Marcus Cerellius Hieronymus

Marcus Cerellius Hieronymus was a senior religious official active at Ostia in the late second or early third century CE. He is known above all from TNMM 932, a small marble base found in 1867-1868 behind the temple of Mater Magna, in the area formerly identified as the schola of the dendrophori. The inscription names him as pater and sacerdos, and also refers to an antistes, probably Hieronymus himself, who dedicated the offering to a male deity whose name is lost in the missing upper part of the text (TNMM 932; CIL XIV 70; Van Haeperen 2019, 174–178).

The religious affiliation of this inscription has long been debated because of its findspot near the sanctuary of Mater Magna. Earlier interpretations connected it either with Mithras or with the cult of Cybele and Attis. Van Haeperen argues, however, that the Mithraic interpretation is the most plausible: no priests of Attis are attested at Ostia, priests of Mater Magna are not normally called antistes there, and the masculine reference to the deity in the inscription makes a dedication to the Mother of the Gods unlikely. The case is strengthened by the fact that the same individual appears to be attested in connection with the Mithraeum of the Casa di Diana, where he is again described as sacerdos and antistes (Becatti 1954, 92; Marchesini 2012-2013, 105-106; Van Haeperen 2019, 176-178).

Hieronymus may also have belonged to the wider collegial and commercial milieu of Ostia. Valjus notes that two other Ostian inscriptions mention an M. Caerellius or Cerellius Hieronymus, including CIL XIV 4313 and the album of the fabri tignuarii of AD 198, where a Cerell. Ieronim. is recorded (CIL XIV 4569; Valjus 1999, 263). A further prosopographical hypothesis, proposed by Fourniol, identifies M. Caerellius Iazemis, a prominent baker, codicarius and grain merchant, as perhaps the son of M. Cerellius Hieronymus. This relationship is not demonstrated epigraphically, but it is supported by the rare nomen Caerellius/Cerellius, the shared praenomen Marcus, and the social prominence of both men within Ostia’s professional associations (Fourniol 1998, n. 186; Valjus 1999, 263–264).