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Syndexios

Flavius Septimius Zosimus

Vir perfectissimus and priest of Zeus Brontes and Hecate, he erected a mithraeum in Rome.

  • Bull. della comm. arch. comm., 1885, p. 27 et pl. IV-V; cf. Lanciani, Ancient Rome, 1890, p. 192. Fig. 25. [TMFMM]

    Bull. della comm. arch. comm., 1885, p. 27 et pl. IV-V; cf. Lanciani, Ancient Rome, 1890, p. 192. Fig. 25. [TMFMM]
    Franz Cumont. Cf. caption 

Biography
of Flavius Septimius Zosimus

TNMP 272

Clauss firmly states what Vermaseren only tentatively suggested: that the owner of this domus and mithraeum was one Flavius Septimius Zosimus, who stated in a dedicatory inscription that he was a vir perfectissimus and sacerdos of Bronto and Hecate, and that he built a Mithraic cave (speleum).

The vir perfectissimus Flavius Septimius Zosimus commemorated the construction of a Mithraic spelaeum. Though Zosimus did not call himself pater, he will have been leader, i.e. pater, of his self-built Mithraeum. Reasons for this unusual Mithraeum were not unknowledge or perversion of Mithraism because several ‘normal’ Mithraea still existed in Rome as example. Instead the construction plan mirrors the preferences of the pater who erected and financed this Mithraeum inside of his house. On the one hand, various statues found there suggest a personal syncretism: moreover, Zosimus was priest of Hecate.

—David Burkhart Janssen (2017) Mystery-cults in Tetrarchic Roman Empire (284-324 AD).

References

  • A. B. Griffith (1993) ‘Mithraism in the private and public lives of 4th-c. senators in Rome.’ The archaeological evidence for Mithraism in imperial Rome
  • Epigraphik-Datenbank Clauss / Slaby. Altar by Septimius Zosimus from Roma in EDCS
  • Luciano Lazzaro (1993) Esclaves et affranchis en Belgique et Germanies romaines d’après les sources épigraphiques
  • Vittoria Canciani (2022) Archaeological Evidence of the Cult of Mithras in Ancient Italy

Mentions

Altar by Septimius Zosimus from Roma

TNMM 782

This altar dedicated to Sol Invictus Mithras by a certain Septimius Zosimus was found in the Basilica of San Martino ai Monti in Rome.

Deo Soli invicto Mitrhe / Fl. Septimius Zosimus v(ir) p(erfectissimus) / sacerdus dei Brontontis et Aecate hoc spel(a)eum constituit.
To the Invincible god Sol Mithras, Flavius Septimius Zosimus, a highly distinguished man, priest of the gods Brontes and Hecate, established this spelaeum.

Mitreo dell’Esquilino

TNMM 83

In a house from the time of Constantine, a Lararium was found with a statue of Isis-Fortuna. The Mithraeum was a door next to it, on a lower room.

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