Altar of Senj made by the slave Hermes

TNMM 402 ↔ CIMRM 1846

Found by chance in 1891 at Melnice-Vratnik, near Senj, in Croatia, this altar was acquired the same year by the Archaeological Museum in Zagreb. The moulding, decorated by a double frieze of foliage, has almost entirely disappeared. The main face bears a complete inscription of nine lines, datable to the end of the reign of Antoninus Pius or beginning of Marcus Aurelius's based on the name of the prefect.

I(nvicto) M(ithrae) / spelaeum cum / omne impen/sa Hermes C(aii) / Antoni(i) Rufi / praef(ecti) veh(iculorum) et / cond(uctoris) p(ublici) p(ortorii)/ ser(vus) vilic(us) Fortu/nat(us or -ianus) fecit.

'To the invincible god Mithras, Hermes, estate manager and slave of Caius Antonius Rufus, prefect of roads and customs collector, (gave) the spelaeum, with all of the (related) expenses, (and) Fortunat(us or -ianus) made it.'

The dedicant was a slave serving a high functionary in charge of collecting customs taxes, Caius Antonius Rufus, known from several inscriptions to have been in office during the reigns of Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. Hermes, Rufus's estate manager (vilicus), received a significant remuneration (peculium). It is for this reason, despite his servile status, that Hermes was a rich man, which permitted him to finance a sanctuary privately - both a temple and its decor (immovable as well as movable). It seems that it was another slave, Fortunatus (or Fortunatianus), who was in charge of the construction and decoration of the cult site, or both.

In sanctuaries of Mithras, the ritual room itself was called the spelaeum. This term designates a subterranean, vaulted crypt with a rectangular plan, ending in a cultic space that forms an apse or a niche arranged in the manner of a cave. This crypt could have been constructed ex nihilo or built in a pre-existing structure, but the circumstances of the altar's discovery do not allow for this to be established.

Several estate managers (vilici) and their slaves linked to customs administration are known to have participated in Mithraic communities. It is probable that a Mithraeum existed at Senia (Senj) in the 2nd century.