THE ORATORY OF S. CLEMENT,
reached from the south aisle by a broad flight of twenty steps. The Roman Catholic Church has faithfully handed down the tradition that S. Clement erected an oratory in his own house, between the Cœlian and Esquiline Hills, which must have been built, as we have seen, close to the walls of the city—a not unusual thing as the city grew. Several chambers remain to be excavated at some future time. A long passage has been cleared out, in which was found a doorway bricked up. This was broken through, and found to be a
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
EGYPTIAN OBELISK
in Rome, which the inscription informs us was thirty-six years in cutting.
From Marcellinus (xvii. 4), we get many interesting details of its voyage and erection:—
"And because the flatterers, who were continually whispering into the ear of Constantine, kept always affirming that when Augustus Octavianus had brought two obelisks from Heliopolis, a city of Egypt, one of which was placed in the Circus Maximus, and the other in the Campus Martius, he yet did not venture to touch or move this one, which has just been brought to Rome, being alarmed at the greatness of such a task,—I would have those who do not know the truth learn that the ancient emperor, though he moved several obelisks, left this one untouched because it was especially dedicated to the sun-god, and was set up within the precincts of his magnificent temple, which it was impious to profane, and of which it was the most conspicuous ornament.
"But Constantine deeming that a consideration of no importance, had it torn up from its place, and thinking rightly that he should not be offering any insult to religion if he removed a splendid work from some other temple to dedicate it to the gods at Rome, which is the temple of the whole world, he let it lie on the ground for some time while arrangements for its removal were being prepared. And when it had been carried down the Nile, and landed at Alexandria, a ship of burden hitherto unexampled, requiring three hundred rowers to propel it, was built to receive it.