The subject of this study is the Roman Mithraic bas-relief from the garden of Palazzo
Colonna in Rome, which depicts a lion-headed monster. Even though the piece is well known
to Mithraism researchers, no stylistic and formal analysis has ever been made that could
suggest a hypothesis for dating this work.
This article aims now to provide one as well as
to outline its history and present its detailed antiquarian bibliography. Finally, this study
aims at inserting this relief into the topographical context of ancient Rome, since its findspot
is known to be in
VI Regio,
between the Quirinal and Viminal hills.