Ulpius

Ulpius dedicated a bronze statue to Mithras at Burginatium, near modern Kalkar, in Germania Inferior. Its red sandstone pedestal (TNMM 507; AE 1999, 1098) was found in 1983 near the Roman auxiliary fort. The dedication says the gift was made ex iussu ipsius, ‘at his own command’. Gordon (1998) reads this as a reference to the god’s personal command and dates the inscription to the first third of the third century AD. He interprets the bow and the serpent-entwined krater on one side as allusions to Mithras’ water miracle and the solar imagery on the other as a reference to Sol…