Altar of Adiectus from Carnuntum

TNMM 753 ↔ CIMRM 1676

Altar (H. 0.90 Br. 0.42 D. 0.39). Inv. III, 38.

L.H. 0.045-0.06.

D(eo) i(nvicto) M(ithrae) / Adiec(tus) / ser(vus) T(iberii) C(laudii?) v ... / gen(itori) lum(inis) / v(otum) s(olvit) l(ibens) l(aetus) m(erito).

genitori luminis: cf. Cumont, "Mithra et l’Orphisme" in RHR 1934, 66 n. 6 and MMM I, 359ff.

This epithet of the genitor is found in an inscription engraved on an altar discovered in 1853 in the first mithreum at Carnuntum in Pannonia. However, this dedication of a possible Adiec(tus) to Mithras poses a number of problems, both in terms of reading (the M at the end of line 3 is faintly engraved and formally very different from the other two on the stone) and in terms of resolving the abbreviations in lines 3 and 4. Some scholars have suggested that line 4 should undoubtedly read gen(itori) lum(inis) and have commented on this restored epithet of Mithras, separated by two lines from the initial address. This text may not be attributed to a Mithras genitor.