Having now rambled over the extent of this famous villa, and picked up a memento of our visit, we may truly exclaim--"_Sic transit gloria mundi._" _The tramway back to Rome is taken from the end of the road leading from the villa._ * * * * * PORTA ESQUILINÆ. (_Porta Maggiore._) Here the Via Prænestina diverged from the Labicana; and Claudius, who was obliged to convey two new streams--the Aqua Claudia and the Anio Novus--over these roads, erected for this purpose a massive gateway, which spanned both roads at once with a double arch. This is the splendid monument afterwards taken into the Aurelian Wall, in the time of Honorius and Arcadius, and converted, by the erection of a mound in front, into a kind of bulwark. It now forms one of the city gates, under the name of the Porta Maggiore. In each of the three piers supporting the attics with the channels concealed in the interior is a small gateway, over which a window, with a gable roof resting on rustic pillars, is introduced. By this arrangement, not only is a saving of materials effected, but the six construction arches thus acquired impart a greater degree of stability to the structure. [Illustration: PORTA MAGGIORE.] The first inscription on the aqueduct of Claudius mentions the streams conveyed into the city by the emperor upon these arches. From it we learn that the water in the channel which bore his name was taken from two sources,--the Cæruleus and the Curtius, forty-five miles off; and that the Anio Novus, which flows above the Aqua Claudia, was brought hither from a distance of sixty-two miles. The second inscription relates to the restorations of Vespasian; the third to those of Titus. This gateway is the earliest specimen of the rustic style. It was named, by those going out, by which arch they passed through on their way either to Labicum or to Præneste. Coming in, they called it by the hill to which they were going. "After I had said that he entered by the Cœlimontane Gate, like a man of mettle he offered to lay a wager with me that he entered at the Esquiline Gate" (Cicero _v._ Piso). Directly in front of the middle pier of the Porta Maggiore lies a monument, discovered in the year 1838, on the removal of the mound referred to. It is THE BAKER'S TOMB.