Engraved on the inner door jamb of the passageway is a Latin inscription in Gothic script commemorating the skirmish between the Roman Ghibelline militia of Colonna, led by Giacomo de’Pontani (or Ponziano), and the Guelph army of the king of Naples, Robert of Anjou, under the leadership of Giovanni and Gaetano Orsini. The battle took place on 29 September 1327, on the feast day of the Archangel Michael, who is depicted next to the inscription in the act of defeating the dragon. The text recalls the unexpected Ghibelline victory and, therefore, salvation from foreign domination: “In the year 1327, indition XI, in the month of September, on the penultimate day, the feast of St Michael, foreigners entered the city and were defeated by the Roman people, Jacopo de’Ponziani being the head of the district”.
2. Gothic inscription, Porta Appia