Further, on the right, standing back from a kind of piazza, adorned with an ancient granite column, is the _Church of S. Cesareo_, which already existed in the time of St. Gregory the Great, but was modernized under Clement VII. (1523--34). Its interior retains many of its ancient features. The pulpit is one of the most exquisite specimens of church decoration in Rome, and is covered with the most delicate sculpture, interspersed with mosaic; the emblems of the Evangelists are introduced in the carving of the panels. The high altar is richly encrusted with mosaics, probably by the Cosmati family; tiny owls form part of the decorations of the capitals of its pillars. Beneath is a "confession," where two angels are drawing curtains over the tomb of the saint. The chancel has an inlaid marble screen. In the tribune is an ancient episcopal throne, once richly ornamented with mosaics. In this church St. Sergius was elected to the papal throne, in 687; and here, also, an Abbot of SS. Vincenzo ed Anastasio was elected in 1145, as Eugenius III., and was immediately afterwards forced by the opposing senate to fly to Montecelli, and then to the Abbey of Farfa, where his consecration took place. Part of the palace of the titular cardinal of S. Cesareo remains in the adjoining garden, with an interesting loggia of _c._ 1200. In this neighbourhood was the _Piscina Publica_, which gave a name to the twelfth Region of the city. It was used for learning to swim, but all trace of it had disappeared before the time of Festus, whose date is uncertain, but who lived before the end of the fourth century-- "In thermas fugio: sonas ad aurem, Piscinam peto: non licet natare." _Martial_, iii. _Ep._ 44. * * * * * Here a lane turns on the left, towards the ancient _Porta Latina_ (through which the Via Latina led to Capua), now closed. In front of the gate is a little chapel, of the sixteenth century, called _S. Giovanni in Oleo_, decorated with indifferent frescoes, on the spot where St. John is said to have been thrown into a cauldron of boiling oil (under Domitian), from which "he came forth as from a refreshing bath." It is the suffering in the burning oil which gave St. John the palm of a martyr, with which he is often represented in art. The festival of "St. John ante Port. Lat." (May 6) is preserved in the English Church Calendar. On the left, is the _Church of S. Giovanni a Porta Latina_, built in 1190 by Celestine III.