PORTA TIBURTINA.
(Porta S. Lorenzo.)
This gate was built by Augustus, B.C. 3, over the line of the Pomœrium, being one of the arches of the Marcian Aqueduct, B.C. 145. The Aquæ Tepula and Julia likewise passed over it. The inscriptions refer to Augustus, and to repairs by Vespasian, Caracalla, and Honorius, who added the picturesque brick towers in 402.
A new road has now been made to the Cemetery, which is passed by the tramway to Tivoli. Three quarters of a mile on the road is the
CHURCH OF S. LORENZO,
founded in 308 by Constantine, in the place where was the cemetery of S. Cyriaca, which contained the body of S. Lorenzo. It was enlarged and restored at different periods. Finally, in 1864, Pius IX. caused the architect Vespignani to make great improvements, and it was then that the column of red granite with the statue of the martyr was placed in the adjacent square.
The poet Bishop Vida describes the martyrdom of S. Lawrence, and thus foretells his monument:—
"As circling years revolve, the day shall come
When Troy's great progeny, imperial Rome,
To the blest youth, who, filled with holy pride,