Il Mitreo Barberini is a small building that, reusing previous structures from the 2nd century AD, was dedicated to the cult of Mithras, a solar deity of Iranian origin already guarantor of pacts and agreements, later with a more explicitly military profile and therefore particularly widespread among the Roman legions especially in the middle and late empire.
The environment, discovered in 1936 and consisting of a room measuring 11.85 x 6.25 meters with barrel vault and side benches called praesepia, features a complex and interesting fresco decoration, with few comparisons (e.g. Marino and Capua; in Rome, the Mithraeum of S. Prisca): at the top the celestial vault with zodiac signs, around ten small paintings (pinakes) telling the story and sacred deeds of Mithras; the personifications of Sol and Luna.
Attention focuses on the central scene of the taurobolium where Mithras, flanked as usual by Cautes and Cautopates, ritually kills the bull.
