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Monumentum

Inscription to Tourmasgade from Dura Europos

This inscription by a certain Ioulianos, found at the entrance to the Dolichenum at Dura Europos, bears an inscription to Zeus Helios Mithras et Tourmasgade.
 
The New Mithraeum
22 Oct 2023
Updated on May 2026

TNMM 661 ↔ CIMRM 70

Inscription found in the cella of Turmasgade in the Dolicheneum. ’Cut on the lowest slab of the east jamb of the court door after it was in place. An iron dowel was later set in its face’.

Διὶ Ἡλίῳ / Μίθρᾳ άγί/ῳ ὑψίστῳ / ἐπηκόῳ / Τουρμασγά/δη [---] Ἰου/[λιαν-] ὸς στρα(τιώτης) / [λε]γ(εῶνος) ις´ Φ(λαουίας) Φ(ίρμης) / [Ἀν]τωνινια/νῆς.

First quarter of the third century A.D.

The inscription is engraved on the pediment of the entrance door to a naos adjacent to the Dolichenum at Dura Europos in Syria, probably dedicated to the god Τουρμασγάδη. This theonym, of Aramaic origin (Turmsgd’), refers to a divine mountain, both place of worship and deity, which could be located in Commagene or northern Syria. The meagre epigraphic corpus concerning Tourmasgadès regularly associates it with Zeus, and in particular with the Zeus of Dolichè. The solar nature of this mountain god naturally brings him closer to Helios Mithra hypsistos.

Main inscription

Διὶ Ἡλίῳ / Μίθρᾳ άγί/ῳ ὑψίστῳ / ἐπηκόῳ / Τουρμασγά/δη [---] Ἰου/[λιαν-]ὸς στρα[τιώτης] / [λε]γ[εῶνος] ις´ Φ[λαουίας] Φ[ίρμης] / [Ἀν]τωνινια/νῆς.
To Zeus Helios Mithras, the most high saint who hears the prayers, Tourmasgade, Ioulianos, a soldier of the legion XVI Flavia Firma Antoniana.

References

Ann Perkins The Excavations at Dura-Europos. The Dolicheneum Harvard 1952 115f No. 974 and PI. XX 1; P.Merlat in RA XLIII 1954 194 n. 3. L.H.0.35.

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