TEMPLE OF MITHRAS,
the Persian sun-god, whose mysteries, Plutarch tells us, were first brought to Rome by the soldiers of Pompey the Great. "They celebrated certain secret mysteries, among which those of Mithras continue to this day, being originally instituted by them B.C. 67." This worship was finally extirpated in A.D. 394. The temple was found filled up with earth as though done purposely. It is 30 by 20 feet, and has a vaulted roof, covered with mosaics, in which are several windows. The continual dripping of water has destroyed the colour, but the mosaics can still be distinctly seen. The altar on which the sacrifices were made was found near the two square pilasters in the passage outside, and a statue of Mithras was found in three pieces. The altar has been placed within the temple. It represents an allegorical picture of the sun's influence upon the earth: A bull represents the earth; Mithras is plunging a sword into the bull's right shoulder; a dog and a serpent are emblems of animals nourished by the earth through the influence of the sun; a scorpion gnawing the scrotum is autumn bringing decay; youths with torches, erect and depressed on either side, represent the rising and the setting of the sun. Under Elagabalus (218–22) and Aurelian (270–75) the worship of the sun was the national religion of the Romans, and its votaries tried in vain to establish it, to resist the rapid spread of the worship of the only true God through Jesus Christ his Son.
From S. Clement's we proceed up the hill Via di S. Giovanni in Laterano. Near the top, on the right, is the villa of Mr. Warrington Wood, the English sculptor, in whose grounds there is a tomb of the republic. Beyond is the square of the Lateran, in which is the highest