capitolium and the Palatine (i.e. the early nucleus), the Aventine, the Esquiline, the Quirinal, the Viminal and the Coelian.
This part of the wall represented the north-eastern part of the boundary, where an agger, i.e. earth and stones piled along the inner side of the wall, and a mound by its outer side, acted as further protections.
Not far from here stood the northernmost gate, Porta Collina: two important roads leading to the north-east, via Salaria and via Nomentana, started from this spot
Most Relevant Historical Period: Roman Republic 509 B.C. - 27 B.C.
Admission Fee: Free
Opening days/times:
24 x 7
Web Site: [Web Link]
Condition: Some remaining traces (ruins) or pieces
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