Someone who has charge of a gate, letting people in or keeping people out.
"Once outside in the courtyard I called out: 'Hey, porter, where are you? Open the gate, I want to be off before daybreak.' He was lying naked on the bare ground beside the gate and answered, still half-asleep: 'Who's that? Who's asking to get off at this time of night? Don't you know, whoever you are, that the roads are swarming with bandits? You may be tired of life, or you may have some crime on your conscience, but don't think that I'm such a pumpkin-headed idiot as to risk my life for yours by opening the gate and letting them in.' I protested: 'But it's almost morning. And anyhow, what harm could bandits do you? Certainly I think you are an idiot to be afraid of them. A team of ten professional wrestlers couldn't take anything worth having from a man as naked as you are.'"
Apuleius, The Golden Ass (2nd Century A.D.)
[translated by Robert Graves].
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