Regio I - Insula III - Mitreo del Caseggiato di Diana (I,III,3-4)
(Mithraeum of the House of Diana)

The Mithraeum of the House of Diana was excavated in the years 1914-1915. It was installed in two Antonine rooms in the north-east corner of the House of Diana at the end of the second or in the early third century AD.

In the south-west corner of the southern room were two doors. The door in the west wall was blocked when the mithraeum was installed. In the blocking is a semicircular niche. Between the southern and northern room are two doors (the central one was originally a window). The northern room received indirect light, and was quite dark. Podia (h. 0.60) were built in both rooms. Those in the southern room have disappeared, but an older geometrical black-and-white mosaic testifies to their existence: it is preserved because the podia stood on top. Between the southern podia is a well, belonging to the mithraeum. Below the podia in the northern room was also a black-and-white geometrical mosaic. These podia were reached along a few treads at the south end.

Plan of the mithraeum. SO II, fig. 1.

Against the back wall of the northern room are an altar (h. 0.78) and an aedicula (h. 3.20). The aedicula is covered with white plaster, with some red accents. To the left and right of the niche of the aedicula were stucco semi-columns, resting on travertine consoles. The vault of the niche was decorated with pieces of pumice and blue paint, referring to the mithraic cave. The altar had been taken to the mithraeum from elsewhere (see the Temple of Hercules (I,XV,5)). A round hole, perhaps for a lamp behind glass, was then hacked out from one side to the other, and the altar was placed in the shrine bottom-up. Part of the top (that had now become bottom) was missing, and replaced by masonry. It is rather amusing that the missing fragment was found by the excavators on the Cardo Maximus.

The person responsible for the altar was pater ("father") Marcus Lollianus Callinicus, witness the following inscription:

M(arcus) LOLLIANVS CALLINICVS PATER ARAM DEO DO(no) DE(dit)

The name Callinicus also appears in a graffito in the House of Jupiter and Ganymede, one block to the west, where he seems to be owner of a hotel (but whether it is the same man is impossible to tell). The same "father" (main priest) is known from an inscription found in a shop on the Decumanus, not far from the House of Diana, put up by Petronius Felix Marsus. The inscription may well have belonged to the mithraeum in the House of Diana:

[M(arco) Lollia]NO CALLINICO [patre pet]RONIVS FELIX [Marsus sign]VM DEO [do(no)] DE(dit) D(edicavit) [---] ATVS XINV [---] FECIT

This inscription was reused by two Marci Caerellii, Hieronimus and [---]us, priests of Mithras. On the back is the inscription:

MM(arci) CAER[ellii Hiero] NIMVS ET [---] VS SACERDO[tes et antisti] TES SOLIS THRONVM FEC[erunt]

A Cerell(ius) Ieronim(us), probably our Hieronimus, is mentioned in an inscription from 198 AD as a member of the fabri tignuarii, the builders. It may be significant that other Marci Caerellii (Iazemis and Zmaragdus) were leading figures in the guilds of the bakers in Ostia and Rome: at some point in time a stable with trough was installed in the House of Diana, probably for animals that operated millstones in a nearby bakery, such as the adjacent House of the Millstones (I,III,1).

Returning to the older inscription, we may note that Callinicus and Marsus are documented in yet another inscription, found in Via della Fontana in 1899:

M(arco) LOLLIANO CALLINICO PATRE PETRONIVS FELIX MARSVS SIGNVM ARIMANIVM DO(no) DE(dit) D(edicavit)

The inscription is on an architrave that belonged to an aedicula, but we can only speculate about the original location. It does not seem to belong to this mithraeum. The inscription mentions a depiction of the Persian deity Arimanius, who played a role in the cult of Mithras as manifestation of Hades. The name Marsus suggests that this individual was a snake-charmer, who was thought to have occult powers. The Marsi, an ethnic group in central Italy, had this reputation.

In the left part of the base of the aedicula is a marble head of Dionysus. Above the head is a graffito of the worshippers. To the left may be names of slaves. The right column probably mentions votive offerings. The word BINV is probably vinum, wine, appropriate above the head of Dionysus.

Photos

Remains in the southern room of the mithraeum, seen from the north.
Photo: Klaus Heese.

The altar and aedicula in the northern room, seen from the south.
Photo: Klaus Heese.

Detail of the head of Dionysus below the graffito.
Photo: Klaus Heese.

The inscription mentioning Arimanius.
EDR071717. Photo: Jan Theo Bakker.