What makes the Basilica of Saint Clement so interesting is not just that it's old — it's old by even Rome standards, but if you go one floor down there is an even older church and then if you keep going there are two more labyrinthine basement floors of a temple to the Cult of Mithras.⁣
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The ground floor basilica was built right after 1100AD and stylistically it has all those elements that make Middle Ages churches so delicious, they look much more middle eastern than European. Ornate mosaics of gold, green and red. A graceful apse. ⁣
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But one floor down is the older church to Saint Clement from 392AD with it's faded frescoes. ⁣
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Then the floors below that date from the 1st century AD at least prior to the year 64AD when Rome had that famous fire that Nero blamed on the Christians. ⁣
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Saint Clement was the fourth Pope, but only briefly, his religion was still illegal and Emperor Trajan had him sent to a work at a stone quarry in the Crimea, however Saint Clement began converting prisoners upon his arrival so they tied him to an anchor and cast him into the Black Sea. His emblem is an anchor with a cross. You'll notice in the third picture the fishes swimming up and down the right hand side of the fresco. ⁣
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Mithras was an esoteric religion that rivaled Christianity in those early days. The image of Mithra slaying a bull is the same every time you see Mithraic imagery, he holds the bull by the nostrils, leans in a funny way, always looks to the side for some reason and impales the bull. Not much else is known about Mithraism, but the irony is that while the Christians were being persecuted by the Romans and their religion was illegal, when they came to power they did the exact same thing to Mithraism, except they succeed in stamping it out.