At the siege of Rabbah (c. B.C. 1000) the garrison made a sortie, and the army of Israel was 'upon them even unto the entering of the gate ' (2 S 1 1-^"). In the attack on the strong tower within the city of Tliebez (c. B.C. 1170), Abimelech went hard unto the door of the tower to bum it with fire (Jg 9"). Nehemiah (B.C. 444) also speaks of the city gates being burnt with tire (Neh 1' 23. IS. 17) . anJ Jeremiah prophesies that the high gatesof Babylon shall be burned with tire (Jer ol**). The breaking of gates of brass and cutting in sunder the bars of iron is spoken of (Ps 107", Is 45").
City gateways, in order to be secure against these various forins of attack, required Hanking towers (2 Ch 14' 26» 32', Ps 48'=, Ca 8'", Ezk 26^) to protect the entrance, and galleries above (2 S 18^- ^), from which the defenders could throw boiling pitch and oil upon the assailants : there were probably two sets of gates, one to each entrance, with a courtyard or barbican between. ' And David sat between the two gates, and the watchman went up to the roof of the gate unto the wall ' (2 S 18^). There was a chamber over the gate (2 S IS*"). Possibly, at the outer entrance there was a portcullis or cataracta, which is described by Vegetius as an ancient contrivance ; and it has been suggested (' Cataracta,' in Smith's Die. Or. and Horn. Antiquities) that it is alluded to in the passage, ' Lift up your heads, O ye gates ; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors ' (Ps24'»; cf. Jer20=51'8).
Rooms would be required for the guard of the gate, for the porters, and for the watchmen, and the entrance gateway would require to be of con- siderable dimensions, where the people of the city could readily congregate. Being of so great im- portance from a defensive point of view, the chief otticer of the city would naturally take great interest in its secure condition ; and being on the hir;h road from the country the traders would bring their wares there, and would be detained there before entry for examination and toll. Thus the vicinity of the gate would naturally become the public place of resort for business and pleasure, where also justice could be administered and punishment meted out.
As civilization and luxury increased, the gate- ways seem to have been le.ss used among the Greeks and Romans, the Agora or Basilica, or forum and portico, being placed near the royal palace, or, in a seaport town, near the harbour ; and the markets were divided uji according to the articles sold there (Polyb. ix. 47, x. 19). Some articles, such as salt tisii, seem to have been sold outside the jjates (Aristoph. Equit. 1246). But even in late days among the Greeks and Romans the gates were surmounted by towers (Virg. Aen. vi. 552), and Polybius (xv. 29) calls a buildinL' at Alexandria ' the gatehouse at the palace used for the transaction of public business.' The entrances to militjirj' camns {castra) were, when necessity arose, defended iiy towers (Civsar, B. G. viii. 9). The gateway at 1 reves, so late as the time of the emperor Conatantine, was built in such a style as shows that it was intended to be used during peace for the object of civil governinent.
In Syria the vicinity of the gate has always been the focus of business tran.sactions, but &« Greek and Roman inlluences prevailed, no doubt the gate did not occupy, for a time, .so important a position in the social life of the people; and markct-s were constructed in various ports of the
city apart from the gates. In the latter days of Jerusalem the upper city is called by Josephus (iVars, V. iv. 1) tlie Agora or market place ; the sheep market was on the north side of the temple, near the pool of Bethesda (Jn 5-) ; and a place is mentioned outside the second wall where were the merchants of wool, the braziers, and the market of cloth (Jos. Wars, V. riii. 1). In early days, however, the markets were probably close to the gates, ' To-morrow about this time shall a measure of tine flour be sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a sliekel, in the gate of Samaria (2 K 7' ; ef. Neh 13'«- '»).
In the Assyrian cities the gateways were either arched or had flat stone lintels, with flanking towers and overhead galleries, as at Khorsabad (Layard, Nineveh, ii. 388, 395, and bas-relief in British Museum, ' Assyria,' 25, 26, 49). Hero- dotus (i. 179) and Ctesias state that the walls of Babylon were furnished with 100 brazen gates, with lintels and sideposts of the same material, and with 250 towers to protect the weaker parts. Jeremiah (51°^- "*) speaks of burning these gates. In Nebuchadrezzar's account of Babylon, stamped on the bricks, the great gates are described as made of cedarwood covered with copper, with thresholds of bronze.
In the later Egyptian temples the gates appear to have been fortified (Wilkinson, Anc. Ei/ijp. i. 409). At Pompeii may be seen a gateway pro- tected by a portcullis, wth a barbican, within wliich again were gates of wood and iron.