Mithras in Italia

Mitreo di San Clemente

The Mithraeum under the Basilica of San Clemente made part of a notable Roman house.

CIMRM 338

Mitreo di Santa Maria Capua Vetere

One of Roman Italy’s most important Mithraic sanctuaries, the Mithraeum at S. Maria Capua Vetere preserves a remarkable painted cycle of initiation scenes, offering rare visual evidence for the ritual life of Roman Mithaism.

CIMRM 180

Mitreo di Santa Prisca

The Mithraeum of Santa Prisca houses remarkable frescoes showing the initiates in procession.

CIMRM 476

Fresco scene from Mitreo of Santa Maria Capua Vetere

Fresco showing a scene of initiation into the mysteries of Mithras in the Mithraeum of Santa Maria Capua Vetere.

CIMRM 188

Relief of Aion-Phanes

The Aion / Phanes relief, currently on display in the Gallerie Estensi, Moneda, is associated with two Eastern mysteric religions: Mithraism and Orphism.

CIMRM 695

Slab of Sol Invictus

The slab of the Sun god has not yet connected to Mithras.

CIMRM 373

Mithraeum of the Baths of Caracalla

The Mitreo delle terme di Caracalla is one of the largest temples dedicated to Mithras ever found in Rome.

CIMRM 457

Intaglio with Mithras and Abraxas at the Walters Art Museum

This unusual piece depicts Mithras slaying the bull on one side and the Gnostic god Abraxas on the other.

CIMRM 2364

Sabazios with Mithras from Bolsena

This unusual bronze bust of Sabazios features multiple symbolic elements, with Mithras depicted in his characteristic pose of slaying the bull, positioned just below Sabazios’ chest.

CIMRM 659

Fresco Tauroctony of Mitreo di Marino

The importance of the Mithraeum of Marino lies in its frescoes, the most significant of which is that of Mithras slaying the bull, surrounded by mythological scenes.

Tauroctony in the British Museum

The sculpture of Mithras slaying the bull was transported from Rome to London by Charles Standish in 1815.

CIMRM 592

Aion of Villa Albani

White marble statue of Lion-head god of time, formerly in the Villa Albani, nowadays in the Musei Vaticani.

CIMRM 545

Aemilia

Aemilia connected northern and central Italy through prosperous urban centres and major communication routes of the Roman Peninsula.

Apulia

Apulia connected southern Italy to the Adriatic and eastern Mediterranean through maritime trade and regional urban networks.

Bruttium

Bruttium occupied the southernmost reaches of the Italian Peninsula where maritime mobility linked Italy, Sicilia and the wider Mediterranean.

Campania

Campania preserved a vibrant urban and maritime environment closely connected to the commercial life of Roman Italy.

Etruria

Etruria formed part of the cultural and religious heartland of central Italy closely connected to Rome and the Tyrrhenian world.

Histria

Histria connected the northern Adriatic to the Balkan and Danubian worlds through maritime and regional communication networks.

Latium

Latium formed the political and religious centre of the Roman world where some of the most important Mithraic communities developed.

Liguria

Liguria linked northern Italy to southern Gaul and the western Mediterranean through coastal and Alpine communication routes.

Lucania

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

Picenum

Picenum connected the Adriatic coast of central Italy to inland communication routes and the wider networks of the Roman Peninsula.

Samnium

Samnium occupied a mountainous region of central Italy linked to Rome through military movement and regional urban networks.

Transpadana

Transpadana occupied the northern plains of Italy where major communication routes connected the peninsula to the Alpine and Danubian worlds.

Umbria

Umbria formed part of the central Italian heartland through which religious practices circulated between Rome and the northern provinces.

Venetia

Venetia connected northern Italy to the Adriatic and Danubian worlds through trade, mobility and imperial communication routes.

Roma

Archaeological evidence shows that the area around Rome has been inhabited since around 14,000 years ago. Excavations support the theory that Rome grew from pastoral settlements on the Palatine Hill, which was built over the area of the Roman Forum.

Aenaria

Ischia is a volcanic island in the Tyrrhenian Sea.

Aesernia

Isernia is a town and comune in the southern Italian region of Molise, and the capital of the province of Isernia.

Ager Albanus

Albano Laziale, sometimes known simply as Albano, is a comune in the Metropolitan City of Rome Capital, on the Alban Hills, in the Italian region of Lazio.

Angera

Roman settlement on the southern shore of Lacus Verbanus (Lake Maggiore) in Transpadana, known for Mithraic inscriptions and a cave sanctuary traditionally identified as a Mithraeum.

Antium

Antium was an ancient coastal settlement in Latium, founded around the 11th century BC. A major stronghold of the Volsci before its conquest by Rome, its territory largely corresponds to modern Anzio and Nettuno.

Aquileia

Aquileia, now a small municipality in north-eastern Italy, was one of the largest cities in the world in the 2nd century AD, with a population of 100,000.

Arretium

Arezzo is a city and comune in Italy and the capital of the province of the same name located in Tuscany.

Augusta Taurinorum

Augusta Taurinorum was the Roman city corresponding to modern Turin.

Aveia Vestina

Aveia was an ancient town of the Vestini and Roman former bishopric, which remains a Latin Catholic titular see.

Belignae

Belignae is associated with archaeological material from the Roman landscape of Venetia.

Bergomum

Bergamo is a city in the alpine Lombardy region of northern Italy, approximately 40 km northeast of Milan, and about 30 km from Switzerland, the alpine lakes Como and Iseo and 70 km from Garda and Maggiore.