{"id":7136,"date":"2015-12-26T17:03:24","date_gmt":"2015-12-27T00:03:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/BigJimIndustries.com\/wordpress\/?p=7136"},"modified":"2016-01-09T17:07:26","modified_gmt":"2016-01-10T00:07:26","slug":"pagan-cults-in-rome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/2015\/12\/26\/pagan-cults-in-rome\/","title":{"rendered":"Pagan Cults In Rome"},"content":{"rendered":"

from The Telegraph<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Secret pagan basilica in Rome emerges from the shadows after 2,000 years<\/h1>\n

An underground chamber that was a place of worship for a mysterious cult 2,000 years ago has opened to the public for the first time<\/em><\/p>\n

By\u00a0Nick Squires<\/a>,\u00a0Rome<\/p>\n

\"StuccoStucco figures<\/span>\u00a0 Photo: Chris Warde-Jones\/The Telegraph<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

A\u00a0mysterious Roman basilica built for the worship of an esoteric pagan cult<\/a>\u00a0and now lying hidden more than 40ft below street level has opened to the public for the first time.<\/p>\n

The basilica, the only one of its kind in the world, was excavated from solid tufa volcanic rock on the outskirts of the imperial capital in the first century AD.<\/p>\n

Lavishly decorated with stucco reliefs of gods, goddesses, panthers, winged cherubs and pygmies, it was discovered by accident in 1917 during the construction of a railway line from Rome to Cassino, a town to the south. An underground passageway caved in, revealing the entrance to the hidden chamber.<\/p>\n

A painstaking restoration that has been going on for years has now reached the point where the 40ft-long basilica can be opened to visitors.<\/p>\n

The subterranean basilica, which predates Christianity, was built by a rich Roman family who were devotees of a little-known cult called Neopythagoreanism.<\/p>\n

Originating in the first century BC, it was a school of mystical Hellenistic philosophy that preached asceticism and was based on the writings of Pythagoras and Plato.<\/p>\n

[ click to continue reading The Telegraph<\/a> ]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

from The Telegraph Secret pagan basilica in Rome emerges from the shadows after 2,000 years An underground chamber that was a place of worship for a mysterious cult 2,000 years ago has opened to the public for the first time By\u00a0Nick Squires,\u00a0Rome Stucco figures\u00a0 Photo: Chris Warde-Jones\/The Telegraph A\u00a0mysterious Roman basilica built for the worship […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture-art"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7136\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}