The material documented in Syria-Coele reflects the province’s importance within the commercial, intellectual and religious networks of the eastern Mediterranean. Major cities and frontier routes contributed to the circulation of Mithraic cults across the Roman Near East.
People attested in Syria-Coele
Places in Syria-Coele
Antiochia ad Orontem
Antioch was the capital of Roman Syria and gateway between the Mediterranean and the eastern provinces.
Arsameia
Arsameia on the Nymphaios is an ancient city located in Old Kâhta in Kâhta district, Adıyaman Province, Turkey.
Commagene
Commagene was an ancient Greco-Iranian kingdom ruled by a Hellenized branch of the Iranian Orontid dynasty that had ruled over Armenia.
Dura Europos
Dura-Europos was a Hellenistic, Parthian and Roman frontier city built on the Euphrates River. It was founded around 300 BC by Seleucus I Nicator. The Romans took Dura-Europos in 165 AD.
Hawarte
Al-Ankawi is a Syrian town located in the Ziyarah Subdistrict of the al-Suqaylabiyah District in Hama Governorate.
Nemrut Dağı
Mount Nemrut or Nemrud is a 2,134-metre-high mountain in southeastern Turkey, notable for the summit where a number of large statues are erected around what is assumed to be a royal tomb from the 1st century BC.
Samosata
Samsat, formerly Samosata is a small town in the Adıyaman Province of Turkey, situated on the upper Euphrates river.
Sidon
Alexander the Great seized Sidon from the Persians in 333 BC. It became a Roman colony during the reign of Elagabalus.
Zeugma
Zeugma was an ancient Hellenistic era Greek and then Roman city of Commagene; located in modern Gaziantep Province, Turkey.
Inscriptions from Syria-Coele
Lion-headed Aion from Sidon
Lion relief from Nemrut Dağı
Main Tauroctony relief from Dura Europos
Inscription on the restoration of the Mithraeum of Dura Europos
Fresco with tauroctony and seven cypresses
Hekataion of Sidon
First Tauroctony relief of Dura Europos
In good memory. Made by Ethpeni the strategist, son of Zabdē’ā, commander of the archers who are in Dura. In the month of Adar in the year 480.
Taurcotony sculpture from Sidon
Graffiti to Kamerios from Dura Europos Mithraeum
Column with inscription from Dura Europos
Engraved column by Maximus of Dura Europos
Dipinto in red letters from Dura Europos
References
- Attilio Mastrocinque (2017) The Mysteries of Mithras. A Different Account
- David Walsh (2018) The Cult of Mithras in Late Antiquity. Development, Decline and Demise ca. A.D. 270-430
- Ernest Will (1950) La date du mithréum de Sidon
- Frank Edward Brown, Michael Ivanovich Rostovtzeff & Charles Bradford Welles (eds.) (1939) The Excavations at Dura-Europos. Preliminary Report of the Seventh and Eighth Seasons of Work, 1933–1934 and 1934–1935
- J. R. Hinnells (ed.) (1975) Mithraic Studies. Proceedings of the First International Congress of Mithraic Studies
- Laurent Bricault & Philippe Roy (2021) Les cultes de Mithra dans l’Empire romain
- Lisa R. Brody & Gail L. Horffman (eds.) (2001) Dura Europos. Crossroads to Antiquity
- Maarten Vermaseren (1960) Mithra, ce dieu mystérieux
