Altar from Gimmeldingen by Faustinus

TNMM 444 ↔ CIMRM 1319

Altar in sandstone (H. 1.05 Br. 0.65-0.57 D. 0.315). In the upper border a rosette.

L.H. 0.04-0.05.

In h(onorem) d(omus) d(ivinae) / Deo / invihto (sic!) / Materninius / Fautinus car[a]x / in suo posuit /l(ibens) l(aetus) m(erito).

Fautinus instead of Faustinus.
Carx instead of Corax.

On the main face of a large altar carved from a single block, on a tympanum crudely decorated with acanthus leaves, there runs a very poorly executed inscription of seven lines:

In h(onorem) d(omus) d(ivinae) / deo / invihto (sic) / Materninius / Fau[s]tinus carx (sic) / in suo posuit / (libens) l(aetus) m(erito).

In honour of the divine house, to the invincible god, Materninius Faustinus, Raven, placed (this altar) on his own land willingly, gladly and deservedly.

In 1926 the site of Gimmeldingen, on the left bank of the Rhine in Germania Superior, revealed the existence of a Mithraeum established in the 4th century in a villa rustica, when some stone foundation walls were unearthed. The rest of the building, probably constructed from wood, has left no trace. The base, on which rested the cult relief in the image of Mithras Tauroctonos, was still in place among fragments of altars and ceramics. The inscription that it bears informs us that the cult site was donated by a certain Materninius Faustinus, on his private land, under the authority of Potentianus, the Father who at the time headed the Mithraic community.

As the dedication of our altar states, Materninius Faustinus held the office of Raven (Corax, incorrectly written here as carx), the lowest grade in the cult. He is the only donor known at this Mithraeum. The poor artistic and technical quality of the reliefs and inscriptions, the designation of the sanctuary as a fanum, and the numerous approximations in the orthography and grammar together indicate an indigenous milieu and attest to the gradual disappearance of the custom of erecting dedicatory monuments of stone. The Mithraeum at Gimmeldingen, consecrated on the tenth day before the kalends of February (thus January 23) during the consulship of Paulinus and Julianus, which would be the year 325 C.E., is one of the latest in the West.