place
Porta Capena
the Capene gate
also: porta Capena, the Capene gate
A gate in the Servian Wall of Rome at the start of the Via Appia, the point from which travellers from the south entered the city. Cicero passed through it on his triumphal return from exile in September 57 BC (Att. 4.1.5).
Reading notes
- Tusculan Disputations §1.13 When you have gone out by the Porta Capena
The Capene Gate in Rome's Servian Wall, from which the Via Appia ran; the tombs of great families (Scipios, Servilii, Metelli, and Calatinus) lined the road just outside. Cicero appeals to these familiar monuments to press his interlocutor on what 'wretched' means for the dead.