Tradition dates it back to the 6th century BC, when the Servian Wall was said to have been built by the Roman king Servius Tullius.

[3] Connecting northward to the Esquiline Gate was the agger, the heavily fortified section of the Servian Wall.

[1] Following from the concept of the pomerium, there seems to be an unofficial Roman “tradition” that certain killings were to be done “outside” the city and thus several ancient authors include the Esquiline Gate in their descriptions of such deeds.

[8] The Esquiline gate is also mentioned in ancient literature as an important way of entering and exiting Rome.

Livy writes about the consul Valerius’ strategic plan to lure out Etruscan pillagers that had been preying on Roman fields.