Torso dedicated to Mithras

TNMM 952 ↔ CIMRM 319 & 320

Marble torso (H. 0.185), found at Ostia in 1912 between the Decumanus and the Via dei Molini. Vatican Musea (Museo Profano).

Muscular, robust torso, naked. Head, arms and legs lost. On the chest an inscription (No. 320). The bust may originally have represented a Hercules and is perhaps transformed into a statue of a torchbearer or Sol later on. According to a note in BCR 1939, 175 it is erroneously thought to originate from Rome or the Campagna.

CIL XIV 4307

. . . Atil(ius) T(iti) f(ilius) P(alatina) Glycol [de]o invic(to) Mithr(ae) I d(onum) d(edit).

Palatina: Tamborini is reading Pollia or Papiria.

Glyco: also known from Portus, cf. No. 325.

Marble bust (pres. h. 185 cm) with inscription found in 1913 in Ostia, between Decumano Massimo and via dei Molini, second half of the 2nd century CE.

Currently preserved in Rome, Musei Vaticani – Lapidario Profano (inv. 6625).

The bust of a male figure with naked chest, an original of the 1st or 2nd century CE, was re-consecrated by a Mithraic devotee in the second half of the 2nd century CE. Of the statue only the bust is preserved, without head and arms. On the chest the dedicatory inscription was engraved.

[T(itus)] Atil(ius) T(iti) f(ilius) P(alatina) Glyco ǀ S(oli) Invic(to) Mithr(ae) ǀ d(ono) d(edit)

Titus Atilius Glyco, son of Titus, of the Palatina tribus, gave as a gift to Sol unconquered Mithras.