Archaeological Evidence of the Cult of Mithras in Ancient Italy
This thesis focuses on the archaeological traces of the cult of Mithras in Roman Italy. The subject of Mithraism was suggested by my supervisors Prof. A. Mastrocinque and Prof. Dr. F. Vermeulen within the frame of the first year of our Joined Doctoral Program between Verona and Ghent Universities. The choice of an archaeological perspective to approach an historical-religious subject was required both by the sources being mostly archaeological and by my archaeological education.
The aim of this thesis is twofold. The first objective is the update of Vermaseren’s CIMRM, which is the catalog of the material evidence of the Mithras’ cult published between 1956 and 1960. The number of Mithraic discoveries intervened since then called for an update of the said catalog. The geographical limit has been set within the boundaries of ancient Italy. This area produced enough evidence to support 4-year-long research. The chronological limit has been determined by the chronology of the Mithraic phenomenon, which lasted from the final decades of the 1st century to the early 5th century CE. The method adopted to update CIMRM included: bibliographical survey of archaeological journals, conference proceedings dedicated to the Oriental Cults, and dedicated works; survey of Museums and Superintendence deposits; participation to dedicated conferences. Access to these last two sources suffered a major setback in the last two years because of the Covid-19 outbreak. Nonetheless, the availability of online resources such as Universities’ digital libraries and the digital repositories of some major Italian Museums and Superintendence offices were quite helpful in these times of partial or total lockdown. The results of this update can be seen in chapter two of the present thesis. The second objective of this thesis is the comparative analysis of the spatial distribution and organization of Mithraea. The collection of a large amount of data ultimately shaped as a catalog allowed me to select the architectural contexts to develop an in-depth analysis of topographical and architectural topics in order to fill a gap still existing in Mithraic studies. The results of this analysis can be seen in chapter five.
The present thesis is organized into five chapters. The first chapter introduces Mithraism and his religious-historical dimension. After an overview of the scholarly debate on the ‘Oriental Cults’, some space has been dedicated to the literature review of Mithraic studies, with a specific paragraph devoted to Mithraic 3 catalogs.
The second part of the chapter focuses on the definition of the features of Mithraism: origin and spread, devotees, beliefs, material traces, and demise. The second chapter consists of the update of CIMRM. The total number of entries is 514, 108 of which are new additions. They are arranged following a geographical order into evidence from northern Italy (nos. 1-48), central (nos. 49- 111) and southern Italy (nos. 112-125), Ostia (nos. 126-153), and Rome (nos. 154- 285). At the end of the catalog, monuments from Italy but without exact find-spot (nos. 286-306) and finds which are not surely Mithraic or non-Mithraic at all can be found.
The following chapters three and four develop a comment on selected epigraphic (chapter three) and iconographic (chapter four) topics, based on the data collected in chapter two. The epigraphic comment focuses on the phrasings used to address Mithras, on the occasions chosen by the devotee to consecrate a monument to the god, on the social status of devotees, and their grades and priesthoods. The iconographic comment focuses on variations of the tauroctony image, on the supports and sizes it came in, and on the distribution of the occurrences of minor Mithraic subjects.
The fifth chapter focuses on the analysis of the spatial distribution of Mithraea within the urban layout, on the patterns of access of these sanctuaries, and the analysis of their internal organization. The conclusions summarize the new data we added updating CIMRM and the results of the spatial and architectural analysis of Mithraea.
Cited in
Monuments
- Album of Portus
- Altar by Aelius Secundinus of Novaria
- Altar by Flavius Lucilianus from Aveia
- Altar by Septimius Zosimus from Roma
- Altar of Poreč
- Altar with inscription of Sentinum
- Fragments of a Mithriac relief with Jupiter and Sol
- Inscription of Apronianus to the res publica of the Aequiculi
- Inscription of Tellius Agatho in Mitreo delle Sette Sfere
- Inscription of two lions from Angera
- Inscription on restauration of the Mitreo de Carsulae
- Mithraic altar from Venosa
- Mitreo di Piazza della Navicella
- Relief of Jupiter, Juno and Minerva
- Tauroctonia del Cortile del Belvedere
- Tauroctony of Chrestos
- Tauroctony of Naples
- Tauroctony of the Loggia Scoperta
- Tauroctony of via di Borgo
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