Inscription of Olympus to his grandfather

TNMM 447 ↔ CIMRM 406

[This inscription from the Mitreo di Piazza S. Silvestro in Capite] has been preserved and stands on the back of a marble slab (H. 0.54 Br. 2.25). It was found in 1867 and is divided by small columns into four square and three semicircular niches, in which the seven planets must have been represented (Rome, Museo Naz. Terme, Inv. No. 662). The sanctuary was in use between 357-382 A.D.).

Saxum marmoreum longum 2.25, largum 0.54 effossum mense septembri anni 1867... ad viculum S. Silvestri. Formatum est saxum in septem zothecas, quadrata quatuor, semicirculares tres, quarum media arcu insignis est, ea autem quae intuenti extrema est versus sinistram, alteram zotheculam continet. Foramina parvula in ipsis zothecis obvia in iis proposita fuisse signa manifesto ostendunt. Ante zothecas columnae parvulae porticum effieiunt.

"Tituli qui sunt nn. 749-754 ad idem omnes pertinent sacrarium dei Solis Mithrae quod saeculo quarto in urbe prope viam Flaminiam extabat. Instituerat Nonius Victor Olympius V.C.; nam satis liquet eundem esse Victorem tituli 754 qui "caeto devotus et astris Phoebeia templa locavit" sc. sacrarium dei Solis instituit et Nonium Victorem Olympium qui "p(ater) p(atrum)" annis 357, 358, 359, 362 initiationibus Mithriacis praefuit (749-753).

Una cum eo commemoratur Aurelius Victor Augentius filius, "vir clarissimus pater" (749-753), anna 376, post mortem, ut videtur, patris ipse "pater patrum" et summus mysteriorum praeses (75Ib). Ruius filii fuerunt Aemilianus Corfinius Olympius "c(larissimus) p(uer)" (751 b) qui anna 376 traditis hierocoracicis infimo mysteriorum gradu initiatus est, et Tamesius Augentius Olympius, qui superato avo Victore Olympio sumptu suo antra sacrario addi- dit (754) vel potius templum eversum restituit.

Id vix factum esse potest ante a. 376, cum Tamesius tum fuisse videatur et caput familiae et praeses mysteriorum, illo autem anna iis praefuerit pater Aurelius Victor Augentius. Anno autem 377 cum Gracchus praefectus urbi specum Mithrae ac multa deorum simulacra destruxerit (Rieron., Ep., I 07) probabiliter conieceris tum periisse templum deo Soli ab avo conditum et loca eius antrum a nepote institutum esse. Nec tamen ante a. 382 id Tamesium instituisse indicari videtur verbis quibus se sumptus Romae (Le. publicos) non requisisse gloriatur. Anno enim 382 Gratianus Augustus, licet cultum publicum non prohiberet, emolumenta ei negavit antea publice praebita (Symmach., Ep., 10,61).

Contra factum esse videtur antrum ante edicta Mediolani et Constantinopoli annis 391 et 392 publicata (Cod. Theod., 16,10,10 et 12) quibuscultus deorum etiam privatus prohibetur. Nam quamvis multi tempore posteriore, praesertim in urbe, veteris religionis essent asseclae, vix tamen sacrarium Mithriacum haud exiguum Romae condi potuit" (Henzen).

A marble slab, 2.25 m long and 0.54 m wide, was excavated in the month of September 1867, near the Vicolo di San Silvestro. The slab is shaped into seven niches: four square and three semicircular, of which the central one is distinguished by an arch; the niche that appears on the far left to the viewer contains a second, smaller niche within it. Small holes visible inside the niches clearly show that statues had been set up there. In front of the niches, small columns form the appearance of a portico.

“The inscriptions numbered 749–754 all relate to the same sanctuary of the god Sol Mithras, which existed in the fourth century in the city near the Via Flaminia. It was established by Nonius Victor Olympius, vir clarissimus; for it is sufficiently clear that he is the same Victor of inscription 754, who, ‘devoted to the celestial assembly and to the stars, founded the Phoebeian temples,’ that is, he established the sanctuary of the god Sol, and the same Nonius Victor Olympius who, as pater patrum, presided over Mithraic initiations in the years 357, 358, 359, and 362 (inscriptions 749–753).

Together with him is commemorated his son Aurelius Victor Augentius, ‘vir clarissimus pater’ (749–753), who in the year 376, after the death of his father as it seems, himself became pater patrum and supreme overseer of the mysteries (751b). His sons were Aemilianus Corfinius Olympius, ‘clarissimus puer’ (751b), who in the year 376 was initiated into the lowest grade of the mysteries, having received the hierocoracic rites, and Tamesius Augentius Olympius, who, after the death of his grandfather Victor Olympius, at his own expense added cave-shrines to the sanctuary (754), or rather restored a temple that had been destroyed.

This can scarcely have been done before the year 376, since at that time Tamesius seems to have been both head of the family and overseer of the mysteries, whereas in that same year his father Aurelius Victor Augentius still held that office. In the year 377, when Gracchus, prefect of the city, destroyed a Mithraic cave and many statues of the gods (Jerome, Epistle 107), one may reasonably conjecture that the temple of the god Sol founded by the grandfather then perished, and that its place was taken by the cave established by the grandson.

Yet it does not seem that Tamesius undertook this before the year 382, as is indicated by the words in which he boasts that he did not require public funds at Rome. For in 382 the emperor Gratian, although he did not forbid public cults, withdrew the financial benefits that had previously been granted to them (Symmachus, Epistles 10.61).

It further appears that the cave was established before the edicts published at Milan and Constantinople in the years 391 and 392 (Codex Theodosianus 16.10.10 and 12), by which even private cults of the gods were prohibited. For although many people at a later time, especially in the city, were adherents of the old religion, it would nevertheless scarcely have been possible for a Mithraic sanctuary of any considerable size to be established at Rome.” (Henzen)