Titus Flavius Hyginus Ephebianus

He was a slave of a certain Ephebianus (hence his agnomen), before entering the familia Caesaris and being freed by one of the Flavians.

This Flavius could not have been but a freedman of a Flavian emperor, i.e., no later than Domitian. As Gordon noticed, he was a vicarianus, i.e. a slave of another slave (servus vicarius), and his previous name was Ephebus. This signifies that he was introduced into the familia Caesaris thanks to a slave or a freedman of the emperors. Under Trajan this Hyginus, in turn, had probably other slaves and then freedmen under his authority, who were called Hyginiani.

Moreover, Gordon emphasized that Claudius entrusted the Imperial freedmen with new and important duties in the public administration and created a sort of Imperial administration departments run by his freedmen.

The altar was thus dedicated between ca. 80 and 100 CE. Lollius Rufus was already a Mithraic Pater, and it is probable that a man could not became a Pater in a short time.

Titus Flavius Hyginus Ephebianus is known from a single bilingual dedication to Sol Invictus Mithras (TNMM 511; CIMRM 362), generally dated to the Flavian or early Trajanic period (c. 68–117 CE). The Latin inscription identifies him as Augusti libertus, an imperial freedman, making him one of the earliest securely attested members of a Mithraic community connected with the familia Caesaris (Beck, 2004; Canciani, 2022; Chalupa, 2016).

His nomenclature indicates that he was manumitted by a Flavian emperor. The cognomen Ephebianus has generally been interpreted as preserving the name of a former owner before he entered the imperial household. Gordon further suggested that Hyginus may originally have been a servus vicarius (a slave belonging to another slave), although this reconstruction remains hypothetical (Beck, 2004).

The Greek version of the inscription records the dedication διὰ Λολλίου Ῥούφου πατρὸς ἰδίου. While Vermaseren interpreted this expression as referring to Hyginus’ biological father, modern scholarship generally understands Lollius Rufus to have been the Pater of the Mithraic community. Together with the early date of the monument, the inscription provides some of the earliest secure evidence for an already organised Mithraic community with an established hierarchy in Rome.