CIMRM 312-313 - The lion-headed god

A "sacerdos" or priest with a single Greek name is included in the inscription. He may well be a slave.¹

CIMRM entry

312. White marble statue (H. 1.60 Br. base 0.52), found in the Mithraeum on the right side. Beside the entrance of the Biblioteca Vaticana. Labus, Bibl. Ital. V (May 1816), 208f; Zoega, Abh., 198, 1 and Pl. XV, 16; Lajard, Rech., 584 and Intr. Pl. LXX; Millin, Gal. Myth., XVIII, 4 (who mistakes it for a monument from Rome, No. 545); Clarac, Mus. Sculpt., No. 1193, Pl. 559; O. Müller, Denkm., II (4), 7lf and Pl. 75, 967; MMM II 238f No. 80 with fig. 68; Roscher, Myth. Lex., 3039 and fig. 1; RRS I, 296, 3; Eisler, Weltenmantel II 412 f and fig. 50; Paschetto in Bilychnis 1912, fig. 2= Ostia, 170 fig. 34; Autran, Mithra, 128 fig.; Gressmann, Gestirnrel., fig. 3; Cecchelli in Roma 1941, PI. XIX; D. Levi in Hesperia XII, 1944,275 fig. 4; Becatti, 119 and Pl. XXXVI, 1; Alinari 35666 (see fig. 85). Standing, naked figure with lion's head and wide open. mouth. Behind his shoulders he has two small wings and two more on his hips. These wings have been placed in opposite directions and carry the symbols of the four seasons. They are decorated with a dove and a swan (top right), ears (top left), a bunch of grapes (bottom left), two palms and a reed (bottom right). The god is entwined in six coils of a serpent, which rests its head on the god's (Aion). On his breast a thunderbolt. In his hands which he presses against his body, he holds a key with twelve drill-holes, and in his left moreover a long staff or sceptre with a knob on either side. On the base beside the r. leg of the god a pair of tongs and a hammer (Vulcanus) and beside the l. leg a caduceus, a cock and a pine-cone. Above it the inscription No. 313. The whole statue was painted red. 313. CIL XIV, 65; MMM II No. 137. C. Valeri/us Heracles pat(er) /et C(aii) Valerii /Vitalis et Nico/mes sacerdo/tes s(ua) p(e)c(unia) p(o)s(ue)r(unt). / D(e)d(icatum) idi(bus) aug(ustis) im(peratore)/ Com(modo) / VI et /Septi/miano / co(n)s(ulibus). 190 A.D. In spite of the condemnatio memoriae of Commodus, his name was not obliterated here, which is due to the fact, that this Emperor himself had been initiated in the mysteries (Cumont).