Inscription of Pylades from Angers

TNMM 1410

White marble plaque with a dedication to the god Mithras discovered in a demolition layer at Iuliomagus (modern Angers, France). The inscription records a vow fulfilled by Pylades, slave of Felix Agathangelianus, himself an imperial slave (servus Augusti). The text is particularly significant for the social history of Mithraism in Roman Gaul, as it links the cult to the milieu of imperial administrative slaves and their dependants. The formula “Augusto. Deo Invicto Mithrae” unusually combines imperial devotion with the worship of Mithras, a rare association in Mithraic epigraphy. The plaque probably belonged to the earliest Mithraeum of Iuliomagus and is generally dated to the second half of the 2nd century CE.