Mitreo di Marino

TNMM 22

Mr V. Zoffoli, enlarging his wine-cellars near the railway-station in 1963, discovered a grotto dedicated to the mighty and secret god. The plan of the Mithraeum is the usual one. Behind a wide entrance hall (L. 13.25 m, W. 8.00 m) we find the sanctuary itself, which is exceptionally long and much narrower (W. 3.10 m) than the ante-room. The longest Mithraeum of the Roman Imperium known hitherto was that at Sarmizegetusa TNMM 57 is in Dacia (L. 26 m), the one at Marino however is 29.20 metres long, which is twice the normal length. The arrangement of benches on either side with a nave in between is quite normal, as is the vault (H. 3.00 m) hewn out of the rock. Though this vault symbolizes the sky, it has not been decorated either with blue or with stars as in some other sanctuaries.

In the centre of the nave and in front of the representation of Mithras on the back wall is an altar with an inscription of Cresces, administrator, probably servus of the Pater of the Mithraeum, Alfius Severus.

The left-bench (H. 0.84, W. 0.55) which is 19.70 metres long, starts at a distance of 7.20 metres from the entrance and ends at 1.20 m from the cult-niche. The right bench has disappeared, but there are traces indicating that this bench also stopped short of the niche.

The importance of the Sanctuary of Marino lies above all in its fresco representing several scenes from the myth of Mithras.

The Marino Mithraeum was discovered in 1963 during the enlargement of wine cellars near the railway station of Marino, in the Alban Hills southeast of Rome. Excavated and published by Maarten J. Vermaseren, it is regarded as one of the most important painted Mithraic sanctuaries known from the Roman world. The spelaeum was partly cut into peperino rock, a feature which Henri Lavagne connected with the symbolism of the cosmic cave described by Porphyry and Euboulos.

The complex consisted of a rectangular antechamber measuring approximately 13.25 × 8 m and a spelaeum 29.20 m long and 3.10 m wide, covered by a vaulted ceiling about 3 m high. Benches ran along both sides of the sanctuary; Vermaseren gives for the left podium a length of 19.70 m, a height of 0.84 m and a width of 0.55 m. At the end of the spelaeum stood the cult podium and a peperino altar approximately 1.18 m high. No coins or terra sigillata were recovered, so the chronology depends mainly on stylistic analysis of the paintings. Different scholars proposed dates ranging from ca. 160-170 CE to the early Severan period or around 200 CE; Meyboom preferred a date near 200 CE. The evidence presented in the text does not allow a completely certain dating.

An inscription discovered in the sanctuary mentions a certain Cresces, actor of Alfius Severus or Alfi Seberus depending on the reading: Invicto deo Cresces actor Alfi Seberi d(onum) p(osuit). The title actor is generally understood as an administrator or agent. Vermaseren notes that some scholars attempted to connect the sanctuary with soldiers of the legio II Parthica stationed at Alba, but he himself regarded this military interpretation as uncertain.

The Mithraeum is especially famous for its painted decoration. The central tauroctony shows Mitra in oriental costume, wearing a red tunic and Phrygian cap while sacrificing the bull within the sacred cave. His cloak is covered with numerous stars, seven of them larger and brighter than the others, which Vermaseren interpreted as possible references to the seven planets. Sol and Luna occupy the upper corners of the composition, while the raven appears behind Mithras as a solar messenger associated with Helios-Apollo. Vermaseren stresses that the monument expresses a cosmic conception of the Mithraic cave, corresponding to Porphyry’s description of the spelaeum as an image of the universe.

The sanctuary preserves an extensive cycle of narrative side-panels illustrating episodes from Mithra’s sacred history. These include the Gigantomachy, the reclining Saturn holding the falx, the miraculous rock-birth of Mitra, Mitra riding the bull, the transitus dei in which the god carries the bull on his shoulders, the water miracle, the submission of Sol, and the alliance between Sol and Mithras. Vermaseren believes that these subsidiary scenes may have been painted by a different artist from the one responsible for the monumental tauroctony.