precinct of the temple.


THE GATES.

Strabo, in a well known passage,[57] speaks of Tibur and Praeneste as
two of the most famous and best fortified of the towns of Latium, and
tells why Praeneste is the more impregnable, but we have no mention of
its gates in literature, except incidentally in Plutarch,[58] who says
that when Marius was flying before Sulla's forces and had reached
Praeneste, he found the gates closed, and had to be drawn up the wall by
a rope. The most ancient reference we have to a definite gate is to the
Porta Triumphalis, in the inscription just mentioned, and this is the
only gate of Praeneste mentioned by name in classic times.

In 1353 A.D. we have two gates mentioned. The Roman tribune Cola di
Rienzo (Niccola di Lorenzo) brought his forces out to attack Stefaniello
Colonna in Praeneste. It was not until Rienzo moved his camp across from
the west to the east side of the plain below the town that he saw how
the citizens were obtaining supplies. The two gates S. Cesareo and S.
Francesco[59] were both being utilized to bring in supplies from the
mountains back of the city, and the stock was driven to and from pasture
through these gates. These gates were both ancient, as will be shown
below. Again in 1448 when Stefano Colonna rebuilt some walls after the
awful destruction of the city by Cardinal Vitelleschi, he opened three
gates, S. Cesareo, del Murozzo, and del Truglio.[60] In 1642[61] two
more gates were opened by Prince Taddeo Barberini, the Porta del Sole,
and the Porta delle Monache, the former at the southeast corner of the
town, the latter in the east wall at the point where the new wall round
the monastery della Madonna degl'Angeli struck the old city wall, just