Porta Querquetulana
The Porta Querquetulana or Querquetularia was a gateway in the Servian Wall, named after the sacred grove of the Querquetulanae adjacent to and just within it.Chrystina Häuber and Franz Xaver Schütz, "The Sanctuary Isis et Serapis in Regio III in Rome: Preliminary Reconstruction and Visualization of the Ancient Landscape Using 3/4D-GIS-Technology," Bollettino di archeologia online, vol. spec. D (2010), p. 85. The grove appears not to have still existed in the latter first century BC.As implied by Varro, De lingua latina 5.49; Richardson, A New Topographical Dictionary, p. 233.
The location of the gate is problematic. Lawrence Richardson located it at the edge of Regio V Esquiliae, with the Clivus Scauri passing through it.Richardson, A New Topographical Dictionary, pp. 25, 90, 332. Platner located the gate and the wood on or near the Caelian Hill, but between the Porta Capena and the Porta Caelimontana.S. B. Platner, A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome (London 1929), p. 413. The Caelian Hill was supposed to have been named Mons Querquetulanus before it was settled by Caelius Vibenna and named for him, and the location of the gate on the Caelian is based in part on the earlier name.Palmer, The Archaic Community of the Romans, p. 119.
In the early twenty-first century, photogrammetric data and 3D visualization have suggested that the grove of the Querquetulanae may have been incorporated into the Gardens of Maecenas. A nymphaeum from the time of Hadrian would have replaced the natural spring within it. In this view, the grove was located in Regio III, along the Via Labicana.Häuber and Schütz, "The Sanctuary Isis et Serapis," p. 85. A location on the Esquiline Hill is also possible.Kim J. Hartswick, The Gardens of Sallust: A Changing Landscape (University of Texas Press, 2004), p. 14. Pliny places the Porta Querquetulana between Jupiter Fagutalis and the Viminal Hill, and thus within the Esquiline.Pliny, Natural History 16.37; Palmer, The Archaic Community of the Romans, p. 119.