Publius Anthius Logus

Publius Anthius Logus is known from a funerary inscription discovered at Murviel-lès-Montpellier, near the oppidum of Castellas, in the territory of Nemausus in Gallia Narbonensis. The inscription describes him as pater sacrorum, a title indicating a senior religious function and one that led Cumont to include the monument among the testimonies of Mithraic worship in Gaul. Although Mithras is not mentioned explicitly, the inscription was subsequently incorporated into the CIMRM and remains one of the few attestations of a possible Mithraic religious official in the region.

The monument was erected by Cornelia, daughter of Lucius, and is generally dated to the second half of the 2nd century AD. The name Anthius Logus, combining a Roman nomen with a Greek cognomen, may point to an eastern or Greek-speaking background, and he could have been a freedman, although the inscription itself contains no explicit indication of servile status. Re-examining the monument in 1982, Gayraud and Richard demonstrated that its attribution to Sextantio in both Vermaseren’s CIMRM and Walters’ study of Mithraism in Gaul was erroneous, arguing instead that it originated from Murviel-lès-Montpellier. They further suggested that Publius Anthius Logus may have exercised his religious functions within the Mithraic milieu of nearby Nemausus rather than at Murviel itself.

Although Mithras is not mentioned explicitly, the inscription was subsequently incorporated into the CIMRM and remains one of the few attestations of a possible Mithraic religious official in the region. Modern scholarship remains divided, however, as the title pater sacrorum alone does not conclusively demonstrate a connection with Mithras. While Walters accepted the monument as Mithraic evidence, Clauss regarded the attribution as uncertain.