[1] The church was built in 398, by senator Pammachius, over the home of two Roman soldiers, John and Paul, martyred under the emperor Julian in 362.

The church was thus called the Titulus Pammachii and is recorded as such in the acts of the synod held by Pope Symmachus in 499.

The apse is frescoed with Christ in Glory (1588) by Cristoforo Roncalli (one of the painters called il Pomarancio); while below this fresco are three paintings: a Martyrdom of St John, a Martyrdom of St Paul, and the Conversion of Terenziano (1726) by Giovanni Domenico Piastrini, Giacomo Triga, and Pietro Andrea Barbieri respectively.

[5] According to the writer Charlotte Anne Eaton, these rooms were dens that were part of a vivarium in which wild animals were kept before being used in entertainments held at the Colosseum.

The walls of the confessio were frescoed with Christian themes (e.g., the beheading of Saints Crispus, Crispinus, and Benedicta, female figures and an orante or "person in prayer").

[3] Media related to Basilica dei santi Giovanni e Paolo al Celio at Wikimedia Commons