Biography
of Gaius Aufidius Ianuarius
- Gaius Aufidius Ianuarius may have been associated with a Mithraic community at the Mitreo del Campidoglio «lo perso».
- Attested in the 2nd century.
- Attested in Roma, Latium, Italia in 2nd century (TNMM 131).
TNMP 45
Gaius Aufidius Ianuarius is known only from the fragmentary dedicatory inscription carved on a monumental marble tauroctony discovered on the Capitoline Hill in Rome. The inscription records him, together with another Gaius Aufidius whose name is now incomplete, as one of the dedicators of the monument (TNMM 131; CIL VI 719; CIMRM 415-416; Canciani 2022, no. 189).
The relief, one of the largest surviving representations of Mithras slaying the bull, is generally associated with the Mithraeum of the Arx Capitolina, although the exact archaeological context of its discovery remains uncertain. Recent scholarship distinguishes this sanctuary from the hypothetical Mithraeum of Lo Perso and considers the identification of the Capitoline mithraea and their associated finds to remain partly unresolved (Luciani 2018; Canciani 2022, nos. 188a-189; Chalupa 2023, pp. 82-83).
Nothing further is known about Gaius Aufidius Ianuarius, and neither his social status nor his role within the Mithraic community can be established from the surviving evidence.
Attestations
Mitreo del Campidoglio «lo perso»
TNMM 24
This temple of Mithras on the north side of the Capitoline Hill in Rome no longer exists.
Tauroctony from the Villa Borghese
TNMM 131
This relief of Mithras slaying the bull was erected in Piazza del Campidoglio, moved to Villa Borghese and is now in the Louvre Museum.
To the invincible Sol god Mithras. Caius Aufidius Ianuarius [and Caius Aufidius ---].
