The New Mithraeum

Dion Chrysostom, c. 100 A.D., a philosophical writer under the emperors Nerva and Trajan, composed a series of discourses or essays (λόγοι) on various subjects, in one of which he reports concerning the doctrines and practices of the magi.

In the eighteenth year of Diocletian’s reign, Galerius Maximianus, persuaded by the sorcerer Theoteknos, consulted demonic oracles in a cave and was urged to initiate the persecution of the Christians.

Mmmm… do you mean this one?

Radcliffe G. Edmonds III analyses the absence of the moon in the Mithras Liturgy. He argues that this absence reflects a deliberate cosmological framework in which lunar powers linked to genesis are excluded from the ritual of ascent.

Hector erected an altar to Mithras in Emerita Augusta by means of a ‘divine vision’.

This collective volume explores the ways ancient peoples interacted with divine powers through prayer, magic, and the interpretation of the stars. Drawing on evidence from Mesopotamia to Late Antiquity, it situates these practices within broader religious and cosmological systems.

Interview avec Fahim Ennouhi à l’occasion de la publication de son premier livre, Le culte de Mithra en Afrique du Nord antique, consacré à cette présence restée élitiste et marginale dans cette région de l’Empire.

229 A.D. The passage quoted is from the sixty-third book, ch. 10. Origen

Fritz Saxl interprets Mithraism primarily through its images, proposing the cult as a visual cosmology structured around the descent, sacrifice and re-ascent of light, developed in close dialogue with Aby Warburg and Erwin Panofsky.

Cet ouvrage propose une étude d’ensemble du culte de Mithra en Afrique romaine. S’appuyant sur un rigoureux examen croisé des sources épigraphiques, archéologiques et littéraires, il restitue l’histoire et les spécificités de ce culte à mystères sur le sol africain.

Gold lamina from Ciciliano showing a nude, serpent-entwined Aion-Kronos holding a key and surrounded by Greek voces magicae (2nd c. CE).

The lion-headed figure from Rusicade, now Skikda, holds a key in both hands and features a pine cone beside his feet.

Inscription recording the dedication of a mithraeum at Tiddis by a group of cultores who built the sanctuary at their own expense.

The Mithraeum was housed in a cave. The vault is almost dome-shaped and in front of the cave there is enough space for a possible adjacent temple.

An inscription mentioning a speleum decorated by Publilius Ceionius suggests the location of a mithraeum in Cirta, the capital of Numidia.

Many of the inscriptions and sculptures of the site were kept in a museum which has been destroyed.

This altar, found in Tazoult تازولت, Algeria, was dedicated to the god Sol Mithras by a certain Florus.

This altar found in Lambèse, now Tazoult, Algeria, bears the inscription of a certain Celsianus for the health of two men to the god Sol Unconquered Mithras.

Statue of a standing person in eastern attire in red, local limestone with inscription.

Acclaimed esoteric scholar Peter Mark Adams talks about his latest book, ‘Ritual and Epiphany in the Mysteries of Mithras’, interviewed by professor, writer and host of The New Mithraeum podcast Andreu Abuín.