Tauroctony marble from Mitreo Fagan
TNMM 106 ↔ CIMRM 310 & 311
Marble statue (H. 0.84 Br. 1.42), found ’at the entrance of the sanctuary’. Mus. Vaticana, Galleria Lapidaria XXXIII, 1.
Mithras as a bullkiller. His flying cloak is adorned with seven stars around a crescent. The raven is seated on the bull’s tail, which ends in three ears. The dog with collar and the serpent with their heads near the wound; the scorpion in the usual place. On the lower border the inscription No. 311. End of the second cent. A.D.
CIMRM 311
CIL XIV 64; MMM II No. 138.
Sig(num) indrepehensivilis dei / L(ucius) Sextius Karns et / C(aius) Valerius
Heracles sacerdos s(ua) p(ecunia) p(osuernnt).
The name of L. Sextius Karus was added later on in small letters.
In the shrine a marble sculptural group was found of Mithras killing the bull (now in the Vatican Museums). He is called ’undiscoverable deity’ in an inscription on the basis:
SIG(num) INDEPREHENSIVILIS DEI C(aius) VALERIVS HERACLES SACERDOS S(ua) P(ecunia) P(osuit)
L(ucius) SEXTIVS KARVS ET
The second line was added later and should be understood as being in front of C. Valerius.
Main inscription
p[ecunia] p[osuit].
L[ucius] Sextius Karus et.
And Lucius Sextius Karus.
References
Labus Bibl. It. III 54 Taf. III; Fea Rel. Ostia 44; A. Nibby Viaggio anti- quario a Ostia Roma 182975; Zoega Abh. 146f No.2 and Taf. V 15; Ger- hard-Platner 32 No. 25; Lajard Intr. PI. LXXX 2; Visconti in Ann. 1st. 1864 149; MMM II 237f No. 79 and fig. 67; Amelung Skulpt. Vat. I (2) 275 No. 144b and Taf. 30; RRS II 476 3; Paschetto in Bilychnis 1912 466f fig. 1= Ostia 385 and fig. 33; Becatti 119 and PI. XXXIV 2. Fig. 84 placed at my disposal by the Direction of the Vatican Musea.
- Vermaseren, Maarten Jozef (1956) Corpus Inscriptionum et Monumentorum Religionis Mithriacae
