Horace was wont to come down the Sacred Way ("S." i. 9), and talks of
Britons descending it in chains ("Ep." vii.). Now we are free to
ascend it. Where the Sacred Way ascends the Velia ridge it will be
noticed that the road is extraordinarily wide (45 feet). This was no
doubt made after the great fire under Commodus, for four feet below
the pavement was found the original and narrower street, and beneath
that the drain in the reticulated work of the republic.
The right-hand side of the ascent was bordered with honorary monuments
and inscriptions to Trajan, Hadrian, Titus, Septimius Severus,
Caracalla, and Constantine; but the most interesting, perhaps, was the
monument with Greek inscription of Gordianus, erected to him by the
citizens of Tarsus, St. Paul's city, and interesting as showing that
the close friendship between Rome and Tarsus continued to this late
period. Four columns of Porta Santa marble stood on a podium, 7 feet
by 4 feet, and supported a canopy, under which was the emperor's
statue. On the cornice was the inscription, ΤΑΡϹΕωΝ , filled
in with bronze.