It is located near Casina del Cardinal Bessarione on Via di Porta San Sebastiano and the beginning of the Appian Way.

In the 4th century, Emperor Valentinian I's daughter was cured at the shrine of Caesarius at Terracina, the site of his martyrdom.

[citation needed] The present church is the result of reconstruction work undertaken in 1602/3, supervised by the great historian Cardinal Cesare Baronio,[3] who was then titular here and whose house survives.

The coat-of-arms of the reigning Pope Clement VIII, who was of the Aldobrandini family, was added to the coffered ceiling.

The Cosmatesque pulpit, the balustrades, the altar frontal and episcopal chair behind the altar (in pale blue, unusual in Cosmatesque work) may have been brought here at this time from San Giovanni in Laterano, when work was undertaken at this period in the transepts there, although possibly they came from other churches.