Lollius Rufus

Lollius Rufus is known from a single bilingual dedication (TNMM 511; CIMRM 362), generally dated to the Flavian or early Trajanic period (c. 68–117 CE). The Greek inscription records the dedication as having been made διὰ Λολλίου Ῥούφου πατρὸς ἰδίου, a formula now generally understood to identify him as the Pater of the Mithraic community to which the imperial freedman Titus Flavius Hyginus Ephebianus belonged.

Although Vermaseren interpreted πατρὸς ἰδίου as referring to Hyginus’ biological father, this view has been largely abandoned. Gordon, Clauss, Beck, Canciani and Chalupa instead regard the inscription as one of the earliest securely dated attestations of the Mithraic grade of Pater. If this interpretation is correct, the monument demonstrates that an organised Mithraic community with an established hierarchy already existed in Rome by the late first or early second century CE.