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This image is a fictional historical visualization. No authentic portrait of Aurelius Hermodorus is known to survive.
Syndexios

Aurelius Hermodorus

Praeses of the Noric Mediterranean province, of equestrian rank, restaured the Mithraeum of Virunum in 311.

Mithraic inscription of Aurelius Hermodorus
Mithraic inscription of Aurelius HermodorusThe New Mithraeum / Andreu Abuín (CC BY-NC-SA)

Biography
of Aurelius Hermodorus

  • Aurelius Hermodorus is attested as a member of a Mithraic community (syndexios) at the Mithraeum of Virunum, with a recorded public career as Governor (praeses) of the Noric Meditarrenaen province.
  • Attested in the 311.
  • Attested in Virunum, Noricum in 311 (TNMM 455).

TNMP 42

The inscription from Virunum was dedicated by Aurelius Hermodorus, a vi(r) p(erfectissimus) and provincial governor, p(raeses) p(rovinciae) N(orici) m(edi)t(erranei). London and Virunum were provincial capitals, Wiesbaden is very close to Mainz, the capital of Germania I, on the opposite side of the Rhine. There is ample evidence for renewed Roman activities on the right bank of the river in the area of Wiesbaden-Kastel and Wiesbaden in the in Diocletianic and Constantinian periods (Czysz 1994, 216-217). That the marble inscription in the spa town of Wiesbaden (Aquae Mattiacorum) was dedicated by a governor is at least not inconceivable, nor is it in the case of London.

—Sauer (1996) The End of Paganism in the North-Western Provinces of the Roman Empire

References

Attestations

Inscription of the praeses Aurelius Hermodorus

TNMM 455

This marble gives some details of the reconstruction of the Virunum Mithraeum.

D[eo] i[nvicto] M[ithrae] templum vetusta[te] / conlabsum quot [sic] fuit / per annos amplius / L desertum, Aur[elius] / Hermodorus v[ir] p[erfectissimus] pr[aeses] pr[ovinciae] N[orici] / M[edi]t[erranei] a novo restitui fecit. / Quot edificatum est divo / Maximiano VIII et Maximino it[e]r[um] / A[u]gg[ustis] con[sulibus] Quar [tinio] Ursiniano cur [ante].
To the invincible god Mithras. This temple that collapsed because of age, which was abandoned for more than 50 years, Aurelius Hermodorus, a most perfect man, governor of the province of Mediterranean Noricum, restored from scratch. This construction was done during the eighth consulship of the divine Maximianus Augustus and second consulship of Maximinus Augustus, with Quartinius Ursinianus overseeing the work.

Mithraeum of Virunum

TNMM 401

A bronze plaque records the existence of a mithraeum at Virunum that collapsed and was rebuilt by members of the community.

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