Monumentum
Marble head of Mithras from Rome
Marble head in the Museo Baracco, Rome, generally described as an Alexander but very probably representing Mithras with his eyes lifted towards heaven; the back of the head is finished obliquely with a small hole for fastening a Phrygian cap.
The New Mithraeum
Updated on May 2026
TNMM 1085 ↔ CIMRM 559
Marble head. Museo Baracco.
Cat. Baracco, No. 157; Cumont in RA, 1947, 7f and figs. 4–5; Becatti, Mitrei Ostia, Pl. XXXIII, 3–4.
The head, as well as several others, is explained as an "Alexander". It is however, very probably a Mithras' head, lifting his eyes towards heaven. The back of the head is finished obliquely and in the middle of it there is a small hole in which the Phrygian cap may have been fastened.
CIMRM II 559
Museo Barracco. Margarete Bieber in AJA 60, 1956, 312 is of the opinion that the head represents 'the apotheosized Alexander in Roman conception' (Cf. Bieber in PAPS 93, 1949, 423f figs. 80–81).
References
- Vermaseren, Maarten Jozef (1956) Corpus Inscriptionum et Monumentorum Religionis Mithriacae
