Sepulchral inscription with Mithraic grade from Philippi

TNMM 2548 ↔ CIMRM 2343

Vollgraff in Homm. Bidez-Cumont, 353ff studies a sepulchral inscription of the third century found in the Castle of Doxato near the ruins of ancient Philippi (CIL III 686; Perdrizet, Cultes Pangée, 95 ff; Cook, Zeus, II (l), 124, 4; Dölger in AC II 1930, 107ff; Bücheler, Carm. Ep., II, 1233).

l. 13ff:

sic placitum est divis a[e]terna vivere form[a] / qui bene de supero [n]umine sit meritus: / quae tibi castifico promisit munera cursu / olim iussa deo simplicitas facilis.

In l. 14 the text is dubious; [n]umine or [l]umine.

Vollgraff is of the opinion that the youthful deceased was initiated in the cult of Mithras "Quiconque aura rendu à l'Etre suprême (ou à la Lumière divine) l'hommage qui lui est dû, renaîtra et sera glorifié."

The numen or lumen superum is the Sun-god and the olim iussa deo or the ἐντολαί (cf. Cumont, Rel. Or.⁴ 143ff) are those of the god Mithras. But the person was also initiated, as the following lines of the inscription indicate, in other mystery cults (Cybele, Dionysus).