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Mecenate auditorium

The discovery of the Auditorium of Mecenate happened by chance when work was being done to open the new Via Merulana and the nearby Largo Leopardi (in an area previously occupied by the Villa Caetani). The apsed room that was brought to light formed part of a larger complex set astride the Severian Walls. This complex was immediately demolished. The so-called auditorium

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Focus on the antiquity

Mithras and Mithraism

The veneration of the god Mithras, divinity of Persian origin who's first traces go back to 1300BC, but probably present much earlier, is one of the oriental venerations, which thanks to the Hellenic world spread to Rome as an alternative to the official religion. It began to take root from the end of the I century AD and reached its maximum period of diffusion during the time of the Severi emperors. The western Mithraism originated from a long and complex evolution of the ancient Iranian cult and like many other religions of oriental origin its worship had initiation and secret characteristics...

Not to be missed

Vatican Museums: Gregorian Egyptian Museum

Viale Vaticano (Vatican) - Tel. +396/69883333

Timetables: from 8.45 a.m. to 1 p.m., free entrance on the last Sunday of each month..

Description: The collection, divided in ten rooms, is remarkable for some extraordinary specimens of Egyptian antiques. (Coffee shop, museum shop, disabled, restaurant, reading room).

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Did you know...?

Roman prehistory

The ancient "Clivus Cinnae", known today as "Monte Mario" for the presence of the villa belonging to Mario Millini, is covered by a yellowish sand given up by the sea and used until recently for covering the streets along which the royal processions passed through to avoid the horses from slipping. The million years old fossilized shellfish in this sand are the most ancient trace of life to be found in Rome.
At the present moment, if you go to via dei Colli della Farnesina, you will find a spot where many are conserved on the surface of the sand, because together with the shells you can find the famous yellow sands which, in the Pliocene period, formed the sea bed of Rome.

Ancient maps of Rome

Plant 1

Engraved between 203 and 211, probably from the City's prefect L.Fabius Cilone, and posted up on the wall of a large hall dating from the time of Vespasian, restored in the Severi age, adjoining the Temple of Peace, now external wall of the convent next to the basilica of SS. Cosma and Damian. (Century I Year 203)

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