Tanit ex-voto from Carthage

TNMM 859 ↔ CIMRM 120

Ph. Berger in RHR LXV, 1912, 1ff studying CIS, Ia Nos 260 and 261 reconstructs the following formula on an ex-voto dedicated to Tanit: Meqim Elim Mithrahastarni.

The ultimate interpretation of the author Antistes Deus Mithras-Astronoe (Magna Mater-Astarte) remains difficult. According to the author's own statement, there is above all the historical difficulty, because the inscription dates back to the period before the fall of Carthage, whereas the propagation of the Mithras-cult in the Roman Empire is much later. But in this time "le dieu Mithra a pu être adoré dans les milieux sémitiques et en particulier à Carthage, comme tant d'autres divinités orientales, grâce aux identifications, souvent très artificielles, que les Phéniciens établissaient entre leurs divinités et celles des autres nations."

CIMRM II 120

Neither does Will, Rel. Cult., 148 n. 2 accept this formula as Mithraic (Rép. épigr. sém. III, No. 1566; CIS III 3351; Cooke, North-sem. inscr., 149). See A. M. Honeymann in RHR CXXI, 1940, 5f.