Arch of Dolabella and Silano

In ancient times, the Celio hill, on which the rione of the same name extends, was called Mons Querquetulanus because entirely covered with oaks. In the Republican age, on the other hand, the area was dotted with luxurious patrician villas and assumed the vocation of a residential area that it still maintains.

Here, a few steps from the Church of Santa Maria in Domnica alla Navicella and the ancient Clivo di Scauro, you can admire the arch of Dolabella and Silano, a gate of the Servian Walls, rebuilt by Augustus and identifiable with the Porta Caelimontana.

Later used to support Nero's aqueduct, the arch was built at the beginning of the 1st century AD. by the consuls Dolabella and Silano, as you can read in the inscription on the attic of the facade. It says: "P. CORNELIS P. F. DOLABELLA C. IUNIUS C. F. SILANUS FLAMEN MARTIAL(is) CO(n)S(ules) EX S(enatus) C(onsulto ) FACIUNDUM CURAVERUNT IDEMQUE PROBAVER(unt)," ("Publius Cornelius Dolabella, son of Publius, and Gaius Junius Silanus, son of Gaius, flamen of Mars, consuls, by decree of the Senate contracted (this work) and tested it.")

Rebuilt with travertine blocks superimposed on the original tufa blocks still visible on the right wall, the arch measures 4 meters in width and 6.56 meters in height, but a part is currently underground.

Together with the Arch of Gallienus, the Arch of Dolabella and Silano is the only other gate that still opens in the Servian Walls.

Above the Arch of Dolabella and Silano, is a room in which, according to tradition, St John de Matha, Christian martyr and founder of the Order of the Holy Trinity, which was based in the complex of St Thomas in Formis and whose members had the task of caring for freed slaves, lived from 1209 to 1213, the year of his death.