Van Tilburg sets out to describe the evolution and functionality of city gates in the Roman west during the Empire. His aim is to put city gates front and center in the scholarly discussion on Roman architecture by elevating the structures to the same level of public familiarity as aqueducts and amphitheaters among typical architectural forms. Van Tilburg’s other aim is to assemble an accessible overview in English on the recent scholarship produced on these monuments. A considerable portion of that scholarship, he comments, is in the languages of the countries where the monuments reside (French, Italian, German etc.), putting it out of reach for those who want to learn more about city gates and their social context. Languages also form a geographical limit for this study because of the author’s stated unfamiliarity with modern Greek, Arabic, and Turkish. Van Tilburg limits most of the volume to those structures that are more or less complete and are still standing today.
Van Tilburg opens the book with a brief introduction situating his work within the existing scholarship. The volume then divides into three principal sections. The first part, which doubles in function as chapter one, examines the predecessors to Roman gates. Van Tilburg briefly focuses on the development of the earliest gates in Mesopotamia jumping to describe what he calls typical examples at Tell es-Sawwan in the 4th Millenium BCE to 3rd Millenium examples such Ur, Uruk, Nippur, and the neo-Hittite Zincirli Höyük built ca. 900 BC. He continues with a short overview for Greece and Gaul. Admittedly, this would be a monumental task on its own. Each of these regions would merit further discussion, which here engages a handful of paragraphs resulting in a somewhat superficial overview. For example, the synopsis for Greece focuses primarily on the Dipylon gate in Athens to address themes of design, monumentality, and religion, while only cursively mentioning later developments. As a result, this section of the book stands somewhat alone and disconnected compared to the rest of the manuscript. Its conclusions do not really carry through in subsequent chapters.
In part two, the author identifies the development of forms in gate architecture. In chapter two van Tilburg uses examples in Etruria, Pompeii, and early Republican Rome to demonstrate how gates begin as simple passageways with a focus on defense. In chapter three the author examines how the expansion of Rome on the Italian peninsula led to gates with two or more openings. In Rome itself this trend resulted in the dismantling and monumentalizing of the old city gates in the so-called Servian wall into triumphal arches under Augustus. This design modification responded to increased traffic and commerce as well as gates becoming monumental status symbols as overall security improved. The author sees these factors as the primary influences on gate design on the Italian peninsula. He avoids discussion of developments in poliorcetics and military tactics as well as any questions on what fortifications were meant to keep in or out of a city. With the advent of Empire, described in chapter four, defensive concerns seem to have moved to the frontiers. City gates built in the new colonies such as Frejus, Spello, Fano, Torino, and Cologne tend to become more monumental. The gates function as status symbols with complex designs featuring inner courts as well as multiple floors and passageways, once again to facilitate commerce and traffic flow. But also in the frontier provinces of modern Britain and Germany, architectural design emphasized monumentality and not military effectiveness as gates lost flanking towers and inner courts in more simplified layouts. Chapter five discusses a reverse trend starting with the increased social and military instability of the late second century AD. The complex designs of the early Imperial period resume in places such as Trier. The chapter discusses the gates of the Aurelian wall where defensive concerns eventually lead to the return of single passageways with flanking towers. Chapter six serves to highlight a series of case studies in five different cities: Volterra, Pompeii, Cologne, Rome, and Trier to further illustrate the trends outlined in the previous chapters. Chapter seven closes the section with a summary of the developments identified in parts one and two.
In part three van Tilburg focuses on the function and cultural aspects of city gates. In chapter eight he discusses the military role of city and army camp gates, including their design and construction materials. He also examines the role of siege machines in defensive and offensive operations as well as the number of gates appropriate in circuits such as the walls defending Rome. Chapter nine focuses on traffic and how its management and associated laws such as the lex Iulia municipalis affected design. Van Tilburg also draws a distinction in traffic type that led to gates with a central large passage for carts and smaller lateral openings for pedestrians. Although the chapter also considers the nature of extramural and nearby buildings it refrains from examining the conceptual role of gates in urban armatures.
Chapter ten engages with issues related to water management. Due to their position, gates often functioned as the arrival point of aqueducts at topographical high points and to discharge sewage at low points in the circuit. Chapter eleven moves on to discuss the ornamentation and monumentality of city gates as a symbol of urbanitas with a range of gates starting in Etruria in the third century BC up to Late Antiquity when city gates seem to lose much of their ornamentation because of defensive concerns. In chapter twelve van Tilburg discusses the levying of tolls and the presence of watchmen as well as any associated equipment and amenities in the design of gates. Chapter thirteen goes on to assess the social function of city gates as the locus of bidding farewell to travelers and welcoming them home. The chapter also outlines the gates’ economic role by examining the kind of establishments, such as tabernae and inns, typically present near city gates. Part three closes with a chapter on the religious connotations of gates in terms of their protective deities, the role of Janus, and their connection to the ritual boundary of the pomerium. A further summary of part three follows as well as a conclusion to the study.
The three appendices at the end of the book are most useful to those readers looking for more research opportunities in the field. Appendix one addresses the issues associated with the correct dating of city gates with Pompeii, Verona, Torino, and Cologne as examples. Appendix two highlights the basic plans and designs of the different gate types described in the volume. Finally, appendix three serves to supply the basic dimensions, date, and related bibliography of the gates mentioned in the book arranged in a convenient table.
The volume is well researched and builds on van Tilburg’s previous work on traffic systems and the development of city gates in the Roman world.[1] The author draws from epigraphic and textual sources as well as existing architecture for his arguments. Some gates such as those at Perugia, Volterra, Pompeii, Rome, Cologne, Verona, and Trier form a consistent thread throughout the book’s chapters to illustrate broader social and historical trends. On occasion van Tilburg refers to other examples of city gates with little associated context. These examples invite the reader to conduct more research into the topic by supplying a series of instances to investigate further.
Overall, the book is well illustrated and laid out. However, it could have benefited from a careful copyediting process. The text contains numerous typos and repetition of words that make it difficult to read. The prose is at times unclear. While the author focuses on traffic and trade as the drivers of gate design, he also briefly references broader concepts such as patronage and monumentality. The book thus sets the stage for future directions of research in the field inviting examinations on who those patrons were and what role they played in commissioning the monuments.
By giving a concise overview of the social role and development of gate design in the Roman west, the author certainly achieves what he set out to do. The book sketches a trend where gates went from single openings focused on defense to monumental designs with two or three floors and multiple openings designed for traffic. Gate design then reverts to single openings in time of crisis. Part three functions to highlight the social purposes of city gates. The book thus serves as an introductory text geared toward an audience that is unfamiliar with the topic. In doing so van Tilburg offers an important overview on a significant aspect of civic infrastructure in Roman urbanism in Western Europe. Such an overview is a welcome addition where the study of city gates sometimes seems scattered across many journals and individual chapters. It will serve students and researchers well in years to come.
Notes
[1] Van Tilburg, C. “Gates, Suburby and Traffic in the Roman Empire.” Babesch 83 (2008): 133–47.
———. Traffic and Congestion in the Roman Empire. London; New York, 2007.