The private baths, built in the Hadrianic period (AD 117-138), had heated rooms in the south sector (D-F) whilst the northern part was occupied by a room later transformed into a Christian cult space and by the main room, separated by two columns from the frigidarium (room for cold baths), decorated with a figurative mosaic (C). The baths also had service rooms, one of which hosted the water wheel (noria) that drew up water from underground (G). An external staircase led to an underground service room for the baths, in which a mithraeum was installed (H). The podia (side benches) and the two little pillars supporting the pyramids symbolizing the stone from which Mithras was born are preserved. At the back was the cult statue depicting Mithras killing the bull; a cast can now be seen, whilst the original is kept in the Museo Ostiense.
Reconstruction of the system for drawing water
(A. Pascolini)
Reconstruction of the system for drawing water
(A. Pascolini)
Detail of the mosaic with Ulysses and the Sirens in the frigidarium (C)
Marble imagines clipeatae (portrait on round shield) belonging to the decoration of the baths
Plan of the mithraeum
(G. Caraffa)
Reconstruction drawing of the interior of the mithraeum
(A. Pascolini)
Sculpture group with Mithras
(Museo Ostiense)
Central room’s mosaic floor
View of the baths’ underground areas
Discovery of the marble clipei