THE CHURCH OF S. MARIA IN COSMEDIN
is on the site of a temple to Ceres and Proserpine. "Spurius Cassius consecrated the Temple of Ceres, Bacchus, and Proserpine, which stands at the end of the great circus, and is built over the starting-places, and which Aulus Postumius, the dictator, had vowed when upon the point of engaging the Latins," A.U.C. 258 (Dionysius, vi. 94). "It was restored by Augustus, and consecrated by Tiberius" (Tacitus, "Annals," ii. 49). The temple fronted north, and in the left-hand aisle of the church are three of the columns of the portico in situ; three of the side columns are in the portico of the church, and three others in the sacristy, where there is part of a mosaic from old S. Peter's, A.D. 705.
In the portico is a large mask of stone called the Bocca della Verità (Mouth of Truth). A suspected person, on making an affirmation, was required to put his hand in the mouth of this mask, in the belief that if he told an untruth the mouth would close upon his hand. Several columns of the old temple are immured in the walls, and the aisles are formed by twenty ancient marble columns; the pavement is of beautiful opus Alexandrinum. Behind the altar is a fine bishop's chair, and a Greek picture of the Virgin and Child, also some old frescoing behind a panel on the left. Opposite the church is a beautiful fountain of Tritons supporting a basin.
Resuming our ramble down the Via Marmorata, turn left coming out of the church, passing under an archway, the remains of the Porta Trigemina in the Servian Wall. The road runs for a short distance by the Tiber, on the opposite side of which is the Ripa Grande, or quay. Taking the road to the right, past a stone-yard, Marmorata, by the river, brings us to