The history of Roman Walls
by Roberta Rossetti

The most ancient roman walls, whose remains are still visible in some places in Rome, are the “Servian Walls” built in the 378 b.c. after the Gallic invasion. They were made by big blocks of tufa, a quiet resistant material drawn in a quarry near the ancient town of Veio.
Within few years a city walls higher than 10 meters and longer than 11 kilometres was built. The place and the way it was built depended on the ground characteristics; on the hills, more easily defended, the ancient wall was re-used and only fortified; in the flattish areas, where the danger of being attacked was bigger, more elaborate systems of defence were applied.
In correspondence with the most important roads, doors had been opened in the walls and were called in accordance with the nearest sanctuary or sacred places (Carmentale, Sanquale, Fontinale, Quirinale).
After the wars against Cartagine (between III and II century b.c.), the walls lose a great part of their defensive importance; remaining anyway an important element in the town topography. Under Augusts reign some of the walls doors had been transformed in honorary arches.
During the Empire, many different buildings had been built on the Servian Walls, some of them are still visible today (Saint Sabina church and in front of Termini station).
Many remains of these ancient walls are visible in Roma: in the oriental part of the city, a piece of about 10 metres is visible in Largo Magnanapoli, inside a main entrance at number 158 it is possible to see an interesting arch probably used for a catapult to defend the walls. Other ruins can be seen in piazza dei Cinquecento (particularly impressive is the section preserved by Termini station 100 metres long and 10 metres high), in Viale Aventino (long piece with an opening for war machines), in Campidoglio, in via del Teatro Marcello and near the Risorgimento museum.

The other and more recent city walls are the “Aurelian Walls” built by the emperor Aurelio in the 271 a.c. to defend Rome from the possible attacks of barbaric populations that during the previous reign of Gallieno had crossed the Alps. Although the ancient walls still survived, the widen of the city imposed the construction of new ones.
The emperor Aurelio imposed a very ambitious program of building; 19 kilometers of walls spending the minimum and in a very short period. That’s why to build these walls all the working corporations had been involved and nearly only State or Emperor’s properties were used avoiding any expropriation. A huge save was achieved using as materials the ones obtained from the numerous public and private buildings placed along the walls tracing. To build the doors in correspondence with the main streets, monumental tombs had been used as a basement to big towers. The walls construction ended under the reign of Probo (276-282 a.c.), it was 4 meters thick and 8 meters high with square towers every 30 meters.
These walls had been restored and improved under Massenzio (306-312) and Arcadio (401-402), during these restoration a great amount of dust was removed (it facilitated the crossing of the walls); many inscriptions still visible near Porta Maggiore remember all these works.
Part of these walls, whose last modification happened under Totila in 552 a.c., are still visible in Porta Maggiore, Castro Pretorio, amphitheatre Castrense, Pincio, San Giovanni in Laterano and Caio Cestio Pyramid at the beginning of via Ostiense.