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Provincia

Mithras in Lucania

Lucania connected inland southern Italy to the Tyrrhenian and Ionian maritime worlds through regional communication networks.

The material documented in Lucania reflects the circulation of Mithraic cults through provincial mobility and urban exchange across southern Italy. Although comparatively modest, the evidence contributes to understanding the spread of the cult beyond the principal urban centres of the peninsula.

Mithraic monuments of Lucania

 

Mithraeum of Naples

The Mitreo della crypta neapolitana was used a des legends about its use, from a cult place devoted to Priapus to celebrate Aphrodite.

 

Tauroctony from Naples

The marble relief of Mithras killing the bull in Naples bears an inscription that calls the solar god omnipotentis.

CIMRM 174

 

Tauroctony from Capri

It is not certain that the marble relief of Mithras killing the bull was found on Capri, in the cave of Matromania, where a Mithraeum could have been established.

CIMRM 172

 

Tauroctony relief from Naples

This marble tauroctony relief, probably originating from Naples, depicts Mithras slaying the bull within a cave-like setting, accompanied by the usual animals and celestial busts.

CIMRM 173

 

Altar from Grumentum

This altar from Grumentum in Lucania was dedicated to Sol Invictus Mithras by Titus Flavius Saturninus, an evocatus in imperial service.

CIMRM 170

Places in Lucania

 

Capreae

Capri is an island located in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the Sorrento Peninsula, on the south side of the Gulf of Naples in the Campania region of Italy.

 

Grumentum

Grumentum was an ancient Roman city in the centre of Lucania, in what is now the comune of Grumento Nova, c.

 

Neapoli

Naples has been inhabited since the Neolithic Age. In the 2nd millennium BC, the Mycenaeans settled in the area. During the Roman period, Naples maintained its Greek language and customs, and greatly expanded.

Inscriptions from Lucania

Tauroctony from Naples

Omnipotenti Deo Mithrae Appius / Claudius Tarronius Dexter v[ir] c[larissimus] dicat.
To the almighty god Mithras, Appius Claudius Tarronius Dexter, senator, dedicates [this relief].

Altar from Grumentum

Soli invicto / Mythrae T. Fl(avius) / Saturninus / evoc(atus) Aug(ustorum) / n(ostrorum).
To Sol Invictus Mithras, Titus Flavius Saturninus, evocatus of our emperors, [dedicated this].

References

  • Vittoria Canciani (2022) Archaeological Evidence of the Cult of Mithras in Ancient Italy
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