Porticus Gaii et Lucii (Fig. 48): a monument known from literary sources (Suetonius Aug. 29; cf. Cass. Dio 56.27.5) and identified by a large inscription (CIL 6.36908) in honor of Lucius Caesar found in 1898 near the southwest corner of the Basilica Paulli (Aemilia), broken, but clearly not far from the building from which it had fallen. Excavations in 1954 brought to light the remains of a monumental entrance to the forum between the Temple of Divus Iulius and the Basilica Paulli serving also as an entrance to the basilica. It consisted of a double arch, the half toward the basilica with its floor on the same level as that of the basilica, the other sunk four steps to the level of the Sacra Via. This was decorated with an engaged order and presumably served as the base for a program of statuary honoring Augustus's grandsons. The fact that it was balanced on the opposite side of the Temple of Divus Iulius by the Arcus Augusti should not be overlooked. The portico was, in effect, a triumphal arch for a triumph never won, hence its name. See also Basilica Paulli.

Lugli 1946, 96-99; Nash 1.93, 2.244-47; Coarelli 1985, 171-76.