Tauroctony relief fragment from the Villa Ludovisi, Rome

Fragment of a white marble relief. In the seventeenth century it was in the Palazzo Caesiani near the Vatican; it later passed to the Villa Ludovisi. The relief is lost.Mithras slaying the bull. The dog and the serpent are present; the raven on the god's flying cloak. On a base a small torchbearer with upraised torch stands cross-legged. The upper part of his body and his feet are lost. The other torchbearer, whose lower body and arms are lacking, also holds the torch upraised.