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Syndexios

Septimius Severus

Lucius Septimius Severus

First Roman emperor of African origin and founder of the Severan dynasty, which ruled the empire for over four decades.

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Biography
of Septimius Severus

TNMP 275

The very military Septimius Severus was undoubtedly aware of Mithras. An inscription mentions a ’chaplain’ in the imperial household responsible for Persian worship: sacerdos invicti Mithrae domus Augustanae TNMM 453. It is not clear, however, that the god was firmly and definitively established on the Palatine. The Petrogenic Mithras claimed to have been deciphered on a gold coin bearing the image of Septimius Severus (196) is merely a reduced representation of Phosphoros, the ’morning star’.

References

Attestations

Coin of Septimius Severus and god on horseback

TNMM 518

Coin of Istrus, Moesia Inferior, showing Caracalla on one side and a god on horseback (Mithras ?) on the other.

Funerary plaque of Septimius Archelaus

TNMM 453

Marble funerary plaque erected by Lucius Septimius Archelaus, a Pater and priest of Mithras, for himself, his wife, and their freedmen and descendants.

D[is] M[anibus] / L. Septimius Aug[ustorum trium] lib[ertus] Archelaus / pater et sacerdos invicti / Mithrae domus Augustanae / fecit sibi et Cosiae Primitivae / coniugi benemerenti libertis liberta/busque posterisq[ue] eorum.
To the gods Manes. Lucius Septimius Archelaus, freedman of the three Augustans, Father and priest of the invincible Mithras, of the house of Augustus, made [this plaque] for him and Cosia Primitiva, his deserving wife, for their freedmen and freedwomen and for their posterity.
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