(Rome) Dedicated to St Clement, the fourth pope (reg c. ce 88–97), S Clemente consists of a 12th-century basilica (the upper church), one of the best-preserved medieval churches in Rome, superimposed on an Early Christian basilica (the lower church). This in turn had been constructed on top of structures dating to the 1st century ce. Below the apse of the lower church are the remains of a Mithraeum (2nd–3rd century ce) that had been inserted into the earlier Imperial building. Margaret Lyttleton Beneath the apse of the Early Christian basilica of S. Clemente (which is in turn below the 12th-century basilica) are the remains of the Mithraeum (2nd–3rd century ce) that had been inserted into the earlier Imperial building. Mithraism was an Eastern cult that became popular in Rome in the 1st century ce, especially among soldiers; it rivaled Christianity for a time, like Christianity promising eternal life to its initiates. The position of this Mithraeum immediately below and with precisely the same orientation as the later Christian church suggests an interesting continuity of cult in the transition from pagan to Christian Rome....