Cautes from Newcastle

TNMM 251 ↔ CIMRM 849

Within the nave ever-rising floor-level had now reached the point when only the capitals of the pedestals which had once carried the statues of Cautes and Cautopates on high projected above the floor. These pedestals were accordingly disused and torch-bearers without separate pedestals were placed at the ends of the new benches situated six feet north of the screen. There is no doubt that these statues had been damaged and a strong likelihood that they had served in another part of the shrine before being allotted to this position.

The head of the statue of Cautes had been broken off and reset by dowelling. The back of the stone still exhibits the initial trimming with adze and pick, and was plainly never intended to be seen. The inference would be that this piece was intended to stand against a wall, not free, as in the nave; and, as may be noted in passing, it does not fit the earlier stone pedestal. It followed that in Mithraeum II the pedestals carried similar but different statues, which perished in the destruction that befell the screen, while this pair occupied another position, presumably in the sanctuary, with their backs against the walls of the apse.

CIMRM II 849

Richmond in Bruce-Mitford, 74 and Pl. XV, a.