Mithräum von Dieburg

TNMM 232 ↔ CIMRM 1246

A Mithraeum found at Dieburg at the corner of the Minnefelderseestrasze (Fr. Eberstrasze) and the Forsthausstrasze in the N-E part of the town in 1926.

The Mithraeum is built of trachyte from Eppertshausen near Dieburg. The sanctuary in East-West orientation (L 11.20 Br. 5.60) has the normal division into a central aisle (Br. 2.40) and two benches (Br. 1.60) which begin at a distance of 1.20 m from the entrance. At the beginning of these benches at 0.30 mtrs a cup had been embedded. The r. bench is connected with the base which served for the cult-relief whereas the l. bench ends at a distance of 1.55 mtrs before the backwall.

Between the backwall and the bench is a pit; another pit (diam. 1.10 D. 1.75) is at a distance of 3 mtrs N. of the sanctuary. Of a pronaos only a few traces remained which point to a wood-construction. The whole building has a 2 : 1 proportion. I feel very much inclined to back Cumont’s supposition that the destruction of the sanctuary took place in 260 A.D., the end of the Limes, when the Germans made their invasions.

The Mithraic cult was an exclusively men-only mystery religion in the Roman Empire. There are references to two places of worship from Dieburg, whereby the Mithraeum, discovered in 1926 with its world-famous Mithras stone and numerous other stone monuments, forms the centerpiece of Museum Schloss Fechenbach.