Head of Mithras from Santo Stefano Rotondo

TNMM 165

The niche contained a stucco high-relief tauroctony, as is proven by the presence, on the white plaster in the niche, guide-marks for fixing it in, and there are the remains of great iron nails (pl. XVIII, 2) in the niche, nails which are also embedded in the remains of the relief. Many fragments were found of the group; red from the coat of Mithras, brown from the bull, but not enough to reassemble it. The relief was 1.2m wide, filling the whole niche.

But from this relief the head of Mithras (inv. n. 205826) has survived (pl. I). It is 26cm high, and gilded. The phrygian cap is violet-red, and the face entirely covered with a thin sheet of gold. The intense use of colour, the structural soundness, and the nature of the decoration allow us to date this as within the 2nd c. A.D., and therefore belonging to the first phase of the mithraeum.

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