Gaius Accius Hedychrus

Gaius Accius Hedychrus is first attested in AD 155 as pater of the local community, when his name appears on an ara genesis Invicti Mithrae dedicated by the frumentarius Marcus Valerius Secundus (TNMM 338). The same year he dedicated a marble statue of Mercury to Mithras (TNMM 394) at the great mithraeum of Cerro de San Albín. His name subsequently appears on additional monuments from the sanctuary, including the statue base of a dadophorus dedicated by <b>Gaius Curius Avitus</b> and, at a later date, on a sculpture of Oceanus (TNMM 428), where he bears the title pater patrum. This progression suggests that he rose to become the senior Mithraic Father of the Emeritan community.

His Greek cognomen, Hedychrus, has often been interpreted as evidence of a Greek or eastern Mediterranean background. Several scholars have therefore suggested that he was either a freedman or descended from a freedman of the gens Accia, although his precise legal status remains unknown.

The repeated appearance of Hedychrus on some of the most important monuments from the great mithraeum indicates that he occupied a leading position within the cult. Together with Marcus Valerius Secundus, he has been regarded as one of the principal figures involved in the development of Mithraism at Emerita Augusta. Jaime Alvar has proposed that the altar dated to AD 155 may commemorate not only the birth of Mithras but also the foundation of the local mithraeum itself, making Hedychrus one of the possible architects of the Emeritan Mithraic community.

The title pater patrum borne by Hedychrus is particularly significant. Although its exact meaning remains debated, it probably designated either the senior-most holder of the grade of pater within the community or a figure exercising authority over several Mithraic groups. In either case, the title places Hedychrus among the highest-ranking Mithraic officials known from the western provinces of the Roman Empire.

During the reign of Antoninus Pius (138-161 AD), in the year 155, if we follow the traditional chronology of the foundation of Emerita Augusta, there was at least temporarily in the capital of Lusitania an interesting character, Marcus Valerius Secundus, who presumably maintained a close relationship with an ancient freedman of presumed oriental origin, Gaius Accius Hedychrus.

[...] He was a freedman whose Eastern Greek cognomen seems to indicate that his origins were in the eastern part of the Empire. What is important in our case is that we find both characters working in unison for the consolidation of Mithraism in Emerita.

Possibly the initiative was a joint one, combining the interest of Marcus Valerius Secundus, derived from his condition as a frumentary dependent on the governor of Tarraconensis, and that of Caius Accius Hedychrus, a priest of the cult. We must suppose that in this relationship, the frumentary contributed with the support of the political and administrative authorities, as I will insist on later, and the priest with the knowledge of the religious requirements to promote the cult in the provincial capital of Lusitania.

We do not know what the exact link was between Valerius Secundus and Accius Hedychrus, promoters of Mithraism in Merida. The testimonies show how they acted in a coordinated manner, with Hedychrus assuming priestly functions.

[...] The altar [...] paid for by Marcus Valerius Secundus when Caius Accius Hedychrus was acting as pater, seems to celebrate the inauguration of the great Mithraeum of Emerita on the one hundred and eightieth anniversary of the foundation of the colony, i.e. in the year 155.

By that time, Caius Accius Hedychrus and Marcus Valerius Secundus had amassed an enormous fortune to build the great mithraeum, capable of competing with the most lavish in the Empire at the time, and to decorate it with excellent cult statues.

For this purpose they enlisted the services of a Greek sculptor, Demetrios, perhaps one of those itinerant artists hired according to the needs of each place, who would place his workshop at the service of the patrons of the Emeritan mithraeum.

Demetrios himself bears witness to this by leaving his name in Greek on one of the most accomplished pieces, the Dadaphoros. Under his direction some of the finest works were sculpted, following the models of his probable place of origin, Aphrodisias, in Asia Minor.

[...] Undoubtedly, our protagonists had to mobilise important members of the local oligarchy, won over to the cause by the institutional connections of the centurion frumentarius.

It is noteworthy that practically all the materials are archaeologically dated to the middle of the 2nd century, coinciding with the evergenetic action of Marcus Valerius Secundus and Gaius Actius Hedychro, giving the impression that there was meticulous planning in the foundation of the mithraeum in the capital and in the commissioning of its decorative elements.

[...] The iconographic programme of the mithraeum includes a dozen sculptures, among them the Hermes — it should be noted that Hermes-Mercury is the planet associated with the first incatic degree, corax — paid for by Accius Hedychrus, which increases its cultic relevance. [...]

From all this it can be deduced that in the middle years of the 2nd century, there was proselytising work in Mérida, thanks to which a Mithraic corporation was organised around two central figures, the centurion frumentarius of Legio VII, Marcus Valerius Secundus and the freedman of oriental origin, Gaius Accius Hedychrus. We do not know from where they obtained the important economic resources used in the erection of the mithraeum and its ostentatious decoration for the development of the devotion of an undoubtedly important community of the faithful.

—Jaime Alvar (2020) Mitra en Hispania