CIMRM 339-340 - Altar. San Clemente, Rome

From here.

Left-side of altar: Cautopates.¹

From: Nolan, Basilica of S. Clemente, 1914, p.242. Note that the square marble plate from the top of the altar is missing from these early photos, but they give a good picture of all four sides.

Photo of plaster cast in lower church. From: here. By Claudia Porcel. Note that the lower church is normally kept very dark.

On a personal visit in May 2013, I found that a plaster cast of the lower part of the altar was standing in the lower church. The following images were found here. They appear to be photographs of the plaster cast. The top of the cast was broken when I saw it, revealing chicken-wire across the top.²

Number of entries: 4

CIMRM entry

339.
Altar of Parian marble (H. 1.12 Br. 0.63), discovered partly in the sanctuary itself, partly in the irregular room opposite the Mithraeum. Kept in the spelaeum. See fig. 97.
The altar has been decorated with reliefs on four sides. In the front side Mithras is slaying the bull in a grotto. Dog and serpent with their heads near the wound; scorpion on the usual place. The god is looking at the raven perched on the rockborder. In the upper corners the dressed busts of Sol with, seven rays around his head, and of Luna. On the left side Cautopates in Eastern attire, not cross-legged. On the r. side standing Cautes who lifts his torch with both hands. On the back a big, twisting serpent. The upper part of the altar consists of a square marble plate with on the front side an inscription between a palm-branch and crown. On the four corners the busts of the wind-gods, one of which has got lost. The bust of Luna is damaged.
340.
L.H. 0.02-0.03.
Cn(aeus) Arrius Claudianus / pater posuit.
Claudianus is a libertus or descends from the Arrii-family, to which belonged also the Emperor Antoninus Pius of mother's side. "Si Claudianus n'a pas dil son nom illustre a un affranchissement. on supposera avec une grande vraisemblance que le gens Arria possedait sous les Antonins la maison de l'epoque d'Auguste" (Cumont). Dr C. C. van Essen however, draws my attention to the fact that the house was built on the layers of the fire of Nero.

(The CIMRM does not make it quite clear that 340 is the inscription on 339.)

¹	Postcards of the altar on sale at the basilica of San Clemente reveal that the image at the top is indeed the left, looking at the front, and is indeed coloured. The figure of Cautes on the right of the altar is no longer coloured in any way.
²	Notes from personal visit in May 2013.