Iουλιανος
Ioulianos
Soldier of the Legio XVI Flavia Firma Antoniana stationed at Dura Europos.
Franz Cumont poses in front of the main altar at the Mithraeum of Dura Europos
Yale University
Biography
of Iουλιανος
- Iουλιανος was a syndexios of the Mithraeum of Dura Europos.
- Active c. 169 – 256 in Dura Europos, Syria-Coele (Syria).
- He served in the Legio XVI Flavia Firma Antoniana.
TNMP 231
Ioulianos was one of the soldiers of the Legio XVI Flavia Firma Antoniana stationed at Dura Europos in the first quarter of the third century. On the pediment of the entrance door to a naos adjacent to the Dolichenum at Dura Europos in Syria, he engraved an inscription to Zeus Helios Mithras, ’the most high saint who hears the prayers Tourmasgade’.
This theonym, of Aramaic origin (Turmsgd’), refers to a divine mountain, both place of worship and deity, which could be located in Commagene or northern Syria. The meagre epigraphic corpus concerning Tourmasgade regularly associates it with Zeus, and in particular with the Zeus of Doliche. The solar nature of this mountain god naturally brings him closer to Helios Mithras hypsistos.
References
- Shrine to the God Mithras (Mithraeum)
- Bricault; Roy (2021) Les cultes de Mithra dans l'Empire Romain
Mentions
Inscription to Tourmasgade of Dura Europos
TNMM 661
This inscription by a certain Ioulianos, found at the entrance to the Dolichenum at Dura Europos, bears an inscription to Zeus Helios Mithras et Tourmasgade.
Mithraeum of Dura Europos
TNMM 34
The most emblematic of the Syrian Mithraea was discovered in 1933 by a team led by the Russian historian Mikhaïl Rostovtzeff.