Altar with inscription and symbolic figures from Ptuj

The New Mithraeum

19 Jan 2022

Updated on Nov 2022

TNMM 413 ↔ CIMRM 1496 & 1497

Votive altar in white marble (H. 0.84 Br. 0.38 D. 0.305), found near 6. Inv. No. XXXXVII.

The upper part of the altar is decorated with arches. On the l. side a cock is perched on a tortoise; on the r. side a raven upon a bow, a Phrygian cap and a dagger. Above its head a star. In the front an inscription:

CIMRM 1497

CIL III 1435427

L.H. 0.025-0.03.

Invict(o) Mithrae / et transitu dei / Theodorus p(ublici) p(ortorii) / scrut(ator) stat(ionis) Poet(ovionensis) / ex visu.

Cubic top with a single framed round arch on each side. On the left side of the shaft a cock on a turtle, on the right side a raven on a bow over a Phrygian cap, above the raven's head a star. Found in Spodnja Hajdina (Ptuj, Slovenija), 1898/99 in the Mithraeum I, parcel 107

CIL III 14354

Invict[o] Mithrae / et Transitu dei / Theodorus p[ublici] p[ortorii] / scrut[ator] stat[ionis] Poet[ovionensis] / ex visu.

To the invincible Mithras and for the passage [transitus] of the god, Theodorus, scrutator of the customs of the Poetovio station, following a vision.

References

Gurlitt in JOAI 1899, 97f No. 6 with fig.; MCC, 92; Abramic, 167f No. 232; Jahrb. f. Altertk. VII, 1913, Taf. XXIV; 4; Ferri, Arte Dan., 200f and fig. 219- 220; Hoffiler in Vjesnik VIII, 1905, 206 and fig. 30 (l. side); Egger in RGK 98ff; Mostra, 702 No. 38; AIJ I, 134f No. 291 and fig. See fig. 381.