Lucius Tullius Agatho

Lucius Tullius Agatho is known from a single inscription discovered near the theatre of Ostia, probably associated with the Mithraeum of the Seven Spheres. The text records his dedication of an altar to Deo Invicto Soli Mithrae during the tenure of the pater Marcus Aemilius Epaphroditus. The monument belongs to a group of Mithraic inscriptions generally dated to the late second or early third century CE (CIMRM 338; Chalupa 2014, I, 394–396).

Nothing further is known about his life, occupation, or status. His Greek cognomen Agatho (from Greek Ἀγαθός, “good”) may suggest a servile or freedman background, as Greek cognomina are particularly common among slaves and freedmen in the Roman world. However, this remains a prosopographical hypothesis rather than a demonstrable fact, since freeborn citizens could also bear Greek names (Kajanto 1965; Solin 1982).

Agatho therefore remains one of the many Mithraic worshippers known solely through a dedicatory inscription, remembered for his gift of an altar to Mithras at Ostia.

Sources

• Chalupa, A. Římský kult boha Mithry: atlas lokalit a katalog nálezů I, Brno, 2014, pp. 394–396.
• Clauss, M. Cultores Mithrae, Stuttgart, 1992.
• Kajanto, I. The Latin Cognomina, Helsinki, 1965.
• CIMRM 338.
• Solin, H. Die griechischen Personennamen in Rom, Berlin, 1982.