Portae Sanctae

More scenes from summer.  Last summer, I wrote an entry about walls.  This summer, as I actively write the chapter on tribunician sacrosanctity and the law of property, I've been paying more attention to the other major example that is traditionally given to illustrate res sanctae - gates, or portae.

But characterizing gates - and walls - as sanctae is puzzling.  You could simply translate it by saying that all gates are 'holy' and 'inviolable.'  But it carries a double-meaning, owing to the fact that a wall's sancta quality is the result of a law's 'sanction' prohibiting any act that would damage it.  To enact or decree - sancire - such a law, to 'sanction' its enforcement, is what makes the gate sancta.

The Porcellian (McKean) Gate at Harvard

Check out D.1.8.9.3 (Marcian): 'Anything that is supported by a certain sanction is also 'holy,' even though it may not be consecrated to God.'  One of the chapters in my Sacrosanct title will deal with this cluster of ideas.

Marcian:  D.1.8.9.3 in De Rerum Divisione

So, I have been thinking a lot about gates this summer.  I happened to be in Cambridge last month and, after a lovely coffee with Adrian Vermeule, I had a chance to wander aimlessly one afternoon and observe some of the gates surrounding Harvard Yard.  Here are some I've always admired (a useful Harvard Gazette article helped me identify some of them).  I realize now my admiration partly may be due to the fact that these are McKim Mead & White creations (among the finest architects of American universities, in my opinion):

Here is the Morgan Gate behind Widener Library.

This below, I believe, is the Dexter Gate:

'Enter to grow in wisdom'

The obverse of the Dexter Gate reads, 'Depart to serve better thy country and thy kind'.  We'll try:

Walking through the McKean Porcellian Gate

My slight obsession with gates continued even after we returned to California.  Of course, here is Berkeley's most famous gate in a very different architectural style and natural environment.  Even after over a decade at Berkeley and rushing through this landmark many times to teach my classes, this is the first time that I really observed the architectural virtues of the Sather Gate and took some photos of it:

Sather Gate

The gate that I always admired and wondered about was this one.  It appeared in the Oppenheimer film, not too far from his old office on campus.  I tried to do some research to see if this monument had a name (there is a Latin inscription which I try to read but it has already deteriorated).  I walk through here everyday I'm on campus.  On most days I'm on campus I try to arrive before 8 in the morning and take a brisk walk before I settle into my office.  My routine involves going through this thing.  

Maybe I will continue to add to this post on this theme in the coming months.  I'm on sabbatical and have trips to Chicago, Texas, UCLA, and Princeton coming up in the next academic year.  Perhaps a sequel post on the same theme.