Mithraic exvoto of Dalmatia

TNMM 396 ↔ CIMRM 1873

A small altar, found in 1886 being used in a house at Solin (ancient Salona, capital of Roman Dalmatia) bears on its front face a five-linededication to Mithras partly within a tabula ansata:

D(eo) inv(icto) Mlithrael / L(ucius) Corn(elius) Apalaus/tus pro s(atute) M(arci) Vivi / Cresti amic(i) kariss(imi) / ex voto p(osuit).

“To the invincible god Mithras, Lucius Cornelius Apalaustus, for the health of his dearest friend Marcus Vivius Crestus, placed (here) as a votive.”

A tabula ansata takes the form of a rectangular cartouche with both ends terminating in a dovetail. It often bears a votive dedication that is possible, thanks to its specific form, to attach to a wall. Here, the inscription is in a tabula ansata-shaped field carved into an altar, simply to recall the gratulatory nature of the ex-voto given by a certain Lucius Cornelius Apalaustus for the health or well-being of one of his friends. The surnames (cognomina) of the two men, both perhaps freedmen, suggest a servile origin.