Biography
of Marcus Valerius Maximus
- Marcus Valerius Maximus is attested as a member of a Mithraic community (syndexios), holding the office of Sacerdos.
- Attested in the 2nd – 3rd century.
- Attested in Mediolanum, Transpadana, Italia in 2nd – 3rd century (TNMM 494).
TNMP 116
Marcus Valerius Maximus is known from a funerary inscription found at Mediolanum, modern Milan, and dated to the late second or third century CE. He identifies himself as a priest of the invincible sun god Mithras and as studiosus astrologiae, someone devoted to the study of astrology. The monument was intended for Maximus and his wife, Severia Apr[…], and was explicitly excluded from inheritance by their heirs (TNMM 494; CIL V, 5893; CIMRM 708; Canciani 2022, 40; Chalupa 2023, 289).
Aleš Chalupa considers the monument exceptional because it is one of the relatively few funerary inscriptions in which the deceased explicitly records an association with the cult of Mithras. He also describes it as the only known explicit declaration of an interest in astrology from a Mithraic context, although astral ideas are widely represented in Mithraic iconography (Chalupa 2023, 289). Israel Campos Méndez cites Maximus as an example of the importance attached to intellectual learning among some Mithraic priests, but the inscription itself identifies him only as sacerdos and does not call him pater (Campos Méndez 2026, 151).
References
Attestations
Slab of the astrologer Maximus of Milan
TNMM 494
Marcus Valerius Maximus records in this inscription his knowledge of astrology as well as the name of his wife.
