Courtyard of the Basilica of Saint Clement near the Colosseum Rome, Italy. The Basilica of San Clemente is situated some three hundred yards above the Colosseum, on a road that rises gradually to St John Lateran from the valley between the Coelian Hill on the south and the Oppian Hill on the north. It is named after Pope St Clement, the third successor of St Peter, who died about 100 A.D. In 1857, Fr Joseph Mullooly, the then Prior of San Clemente, began excavations under the present basilica, uncovering in the process not only the original, fourth- century basilica directly underneath, but also at a still lower level, the remains of an earlier, first-century building. Later excavations showed that underneath this third layer of buildings there was a fourth stratum, containing buildings destroyed in the fire of Nero in 64 A.D. After the fire of 64 the gutted buildings were filled in and used as foundations for further houses, at a level that is roughly that of the floor of the Colosseum today.

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