Titus Aurelius Marcus

He donated one of the most prolific reliefs depicting the Tauroctony among many other scenes in Apulum, the present Alba Iulia (TNMM 480; CIMRM 1958 & 1959). He also donated an altar (TNMM 1960; CIMRM 1960). He must have played an important role in the foundation or reorganisation of a community perhaps born in the Antonine period (TNMM 1852; TNMM 1853; CIMRM 1964-1965) and in the monumentalisation of the sanctuary.

—Bricault; Roy (2021) Les cultes de Mithra dans l'Empire romain.

The most active member of his group, not surprisingly, is a veteran of the Legion XIII Gemina, Titus Aurelius Marcus from the Fabia tribus. Similar to Eutyches from the Kaftal mithraeum, this veteran also dedicated two important monuments for his group: the central cult relief, a mid-sized panelled relief, and a beautifully carved statue base or altar.

Both of the monuments were made locally, although remarked earlier, the origins of the veteran and the numerous links to Italy also suggest external influences in forming the visual landscape and specific, sacred narrative of the mithraeum.

Titus Aurelius Marcus played a key role in the formation (or reorganisation) of the group. Founded by the two Aelii, probably in the Antonine period, the sanctuary was surely reorganised and extended when the canabae became a Municipium and the so-called ‘sacred area’, or ‘Tempelbezirk’, near the cemetery became more emphasised during the Severan age. By dedicating the panelled relief, with the very complex and locally specific features of the so-called Mithraic narrative, Titus Aurelius Marcus created the ultimate focal point of the sanctuary, the guide for all contemporary and future members of the sanctuary. Dedicating an altar or statue base with a panelled relief is a very common phenomenon in Mithraic groups, which could mark a central event or ritual in their unknown ‘liturgy’ or religious fasti.

—Csaba Szabó (2018) Sanctuaries in Roman Dacia.