The corpus from Britannia superior reflects the diffusion of Mithraic cults through forts, settlements and communication routes connected to the Roman occupation of Britain. Military mobility and provincial urbanisation played a major role in the spread of the cult across southern Britain.
Mithraic monuments of Britannia superior
London Mithraeum
The Mithraeum of London, also known as the Walbrook Mithraeum, was contextualised and relocated to its original site in 2016.
CIMRM 814
Mithraeum of Housesteads
The Housesteads Mithraeum is an underground temple, now burried, discovered in 1822 in a slope of the Chapel Hill, outside of the Roman Fort at the Hadrian's Wall.
CIMRM 852
Mithras rock-born from Housesteads
A naked Mithra emerges from the cosmic egg surrounded by the zodiac, as always carrying a torch and a dagger.
CIMRM 860
Tauroctonia de Walbrook
The image of Mithras killing the bull, found near Walbrook, is surrounded by a Zoadiac circle.
CIMRM 810
Mithraeum of Caernarfon
The Mithraeum of Caernarfon, in Walles, was built in three phases during the 3rd century, and destroyed at the end of the 4th.
CIMRM 2374
Serapis head of Walbrook
The head of Serapis found at Walbrook, London, is decorated with stylised olive branches.
CIMRM 818
Mithras head of Walbrook
The Mithras's head of Walbrook probable belonged to a life-size scene of the god scarifying the bull.
CIMRM 815
Tabula ansata of Lucius from Bremenium
This inscription commemorates the building of a mithraeum in Bremenium with fellow worshippers of Mithras.
CIMRM 876
Dionysus group marble of London
Marble group of Dionysus accompanied by a Silenus on a donkey, a satyr and a menead.
CIMRM 822
Mithraeum of Burham
To date, there is no evidence that the so-called Mithraeum of Burham was ever used to worship the sun god.
CIMRM 808
Mithraeum of Colchester
One of the rooms in a sustantive masonry building in Hollytrees Meadow was considered to be a Mithreum, a theory that has now been discarded.
CIMRM 829
Brothers active in Britannia superior
Places in Britannia superior
Burham
Burham is a village and civil parish in the borough of Tonbridge and Malling in Kent, England.
Isca
Isca, variously specified as Isca Augusta or Isca Silurum, was the site of a Roman legionary fortress and settlement or vicus, the remains of which lie beneath parts of the present-day suburban town of Caerleon, Walles.
Londinium
Londinium was the capital of Roman Britain for most of the period of Roman rule. It was originally a settlement founded around 47-50 AD in an uninhabited area.
Vercovicium / Borcovicus
Housesteads Roman Fort is the remains of an auxiliary fort on Hadrian's Wall, at Housesteads, Northumberland, England, south of Broomlee Lough.
Inscriptions from Britannia superior
Tauroctonia de Walbrook
Tabula ansata of Lucius from Bremenium
Dionysus group marble of London
Inscripton of Justus from Caerleon
Altar of Castlesteads
CIMRM 826
References
- Amgueddfa Cymru (2023) Roman stone inscription (Mithras)
- Bricault; Roy (2021) Les cultes de Mithra dans l'Empire Romain
- Colchester Heritage Explorer Home. Monument record MCC1518 - Roman building, Mithraeum or waterworks? in Castle Park, Colchester
- Denis Anstey (2014) A Roman building at Burham
- Eberhard Sauer (1999) The End of Paganism in the North-Western Provinces of the Roman Empire. The exemple of the Mithras cult
- G.C. Boon (1960) A Temple of Mithras at Caernarvon-Segontium
- José Ortiz Córdoba (2018) Reclutamiento y unidades militares en las colonias romanas de Lusitania
- Mila Navarro-Caballero (1997) Les dépenses publiques des notables des cités en Hispania Citerior sous le Haut-Empire. Revue des Études Anciennes
- Museum of London (2021) Bacchus
- Ronald F. Jessup (1956) The “temple of Mithras” at Burham. Archaeologia Cantiana. 70:168-171
- William Page (1932) The Victoria History of the County of Kent, vol. 3
- CARVED RELIEF Mithras – Museum of London
- Historic England Research Records — Housesteads Mithraeum



