Outside view of the portico and entrance of the Basilica of Saints John and Paul on the Celian Hill in Rome, Italy. The church is said to be built in 398, by will of the senator Pammachius, over the home of two Roman soldiers, John and Paul, martyred under the emperor Julian in 362. The church was damaged during the sack by Alaric I 410 and because of an earthquake 442, restored by Pope Paschal I 824, sacked again by the Normans 1084, and again restored, with the addition of a monastery and a bell tower. During excavations performed in the 19th century, a series of Ancient Roman rooms were discovered under the nave of the church. The underground sites of the basilica were discovered in 1887 by Father Germano da San Stanislao, who at the time was rector of the Basilica, and was searching for the tombs of the martyrs John and Paul. He found twenty decorated rooms belonging to at least five different buildings dated between the first and the fourth century AD. These five buildings comprise one of the best conserved Roman era residential building complexes still in existence today
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