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 conventions, later with a more explicitly military profile and thus particularly widespread among the Roman legions especially in the middle and late empire.
The room, discovered in 1936 and consisting of a hall measuring 11.85 x 6.25 meters with a barrel vault and side benches called praesepia, presents 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 the zodiac signs, around ten small panels (pinakes) that tell the story and the 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.
