Tauroctony medallion of Transylvania

TNMM 430 ↔ CIMRM 2187

The killing of the bull, tramed by the dadophori and busts of Sol and Luna, fills two-thirds of the surface of this marble medallion that was discovered in Transylvania in 1864, in the ancient province of Dacia. One can distinguish in the lower third of the work, on the right, the chariot of the Sun, and on the left the banquet of Sol and Mithras. The original surface layer of the marble is lost; the surface, on the whole, is worn.

The slightly oval shape of the bas-relief permits it to be associated with a category of works that are circular in form and, according to the few examples discovered in context, were apparently sealed in the walls of sanctuaries in the most sacred area. All of these represent the theme, more or less enhanced, of the tauroctony.

Among the much larger series of rectangular Mithraic reliefs of modest dimensions (less than 40 cm in height), those from London, in Britannia (CIMRM 810-811), and Siscia, in Pannonia Superior (CIMRM 1472), feature a central tauroctony, encircled by the signs of the zodiac. Through the symbolism of the constellations, the latter provides a form of additional framing that reveals and affirms the foundational image. It is apparently this circular form and its probable symbolism that determines the other category of bas-reliefs, such as the one in the Cabinet des Médailles.

A generally similar configuration characterises the tauroctony, in pavonazzetto marble, from the Mithraeum of the Seven Spheres at Ostia, which is positioned beneath a dedicatory inscription (Vatican Museums, inv. 6984, 6991 and 6999). However, the circular work, inscribed on the wall at the back of the sanctuary, exceeds one metre in diameter, a size necessarily indicating a cultic function.

But it is perhaps a tondo, discovered at Salona in 1861 (Split, Archaeological Museum, inv. 413D), that, without omitting the zodiac circle surrounding the tauroctony, enters into perfect resonance - in both dimensions and form - with the Transylvanian medallion preserved in Paris. Lastly, there should also be included in the same category the fragment of a medallion discovered in Egypt and preserved in Münster (inv. 326), which has been recognised as a work from the Danubian region, along with the example that came to light in the Mithraeum established under one of the great vaults supporting the palace of the procurator at Caesarea Maritima (Israel), which according to A. L. Ratzlaff would have been imported from Dacia.