The Mithraic material documented in Moesia is closely associated with frontier garrisons, military communities and the strategic infrastructure of the middle and lower Danube. The province preserves important evidence for understanding the diffusion of Mithraism within the defensive and administrative systems of the Roman frontier.
People attested in Moesia
Provinces of Moesia
Moesia inferior
Moesia inferior occupied a major position along the lower Danube where Mithraic cults circulated through military and port environments.
Moesia superior
Moesia superior preserves frontier evidence shaped by the military infrastructure and circulation networks of the middle Danube.
Places in Moesia
Acbunar
The locality of Acbunar is associated with archaeological remains from the lower Danubian frontier zone.
Biljanovac
Ancient site in Moesia Superior, north-east of Kumanovo, where the remains of a Mithraic sanctuary were discovered together with several marble reliefs, altars and cult objects.
Callatis
Callatis developed as an important Black Sea port on the western coast of the Pontus Euxinus.
Civitas Montanensium
Civitas Montanensium developed around the important Roman settlement at modern Montana in Bulgaria.
Dražinovići
The locality of Dražinovići is associated with archaeological remains from the central Balkan region.
Inscriptions from Moesia
Tauroctony from Târgușor
Φλ[άουιος] Ὣριμος Φλ[αουίου] Μακέδονος οἰκονόμος κατ᾽ ἐπιταγήν / θεῷ ἀνεικήτῳ Μίτρᾳ ἀνέθηκεν εἰς ἄλσος ἀπόκρυφον. / Ε᾽θφράτῃ εὔχεσθαι ἁγνῶς. Φοῖβος Νικομηδεὺς ἐποίει.
Flavius Horimos, steward of Flavius Macedo, by order, to the invincible god Mithras, consecrated, in a secret forest. Adore the Euphrates with piety. Phoibos of Nicomedia made [this monument].
Horimos, the ‘Father’, dedicated this.
Flavius Horimos, the supervisor of the estate of Flavius Makedon, dedicated this to the invincible god Mithras, upon [divine] command, for a secret grove. May you pray to Euphrates in a pure manner. Phoibos of Nikomedeia made this.
Tauroctony from Nicopolis ad Istrum
Ἀγαθῇ τύχῃ Ἡλίῳ / Μίθρᾳ / θεῷ / ἐπηκόῳ / Αὐρ(ήλιος) Μάρκος / γναφεὺς / τὸ στήλιον / σὺν τῇ ζωγραφίᾳ / κατεσκεύ/ασεν / ἐκ τῶν / ἰδίων / εὐχαρισ/τήριον.
To Good Fortune. To Helios Mithras, the god who hears prayers, Aurelius Marcus, fuller, had the stele made together with the painting, at his own expense, as a thank-offering.
