Terme del Mitra

The Terme del Mitra stand in Ostia Antica, the old harbour city of Rome in Latium. They lie north-west of the Forum, bounded by brick buildings and warehouses that once stored grain. Built around 125 AD under Hadrian, the baths were enlarged twice more, once under the Severans and again early in the fourth century. Their position near the Tiber and the granaries suggests they served dock workers and grain measurers. Guido Calza directed the excavations that uncovered the complex in 1939–40. The layout centres on an entrance hall that leads to two large rooms of uncertain purpose and a cold bath hall with niches and a pool. A mosaic of Odysseus and the Sirens was found on the hall’s west side. Beyond it, a warm room, a heated sweating room later extended with an apse and pool, and a hot bath hall with two rectangular pools follow in sequence. At the south end of the hot hall a narrow corridor gives access to a hydraulic wheel room and the boiler room, where a statue of Vulcan was discovered. Underground service corridors preserve several furnaces and water channels. At the north-west corner a staircase climbs to a later mithraeum installed between the late second and early third century. The cult room takes its name from a statue of Mithras slaying the bull found in place. When the baths fell out of use, the northernmost chamber was turned into a Christian oratory. The remains show how daily bathing, eastern mystery rites and early Christian worship once shared the same walls.