Mitreo della Planta Pedis

TNMM 94 ↔ CIMRM 272

[The Mithraeum of the Footprint was] (Reg. III, Is. XVII, 2) constructed in a building from the Hadrian period, situated near Horrea and a Serapeum.

The part of the house transformed into a Mithraeum has two rows of three pillars, which divide the sanctuary into three sections. In the middle section runs a central-aisle between two small benches (H. 0.40 Br. 0.25), constructed against the pillars. In the right bench, before the middle pillar, is a small rectangular depression (L. 0.10) and in its base a niche (H. 0.35 Br. 0.42 D. 0.30) in which bones of fowls have been found. The niche in the opposite bench is deeper (D. 0.60 Br. 0.42). It seems that behind this bench a larger one extends in the left section (Br. 2.00) of the sanctuary. At the end of the r. bench an entrance (Br. 1.10) had been made in the side wall, the main entrance, however, was opposite the cult- niche (Br. 0.80). The niche had three 'levels: the first (H. 0.55 D. 0.75) is covered with black-white mosaic (five crosses between two squares); the second level (H. 0.25 D. 0.50) had a marble revetment; the third (H. 0.44 D. 0.70) had a small rectangular brick base.

A base is (H. 0.50-0.60 Br. 0.30) on either side before the niche, probably for statues of the torchbearers (lost). Between them is a marble altar (H. 1.00 Br. 0.34 D. 0.30) in the top of which is a depression.

The floor of the central-aisle has a mosaic decoration, existing of a small black line approximately in the centre of the sanctuary. Near this band there is the representation of a serpent (L. 1.00), whereas near the entrance a foot is visible. The original floor of the Mithraeum, however, had only a simple pavement of cocciopisto and in it on the same place a footmark was imprinted. (Becatti, PI. XVI, I).

The shrine was built in the second half of the second or the early third century AD. Modifications have been dated to the second half of the third century.