Mithraic monuments of Antium
Tauroctony from Antium
This marble relief depicting Mithras killing the bull, found at Porto d’Anzio in 1699 and now lost, is known from a engraving by del Torre.
CIMRM 204
Torchbearer statue from Antium
Penthelic marble statue of a standing torchbearer in Eastern attire, cross-legged, with head and torch arm broken off, probably 2nd century A.D., found at Antium (modern Anzio).
CIMRM 205
Funerary inscription of Alfenius Ceionius Iulianus Kamenius
Late Roman funerary inscription from Antium commemorating the senator, governor of Numidia and Mithraic pater Alfenius Ceionius Iulianus Kamenius.
CIMRM 206
Brothers attested in Antium
Inscriptions from Antium
Funerary inscription of Alfenius Ceionius Iulianus Kamenius
Inter avos proavosque tuos sanctumque parentem
Virtutem meritis et honoribus emicuisti,
Ornamentum ingens generis magnique senatus.
Sed raptus propere liquisti, sancte Kameni,
Aeternos fletus obiens iuvenalibus annis.
Te dulcis coniunx lacrimis noctesque diesque
Cum parvis deflet natis, solacia vitae
Amisisse dolens casto viduata cubili;
Quae tamen extremum munus, solacia luctus,
Omnibus obsequiis ornat decoratque sepulcrum.
Alfenio Ceionio Iuliano Kamenio v(iro) c(larissimo) quaestori candidato / pretori triumfali, VII viro epulonum, patri sacrorum summi / invicti Mitre, hierofante Aecatae, archibucolo dei Liberi, XV viro / s(acris) f(aciundis), tauroboliato deum Matris, pontifici maiori, consulari / Numidiae et vicario Africae qui vixit annos XLII m(enses) VI d(ies) XIII. / Rec(essit) II nonas septembr(es) d(omino) n(ostro) Archadio et Fl(avio) Bautone / v(iro) c(larissimo) cons(ulibus).
Virtutem meritis et honoribus emicuisti,
Ornamentum ingens generis magnique senatus.
Sed raptus propere liquisti, sancte Kameni,
Aeternos fletus obiens iuvenalibus annis.
Te dulcis coniunx lacrimis noctesque diesque
Cum parvis deflet natis, solacia vitae
Amisisse dolens casto viduata cubili;
Quae tamen extremum munus, solacia luctus,
Omnibus obsequiis ornat decoratque sepulcrum.
Alfenio Ceionio Iuliano Kamenio v(iro) c(larissimo) quaestori candidato / pretori triumfali, VII viro epulonum, patri sacrorum summi / invicti Mitre, hierofante Aecatae, archibucolo dei Liberi, XV viro / s(acris) f(aciundis), tauroboliato deum Matris, pontifici maiori, consulari / Numidiae et vicario Africae qui vixit annos XLII m(enses) VI d(ies) XIII. / Rec(essit) II nonas septembr(es) d(omino) n(ostro) Archadio et Fl(avio) Bautone / v(iro) c(larissimo) cons(ulibus).
Among your grandfathers, great-grandfathers, and your revered father,
you shone forth through virtue, merit, and honours,
a great ornament to your lineage and to the noble Senate.
Yet, taken too soon, holy Kamenius,
you left behind eternal mourning, dying in the years of youth.
Your devoted wife, in tears night and day,
together with your little children, mourns you,
grieving that she has lost the consolation of her life,
widowed from a chaste marriage bed;
and yet, as a final duty and solace in grief,
she honours and adorns your tomb with every devotion.
To Alfenius Ceionius Iulianus Kamenius, clarissimus, quaestor candidatus, triumphal praetor, member of the college of the septemviri epulones, father of the sacred rites of the supreme unconquered Mitra, hierophant of Hecate, archibucolus of the god Liber, member of the quindecimviri sacris faciundis, tauroboliate of the Magna Mater, pontifex maior, governor of Numidia and vicarius of Africa, who lived 42 years, 6 months and 13 days. He died on the 4th of September during the consulship of Arcadius Augustus and Flavius Bauto, vir clarissimus (385 CE).
you shone forth through virtue, merit, and honours,
a great ornament to your lineage and to the noble Senate.
Yet, taken too soon, holy Kamenius,
you left behind eternal mourning, dying in the years of youth.
Your devoted wife, in tears night and day,
together with your little children, mourns you,
grieving that she has lost the consolation of her life,
widowed from a chaste marriage bed;
and yet, as a final duty and solace in grief,
she honours and adorns your tomb with every devotion.
To Alfenius Ceionius Iulianus Kamenius, clarissimus, quaestor candidatus, triumphal praetor, member of the college of the septemviri epulones, father of the sacred rites of the supreme unconquered Mitra, hierophant of Hecate, archibucolus of the god Liber, member of the quindecimviri sacris faciundis, tauroboliate of the Magna Mater, pontifex maior, governor of Numidia and vicarius of Africa, who lived 42 years, 6 months and 13 days. He died on the 4th of September during the consulship of Arcadius Augustus and Flavius Bauto, vir clarissimus (385 CE).
References
- A. B. Griffith (1993) Mithraism in the private and public lives of 4th-c. senators in Rome
- Epigraphik-Datenbank Clauss / Slaby. Funerary inscription of Alfenius Ceionius Iulianus Kamenius in EDCS
- Francesco Massa (2016) Liber et les autres : un réseau mystérique chez les païens de la fin du IVe siècle
- Pierre de Labriolle (2021) La Réaction païenne. Étude sur la polémique antichrétienne du Ier au VIe siècle
