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Earliest archaeology and literary sources

The attested locations of the cult in the earliest phase (c. 80-120 AD) are as follows:1

Mithraea datable from pottery:

  • Nida/Heddernheim III (Germania Sup.)
  • Mogontiacum (Germania Sup.)
  • Pons Aeni (Noricum)
  • Caesarea (Judaea)

Datable dedications:

  • Nida/Heddernheim I (Germania Sup.) (CIMRM 1091/2, 1098)
  • Carnuntum III (Pannonia Sup.) (CIMRM 1718)
  • Novae (Moesia Inf.) (CIMRM 2268-2269)2
  • Oescus(Moesia Inf.)(CIMRM 2250)
  • Rome(CIMRM 362, 593-594)

Datable literary reference:

  • Rome (Statius, Thebaid, 1.719-20)

1. Earliest archaeology

CIMRM 593. Earliest known tauroctony. Rome, ca.98-99 A.D.

No monument which is certainly Mithraic can be securely dated earlier than the end of the 1st century AD.3

The earliest Mithraic monument is thought to be CIMRM 593. This is a depiction of Mithras killing the bull, found in Rome. There is no date, but the inscription tells us that it was dedicated by a certain Alcimus, steward of T. Claudius Livianus. Vermaseren and Gordon believe that this Livianus is a certain Livianus who was commander of the Praetorian guard in 101 AD, which would give an earliest date of 98-99 AD.4

CIMRM 362, an altar or block from near SS. Pietro e Marcellino on the Esquiline in Rome was inscribed with a bilingual inscription by an Imperial freedman named T. Flavius Hyginus, probably between 80-100 AD. It is dedicated to Sol Invictus Mithras.5

CIMRM 2268-2269 is either an altar, or the broken base of a statue, and comes from Novae/Steklen in Moesia Inferior. It has an inscription which refers to an individual who held office ca. 100 AD.6

Other early archaeology includes the Greek inscription from Venosia by Sagaris actor probably from 100-150 AD; the Sidon cippus dedicated by Theodotus priest of Mithras to Asclepius, 140-141 AD; and the earliest military inscription, by C. Sacidius Barbarus, centurion of XV Apollinaris, from the bank of the Danube at Carnuntum, probably before 114 AD.7

The last is the earliest archaeological evidence outside Rome for the Roman worship of Mithras, a record of Roman soldiers who came from the military garrison at Carnuntum.8 The earliest dateable Mithraeum outside Rome dates from 148 AD.9 The Mithraeum at Caesarea Maritima is the only one in Palestine and the date is inferred.10

1.1. The Kerch plaques

CIMRM 11. Terracotta of
Mithras-Attis, Kerch.

Five small terracotta plaques of a figure holding a knife over a bull have been excavated near Kerch in the Crimea. Two have been included in the CIMRM as CIMRM 11 and CIMRM 12. The bull-slaying figure wears a Phrygian cap, but is otherwise unlike standard depictions of the tauroctony.11

There are differences of opinion over the date. Beskow, who believes that the cult of Mithras originated here and diffused from here, dates them to the second half of the 1st century BC,12, Clauss in Gordon's translation dates them to 50 BC,13 and Beck dates them to between 50 BC-50 AD.14

2. Earliest literary references

The earliest surviving ancient literary text that can be associated with the Mysteries of Mithras is in Statius c. 80 AD, who makes an enigmatic reference, possibly to the tauroctony.15 Dio Cassius, describing the visit of Tiridates to the emperor Nero in 63 AD, refers to his worshipping Mithras; but the context suggests that the Persian Mitra is intended.16

1"Beck on Mithraism", pp. 34-35. Online here.
2Richard Gordon, "The date and significance of CIMRM 593 (British Museum, Townley Collection)", Journal of Mithraic Studies 2, 1978, p.148-174. Online here. p. 153.
3Vermaseren, M.J., Mithras: the Secret God, p. 29: "One other point of note is that no Mithraic monument can be dated earlier than the end of the first century AD, and even the more extensive investigations at Pompeii, buried beneath the ashes of Vesuvius in AD 79, have not produced a single image of the god."
4Richard Gordon, "The date and significance of CIMRM 593 (British Museum, Townley Collection)", Journal of Mithraic Studies 2, 1978, p.148-174. Online here.
5Richard Gordon, "The date and significance of CIMRM 593 (British Museum, Townley Collection)", Journal of Mithraic Studies 2, 1978, p.148-174. Online here. On p.151 this states that CIMRM 362 a , b = CIL VI 732 = Moretti, lGUR I 179 contains the following: "Soli | Invicto Mithrae | T . Flavius Aug. lib. Hyginus | Ephebianus | d . d." The inscription is bilingual, and the title in the Greek side is just "`Hliwi Mithrai". On p.152 the author writes that the name "Flavius" for an imperial freedman dates it between 70-136 AD. The Greek section refers to a pater of the cult named Lollius Rufus, evidence of the existence of the rank system at this early date.
6Richard Gordon, "The date and significance of CIMRM 593 (British Museum, Townley Collection)", Journal of Mithraic Studies 2, 1978, p.148-174. Online here. p. 153.
7Richard Gordon, "The date and significance of CIMRM 593 (British Museum, Townley Collection)", Journal of Mithraic Studies 2, 1978, p.148-174. Online here. p. 150.
8C. M. Daniels, "The Roman army and the spread of Mithraism" in John R. Hinnells, Mithraic Studies: Proceedings of the First International Congress of Mithraic Studies, vol. 2, 1975, Manchester UP, pp.249-274. "The considerable movement [of civil servants and military] throughout the empire was of great importance to Mithraism, and even with the very fragmentary and inadequate evidence that we have it is clear that the movement of troops was a major factor in the spread of the cult. Traditionally there are two geographical regions where Mithraism first struck root: Italy and the Danube. Italy I propose to omit, as the subject needs considerable discussion, and the introduction of the cult there, as witnessed by its early dedicators, seems not to have been military. Before we turn to the Danube, however, there is one early event (rather than geographical location) which should perhaps be mentioned briefly in passing. This is the supposed arrival of the cult in Italy as a result of Pompey the Great's defeat of Cicilian pirates, who practiced 'strange sacrifices of their own... and celebrated certain secret rites, amongst which those of Mithras continue to the present time, have been first instituted by them'. (ref Plutarch, "Pompey" 24-25) Suffice it to say that there is neither archaelogical nor allied evidence for the arrival of Mithraism in the west at that time, nor is there any ancient literary reference, either contemporary or later. If anything, Plutarch's mention carefully omits making the point that the cult was introduced into Italy at that time or by the pirates. Turning to the Danube, the earliest dedication from that region is an altar to Mitrhe (sic) set up by C. Sacidus Barbarus, a centurion of XV Appolinaris, stationed at the time at Carnuntum in Pannonia (Deutsch-Altenburg, Austria). The movements of this legion are particularly informative." The article then goes on to say that XV Appolinaris was originally based at Carnuntum, but between 62-71 transferred to the east, first in the Armenian campaign, and then to put down the Jewish uprising. Then 71- 86 back in Carnuntum, then 86-105 intermittently in the Dacian wars, then 105-114 back in Carnuntum, and finally moved to Cappadocia in 114.
9C. M. Daniels, "The Roman army and the spread of Mithraism" in John R. Hinnels, Mithraic Studies: Proceedings of the First International Congress of Mithraic Studies, vol. 2, 1975, Manchester UP, p. 263. The first dateable Mithraeum outside italy is from Böckingen on the Neckar, where a centurion of the legion VIII Augustus dedicated two altars, one to Mithras and the other (dated 148) to Apollo.
10Lewis M. Hopfe, "Archaeological indications on the origins of Roman Mithraism", in Lewis M. Hopfe (ed). Uncovering ancient stones: essays in memory of H. Neil Richardson, Eisenbrauns (1994), pp. 147-158. p.153: "At present this is the only Mithraeum known in Roman Palestine." p. 154: "It is difficult to assign an exact date to the founding of the Caesarea Maritima Mithraeum. No dedicatory plaques have been discovered that might aid in the dating. The lamps found with the taurectone medallion are from the end of the first century to the late third century A.D. Other pottery and coins from the vault are also from this era. Therefore it is speculated that this Mithraeum developed toward the end of the first century and remained active until the late third century. This matches the dates assigned to the Dura-Europos and the Sidon Mithraea."
11Per Beskow, The routes of early Mithraism, in Études mithriaques Ed.Jacques Duchesne-Guillemin. p.14: "The plaques are typical Bosporan terracottas... At the same time it must be admitted that the plaques have some strange features which make it debateable if this is really Mithra(s). Most striking is the fact that his genitals are visible as they are in the iconography of Attis, which is accentuated by a high anaxyrides. Instead of the tunic and flowing cloak he wears a kind of jacket, buttoned over the breast with only one button, perhaps the attempt of a not so skillful artist to depict a cloak. The bull is small and has a hump and the tauroctone does not plunge his knife into the flank of the bull but holds it lifted. The nudity gives it the character of a fertility god and if we want to connect it directly with the Mithraic mysteries it is indeed embarrassing that the first one of these plaques was found in a woman's tomb." Roger Beck, Mithraism since Franz Cumont, Aufsteig und Niedergang der romischen Welt II 17.4 (1984), p. 2019: "Their iconography is significantly different from that of the standard tauroctony (e.g. in the Attis-like exposure of the god's genitals)." Clauss, p.156: "He is grasping one of the bull's horns with his left hand, and wrenching back its head; the right arm is raised to deliver the death-blow. So far, this god must be Mithras. But in sharp contrast with the usual representations, he is dressed in a jacket-like garment, fastened at the chest with a brooch, which leaves his genitals exposed - the iconography typical of Attis."
12Per Beskow, The routes of early Mithraism, in Études mithriaques Ed.Jacques Duchesne-Guillemin. p.14: "Another possible piece of evidence is offered by five terracotta plaques with a tauroctone, found in Crimea and taken into the records of Mithraic monuments by Cumont and Vermaseren. If they are Mithraic, they are certainly the oldest known representations of Mithras tauroctone; the somewhat varying dates given by Russian archaeologists will set the beginning of the first century C.E. as a terminus ad quem, which is also said to have been confirmed by the stratigraphic conditions." Note 20 gives the publication as W. Blawatsky / G. Kolchelenko, Le culte de Mithra sur la côte spetentrionale de la Mer Noire, Leiden 1966, p.14f.
13Clauss, The Roman cult of Mithras, p.156-7 merely mentions the date and presumes that the deity is Mithras-Attis; but the date is not mentioned in Clauss' original text in German.
14Roger Beck, Mithraism since Franz Cumont, Aufsteig und Niedergang der romischen Welt II 17.4 (1984), p. 2019: "...the area [the Crimea] is of interest mainly because of the terracotta plaques from Kerch (five, of which two are in CIMRM as nos 11 and 12). These show a bull-killing figure and their probable date (second half of first-century BC to first half of first AD) would make them the earliest tauroctonies - if it is Mithras that they portray. Their iconography is significantly different from that of the standard tauroctony (e.g. in the Attis-like exposure of the god's genitals). Beskow (1978) has proposed the Crimea as the early centre from which the cult was disseminated via Moesia into the Roman world.[25]"
15Statius, Thebaid (Book i. 719,720): "Mithras twists the unruly horns beneath the rocks of a Persian cave."
16Dio, Cassius, Epitome of Book 63, 5:2.
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