Description
The Underground Passages and Mithraeum of the Baths of Caracalla are the hidden part of the great Roman baths: a network of service tunnels beneath the bathers' halls and, in one of them, the largest sanctuary of the god Mithras ever found in Rome.
The tunnels, cleared of earth in the early 20th century, show the backstage of the baths, where the people who kept them running moved about, out of the customers' sight.
The mithraeum, near the northwest exedra, was set up shortly after the baths were built, at the beginning of the 3rd century. The main hall has cross vaults on pillars, a floor in black and white bands and two high benches where the faithful sat; on one wall a fresco shows Mithras and a figure with a torch and a solar disk.
In the middle is a rectangular pit where, it's thought, the bull was sacrificed. Fragments of a statue group of Mithras slaying the bull were also found here.
The tunnels, cleared of earth in the early 20th century, show the backstage of the baths, where the people who kept them running moved about, out of the customers' sight.
The mithraeum, near the northwest exedra, was set up shortly after the baths were built, at the beginning of the 3rd century. The main hall has cross vaults on pillars, a floor in black and white bands and two high benches where the faithful sat; on one wall a fresco shows Mithras and a figure with a torch and a solar disk.
In the middle is a rectangular pit where, it's thought, the bull was sacrificed. Fragments of a statue group of Mithras slaying the bull were also found here.