Mithras in Africa

Mithraeum of Skikda

Many of the inscriptions and sculptures of the site were kept in a museum which has been destroyed.

CIMRM 121

Mithraeum of Lambaesis

The Mithraeum of Tazoult / Lambèse is one of the best preserved Mithras’s temples in Africa.

CIMRM 138A

Mithraeum of Tiddis

The Mithraeum was housed in a cave. The vault is almost dome-shaped and in front of the cave there is enough space for a possible adjacent temple.

CIMRM 162

Phallus relief from the Mithraeum of Tiddis

The phallus from Tiddis, Algeria, has been represented as a cock.

Mithraeum of Cirta

An inscription mentioning a speleum decorated by Publilius Ceionius suggests the location of a mithraeum in Cirta, the capital of Numidia.

CIMRM 129

Frescoes from the tomb of Aelius Magnus and Aelia Arisuth in Oea

The Mithraic nature of the frescoes of Oea, according to the scholars Cumont and Vermaseren, is now questioned.

CIMRM 113

Altar from Lambaesis by Florus

This altar, found in Tazoult تازولت, Algeria, was dedicated to the god Sol Mithras by a certain Florus.

Aion of Skikda

The lion-headed figure from Rusicade, now Skikda, holds a key in both hands and features a pine cone beside his feet.

CIMRM 125

Mithraic rock and vase from Rusicade

Both objects have a snake winding itself around them.

CIMRM 127

Silvanus from Skikda

The statue of Skikda has seven holes in his hair for fastening rays.

CIMRM 126

Inscriptions of Valerius Maximianus at Lambaesis

These twin inscriptions found in the Mithraeum of Tazoult were dedicated by the legate Marcus Valerius Maximianus.

CIMRM 137

Altar from Lambaesis by Celsianus

This altar found in Lambèse, now Tazoult, Algeria, bears the inscription of a certain Celsianus for the health of two men to the god Sol Unconquered Mithras.

Africa Proconsularis

Africa Proconsularis formed one of the principal urban and administrative centres of Roman North Africa where Mithraic cults circulated through prosperous civic networks.

Numidia

Numidia occupied a frontier and military landscape where Mithraic cults circulated through urban settlements and imperial infrastructure.

Tripolitania

Tripolitania connected the southern Mediterranean coast to caravan routes and maritime exchange networks of Roman North Africa.

Cuicul

Roman colonial city of Numidia, later known as Djémila, renowned for its exceptionally well-preserved late antique urban remains.

Carthago

Roman Carthage was an important city in ancient Rome, located in modern-day Tunisia.

Castellum Tidditanorum

Settlement in inland Numidia associated with the mountainous region south of Cirta and the wider network of North Africa.

Cirta

Cirta, also known by various other names in antiquity, was the ancient Berber and Roman settlement which later became Constantina, Algeria.

Diana Veteranorum

Diana Veteranorum, today a village called Ain Zana, was an ancient Roman-Berber city in Algeria.

Gholaia

The frontier site of Gholaia formed part of the defensive and logistical system of the Limes Tripolitanus in the Libyan desert.

Icosium

Icosium was a Berber city that was part of Numidia which became an important Roman colony and an early medieval bishopric in the casbah area of actual Algiers.

Lambaesis

Lambaesis, Lambaisis or Lambaesa, is a Roman archaeological site in Algeria, 11 km southeast of Batna and 27 km west of Timgad, located next to the modern village of Tazoult.

Leptis Magna

Leptis or Lepcis Magna, also known by other names in antiquity, was a prominent city of the Carthaginian Empire and Roman Libya at the mouth of the Wadi Lebda in the Mediterranean.

Madauros

Madauros was a Roman-Berber city in Numidia, in present-day Algeria, renowned in antiquity as an important intellectual and educational centre of Roman North Africa.

Mascula

Mascula was an ancient Roman colonia in Numidia.

Oea

Oea was an ancient city in modern-day Tripoli, Libya, founded by the Phoenicians in the 7th century BC. It became a Roman-Berber colony in the second half of the 2nd century BC.