the site of which is now occupied by the deserted CHURCH OF S. URBANO.
The church was built of brick, and the vestibule is supported by
marble Corinthian pillars. Piranesi saw the name of Faustina stamped
on one of the bricks. The basin in the vestibule containing the holy
water was found near here, and was an altar consecrated to Bacchus.
The inscription says that it was made under the priesthood of
Apronianus. The grove of ilex trees is termed the Sacred Grove of
Bacchus. Tradition says S. Urban, in 222-30, had an oratory here under
the present altar; and that Urban VIII. (1633) turned the oratory into
a church;--the paintings and iron bars are of that date. Below the
altar, entered from its side, is a cell, on the end wall of which is
a fresco, of the eighth century, of the Virgin with Christ, and SS.
John and Urban. The plan of the building is rectangular, and it is of
the time of Antoninus Pius. At the foot of this hill is the valley of
the Almo, or Caffarella, in which is the mossy entrance to a grotto,
for a long time called the Grotto of Egeria, owing to the
misapprehension of the site of the Porta Capena. It is now known to
have been a nymphæum in the