The corpus from Dacia superior reflects the rapid diffusion of Mithraic cults through military settlements, colonial foundations and mining districts established after the Roman conquest of Dacia. Urban centres and frontier mobility played a central role in the implantation of the cult across the province.
Mithraic monuments of Dacia superior
Tauroctony relief of Sarmizegetusa
This relief of Mithras slaying the bull incorporates the scene of the god carrying the bull and its birth from a rock.
CIMRM 2063
Column of Dioscorus from Alba Iulia
This is one of the at least three inscriptions of Dioscorus, servant of Marcus to Mithras Invictus found in Alba Iulia, Romania.
Mithraeum of Sarmizegetusa
The large number of monuments found at the Mithraeum of Sarmizegetusa and the sheer size of the temple are unusual.
CIMRM 2027
Tauroctony from Aelius Maximus of Turda
This small relief of Mithras killing the bull was found in 1859 in Turda, in the Cluj region of Romania.
CIMRM 1920
Tauroctony relief from Alba Iulia
This marble relief from Alba Iulia contains numerous scenes from the myth of Mithras.
CIMRM 1958
Mithras Petrogenitus of Alba Iulia
Mithras born from the rock with a snake raising in coils around it.
CIMRM 1991
Tauroctony from Euthices from Apulum
This marble relief of Mithras killing the bull was made by a freedman who dedicated it to his old masters.
CIMRM 1935
Altar from Sarmizegetusa by Hermadio
This altar was erected by Hermadio, who also signed other monuments in Dacia and even in Rome.
CIMRM 2146
Altar of Chrestion from Alba Iulia
In 1852, Károly Pap, a naval captain, unearthed several Mithraic monuments in his garden at Marospartos, including this altar.
CIMRM 1945
Tauroctony relief from Apulum
This relief of Mithras killing the bull includes various singular features specific to the Danubian area.
CIMRM 1973
People attested in Dacia superior
Places in Dacia superior
Apulum
Apulum, now within Alba Iulia, was a Roman settlement first mentioned by the mathematician, astrologer and geographer Ptolemy. Its name comes from the Dacian Apoulon.
Cibinium
Roman settlement of Dacia superior located in the area of present-day Sibiu in Romania. The site became an important urban and military centre, later developed into the medieval city known as Hermannstadt in German and Nagyszeben in Hungarian.
Maros Porto
Sighișoara is a municipality on the Târnava Mare River in Mureș County, central Romania.
Ozd
Ózd is a town in Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén county, Northern Hungary, 40 km from the county seat of Miskolc.
Sarmizegetusa
Colonia Ulpia Traiana Augusta Dacica Sarmizegetusa was the capital and the largest city of Roman Dacia, later named Ulpia Traiana Sarmizegetusa after the former Dacian capital, located some 40 km away. The city was destroyed by the Goths.
Inscriptions from Dacia superior
Column of Dioscorus from Alba Iulia
Tauroctony from Aelius Maximus of Turda
Tauroctony relief from Alba Iulia
Tauroctony from Euthices from Apulum
Altar from Sarmizegetusa by Hermadio
Altar of Chrestion from Alba Iulia
Tauroctony from Aelius Hylas from Doştat
L. Aeli[us] Hylas [vicesimarius] l[ibertus] pr[o] sa[lute] et Horientis [sic] fil[ii] sui et Apuleia[e] eius signum numinis cum absidata / ex voto pos[uit].
Lucius Aelius Hylas, collector of the twentieth tax, freed, for his health, that of his son Horiens and [his wife] Apuleia, following a vow, had the image of the divinity placed with the niche.
