Mithraism and Christianity

Mithraism and Christianity

Competition, Exclusion and Appropriation

William Abruzzi

(2019)

Expanding out of Palestine and into the wider Roman world, Christian missionaries as early as Paul himself encountered a wide array of pagan beliefs and practices. However, as the Church became centered in Rome and strove to establish itself as the official religion of the empire, it had to compete with those forms of paganism that predominated in the very heart of the empire and that enjoyed official support. While several gods and their associated beliefs and rituals enjoyed official recognition, worship of the sun god in the form of Sol Invictus was later superseded during the third century CE by devotion to Mithras. As Christianity spread throughout the empire and became increasingly dominant in Rome itself, Mithraism formed the foundation of Roman paganism. It was, thus, with this religion that the emerging Roman Church had to most directly compete and against which it directed much of its anti-pagan hostility, while at the same time incorporating many of its beliefs and rituals. including placing the celebration of Jesus' virgin birth on December 25th.

One of the most important of the pagan religions to influence Christianity was Mithraism, the product of a reformation within the ancient Persian religion of Zoroastrianism during the 17^th or 18^th centuries BCE. Mithra was the last of the official sun gods of the Roman Empire and, particularly in the third century, represented a serious rival to Christianity. It, therefore, experienced considerable hostility from the Church as the latter ascended to become the official religion of the empire.

Considerable controversy surrounds specifically how and in what form Mithraism was introduced into the Roman Empire. Proposals may be divided into three groups: (1) those which promote a Persian origin; (2) those which trace its origin to Asia Minor [present-day Turkey]; and (3) those which claim the religion originated in Rome itself (see Beck 1998: 115-116). The traditional view, promoted by Cumont (1903) and accepted by most scholars for several decades, was that Mithraism originated in Persia and spread westward to Rome. According to early Persian mythology, Mithras was born of Anahita, an immaculate virgin mother once worshipped as a fertility goddess and subsequently given the title 'Mother of God' (see Murdock 2013; Cumont 1903).¹ Mithras was incarnated into the human form of the "Saviour" expected by Zarathustra. Anahita was believed to have conceived from the seed of Zarathustra preserved in the waters of Lake Hamun in the Persian province of Sistan. Mithra remained celibate throughout his life and ascended to heaven in 208 BCE, 64 years after his birth. Parthian coins and documents bear a double date with this 64-year interval.

Anahita

"Immaculate Virgin Mother of the Lord Mithras"

Mithraism became the most popular and influential of the many mystery religions² that existed in the Roman Empire at the time that Christianity began, and was the major religion with which Christianity had to compete during the early centuries of the common era. Its pre-eminence lasted until the late 4^th century when Christianity was declared the official religion of the Roman Empire. According to Cumont (ibid.), Mithraism became dispersed geographically with the growth of empire.³ He claimed that the cult of Mithras spread into northern India and into the western provinces of China during the expansion of the Persian Empire in the sixth century BCE and also into the more westerly regions of the Archaemenid [First Iranian] Empire (550-330 BCE), including Asia Minor, Babylon and Armenia (Gnoli 1987: 580). According to this view, the religion evolved and changed as it spread outside of Iran (see Gordon 1972: 96; Lease 1980: 1317; Gnoli 1987: 580). As Mithraism spread from Persia, it became transformed from a loose collection of rites and traditions into a more centralized theology. In the process, Mithras became assimilated with Shamash, the Babylonian god of justice and protection and the sun god from whom King Hammurabi received his code of laws in the 18^th century BCE (Cumont 1903). In India, Mitra (The Hindu name for Mithras) was incorporated into the Hindu pantheon of gods. In the Mesopotamian Valley and Asia Minor, Mithra adopted astrological and eschatological elements found in Chaldean and Babylonian religious beliefs (Brandon 1954: 110; Lease 1980: 1310-1311). Eventually, due to Roman imperial expansion eastward, Mithraism became absorbed into the Roman Empire, the Persian (Parthian) Empire's mortal enemy.⁴ According to the Greek historian Plutarch (46-125 CE), Mithraism was first introduced into Italy by pirates from Cilicia [South-East Turkey]. The Roman historian Quintus Rufus claimed instead that the worship of Mithras spread from Persia to Rome through the Phrygians of central Anatolia.

Distribution of Mithraic sites

(Vermaseren 1955)

Cumont's thesis regarding the Iranian origin of Roman Mithraism has come under serious criticism. Several authors have pointed to Asia Minor as the location of Mithraism's birthplace. The earliest reference to Mithras, according to Brandon (1954: 108), can be found in Hittite documents dating to the second millennium BCE⁵ where Mithras appears as a god of the Mitanni, an Aryan people who inhabited land extending from southeastern Asia Minor into northern Syria and Iraq [see map below]. In Mitanni sacred literature, Mithras figured prominently (under the name Mitra) as a deity associated with light, especially the light of the sun, and was regarded as "the all-seeing witness of men's deeds" (Brandon 1954: 108). According to Brandon (ibid.), it was later in Persia (Iran) that Mithras acquired his greatest glory and became "a god of universal significance."⁶ Brandon (1954: 109-110) supports his thesis by stating that the earliest Zoroastrian documents, such as the Gathas of Zarathustra, make no mention of Mithras, who only appears prominently in later documents, such as the Mihir Yasht, where he is assigned an exalted place in the faith and serves as a protector of those in need and as one of the judges in the Final Judgment.⁷

The Mitanni

In a collection of papers presented at the First International Congress of Mithraic Studies in 1971, John Hinnells (1975) and Richard Gordon (1975) challenged Cumont's position on the Iranian origin of Mithraism. Both accused Cumont of circular reasoning, claiming that he began with the belief that Roman Mithraism developed from Iranian religion, found Iranian parallels to the symbols of Roman Mithraism, and then used these parallels to prove the Iranian foundations for Mithraism (see also Ulansey 1989: 1; Hopfe 1994: 16-17).

An increasing number of authors have since proposed that Asia Minor provided both the origin of Mithraism and the locus of its spread throughout the Roman Empire. Although Ulansey (1989: 125) recognizes, "as the history of Christianity eloquently demonstrates, a religion can become a very different thing hundreds of years and thousands of miles from its time and place of birth," he (ibid.: 8-9) identifies several problems associated with the claim that Roman Mithraism originated in Iran. According to Ulansey, critical features of Roman Mithraism are completely absent from the Iranian worship of Mithras, most notably

1. the hierarchical organization of Roman Mithraism with its associated series of initiations into higher levels of cult organization.

2. the strict secrecy surrounding the group's doctrines.

3. the distinctive cave-like temples (Mithraem) in which meetings were held.

and, most importantly,

4. the central iconography of Roman Mithraism --the tauroctony-- in which Mithras, accompanied by several other celestial figures, is depicted in the act of killing a bull.

Ulansey maintains that none of these essential characteristics of Roman Mithraism was to be found in the Iranian worship of Mithras. The tauroctony formed the central focus of worship throughout Roman Mithraism; yet, as Ulansey (ibid.: 8) emphasizes, "there is no evidence that the Iranian god Mithra ever had anything to do with killing a bull" (see also Shandruk 2004; Kiminski 2008: 9-10).

Expanding on the astronomical interpretations of the Mithraic tauroctony by Insler (1978) and Beck (1977), Ulansey (1989.: 67-76) argues that the cult of Mithras originated among Stoic philosophers in Tarsus [in Cilicia; see map below] who discovered what they believed was astronomical evidence for the existence of a new and more powerful god than was previously recognized --one who controlled the cosmos.⁸ They identified this god with Perseus, one of the principal [Greek] hero gods of Tarsus, who the philosophers believed dominated the bull (Taurus or Tarsus). Ulansey argues for the metamorphosis of Perseus into Mithras at Tarsus based on the existence of numerous iconographic similarities between the two gods, including the fact that:

1. both Perseus and Mithras were associated with underground caves, (including the belief that Mithras was "born from a rock", the rock being the Persian symbol for heaven (Lease 1980: 1311).

2. both gods were portrayed wearing a Phrygian cap, an ancient symbol identifying the wearer as being of Persian origin;

3. Mithras was placed with a sword above the bull on the tauroctony in the exact same position that the constellation of Perseus [also pictured with a sword] is located above that of Taurus (the bull) in the northern sky;

4. Mithras is always portrayed on a tauroctony as looking away when he kills the bull just as Perseus is always portrayed looking away when he is killing the Gorgon Medusa; and

5. the "remarkable similarity" between the figure of the Gorgon in Greek mythology and that of the Mithraic lion-headed god, Kronos.

Ulansey offers a compelling astronomical explanation for the iconography of the tauroctony. Whereas all of the Zodiacal gods portrayed on the tauroctony existed on or below the ecliptic of the Celestial Equator (c. 4,000-2,000 BCE), the constellation of Perseus existed above it, suggesting that Perseus (Mithras) controls all the other celestial forces (see also Stark 1869; Beck 1978; Insler 1978 for astronomical interpretations of the tauroctony).

. . . the obvious importance of Mithras over against other figures in the tauroctony corresponds exactly to the fact that the constellation of Perseus is above the ecliptic, while all the other constellations reflected in the tauroctony are either on or below the ecliptic. (Ulansey 1989:59).

This new religion became popular with Cilician pirates, who had close ties to the intellectual circles of Tarsus and who were interested in astral religion. They purportedly changed the name of the hero god from Perseus to Mithra in honor of Mithridates VI Eupator, the last of the dynasty of rulers of Pontus that preceded Roman rule of Cilicia. It was, according to Ulansey, this group of pirate-sailors who gave Mithraism its form and who spread the religion to the Roman world, as claimed by Plutarch.

Tarsus in Cilicia

Beck (1998) also argues for an Anatolian origin of Mithraism. However, he proposes a different location than Cilicia, situating the origin of Roman Mithraism in the Commagene Kingdom in eastern Anatolia [see map below]. It is here that the monuments and texts of Antiochus I (87-38 BCE), the founder of a syncretistic Greco-Iranian royal cult, assign Mithras a prominent place in a newly defined pantheon of gods. Beck (1998: 121-122) argues that Mithraism's spread throughout the Roman Empire followed the demise of the Commagene Kingdom in 72 CE when the Emperor Vespasian removed Antiochus IV from his throne and incorporated his territory into Roman Syria. These years witnessed a period of "unusual turmoil and mobility of personnel across the Empire"⁹ in which Commagenian military elements became engaged in both Roman civil wars and the Judean Revolt in Palestine. According to Beck (1998: 121-125), it was through their intimate contact with the Roman soldiers involved in those conflicts that Commagenian soldiers initiated the spread of Mithraism throughout the Roman Empire.

The Commagene Kingdom

I propose to locate Mithraism's founding group among the dependants, military and civilian, of the dynasty of Commagene as it made the transition from client rulers to Roman aristocrats. The kingdom of Commagene on the Empire's eastern marches with Parthia and Armenia figures, more or less prominently, in all accounts of the transmission of Mithras worship, because the monuments and texts of Antiochus I, its mid-first-century B.C. ruler and the founder of a remarkable syncretistic Greco-Iranian royal cult, accord to Mithras a prominent place in the newly defined pantheon. It is however, on the ending of the kingdom more than a century later that I wish to focus. The actual demise occurred in A.D. 72 with the deposition of the long-reigning Antiochus IV, following a period of unusual turmoil and mobility of personnel across the Empire. Commagenian military elements (under royal command) were engaged in both the Judaean and Civil Wars, and there would have been extensive contact with Roman legionary and other troops (including the units already identified as among the earlier carriers of the new mystery cult: XV Apollinaris, V Macedonica, II Adiutrix). On the civilian side, the dynasty, after its deposition, was resident for a period in Rome: contact between its familia and the familiae of the Roman aristocracy, including the imperial familia, is more than likely. What I propose, then, is that the Mysteries of Mithras were developed within a subset of these Commagenian soldiers and familyretainers and were transmitted by them at various points of contact to their counterparts in the Roman world. Development and transmission should be seen as overlapping, not rigidly sequential, phases: certain of the essentials of the Mysteries will have been in place prior to their transmission, but they were developed into their familiar form in and through the process of transmission itself. (Beck 1998: 121-122)¹⁰

Beck (1998: 117-120) argues that his proposed scenario for the origin of Mithraism satisfies all four "parameters" that he claims must be satisfied before any original group can be identified. These include:

1. "The postulated foundation group should be reasonably close in time to the cult's earliest attested dedications and monuments," which first appear at the end of the first century CE or the beginning of the second;

2. Claims of origin "must be compatible with the transmission of the Mysteries within a comparatively short time span to widely separated parts of the Empire." A major problem in determining the exact origin of Roman Mithraism has been the "simultaneity" of the archaeological record throughout such a large geographic area. This problem is overcome by the early cult's association with Commagene soldiers who became dispersed throughout the empire, claiming at this time that the distinction between Rome and Anatolia constituted a "false dichotomy";

3. The founding group must have been "social 'insiders". It cannot have comprised a marginal or alienated social group; otherwise, it would not have been so readily adopted by successful individuals and by social elites. Most scholars agree that Mithraism appealed primarily to conformists and stress the importance of family and the role of both bureaucratic and military organizations in the propagation of Mithraism (see Beck 1998: 119, note 30);

4. The founding group had to possess both a strong Iranian religious tradition centered on the worship of Mithra and an educated Western tradition in which astrology furnished the master metaphors of cosmology and soteriology, both of which were fundamental to the Mithraic mysteries. These two elements were clearly present in the dynasty of Commagene (70 BCE - 72 CE).

Hopfe (1994; see also Hopfe and Lease 1975) also rejects the Persian origin of the Roman cult of Mithras. maintaining that "the weight of scholarly opinion has clearly moved away from the long-held theory that Mithraism began in Persia and moved westward across Babylon, Syria, Asia Minor, and into Rome" (Hopfe 1994 18). However, Hopfe goes one step further, repudiating the role that Anatolia played in the origin of Roman Mithraism as well. He disparages what he considers the uncritical acceptance of Plutarch's single statement identifying Cilician pirates as the forbearers of Roman Mithraism and argues, instead, that Mithraism originated in Rome itself. Hopfe emphasizes that while hundreds of Mithraea have been found throughout the Roman Empire, the overwhelming majority have been found in central Italy and northern Germany,¹¹ whereas only three have been discovered in Roman Syria: at Dura-Europos on the eastern border of Roman Syria; at Caesarea Maritima on the Mediterranean coast of Roman Palestine; and at Sidon on the Lebanese coast south of Beirut [from which too few remains survive to draw any significant conclusions]. Hopfe further argues that neither the Dura-Europos nor the Caesarea Mithraea support an early Mithraic presence in Roman Syria, i.e., on the eastern margin of the Roman Empire. The Dura-Europos Mithraeum was destroyed and rebuilt several times. Both the structure of the Mithraeum and its artifacts suggest a Roman rather than an Eastern (Persian) origin.¹² Similarly, the construction of the Caesarea Mithraeum, dated to the late 3rd and early 4th centuries (ibid.: 8), clearly followed rather than preceded Roman occupation of the region. Significantly, the overlying stratum suggests that it was constructed during the Julian Revival of paganism (361-363 CE). in which Mithraism occupied a prominent position (Hopfe and Lease 1975: 8). Hopfe (1994: 23-24), thus, concludes,

Archaeological evidence of Mithraism in Syria is therefore in marked contrast to the abundance of Mithraea and materials that have been located in the rest of the Roman Empire. Both the frequency and the quality of Mithraic materials are greater in the rest of the empire. Even on the western frontier in Britain, archaeology has produced rich Mithraic materials, such as those found at Walbrook.

If one accepts Cumont's theory that Mithraism began in Iran, moved west through Babylon to Asia Minor, and then to Rome, one would expect that the religion left its traces in those locations. Instead, archaeology indicates that Roman Mithraism had its epicenter in Rome. Wherever its ultimate place of origin may have been, the fully developed religion known as Mithraism seems to have begun in Rome and been carried to Syria by soldiers and merchants. None of the Mithraic materials or temples in Roman Syria except the Commagene sculpture bears any date earlier than the late first or early second century. While little can be proved from silence, it seems that the relative lack of archaeological evidence from Roman Syria would argue against the traditional theories for the origins of Mithraism.¹³

Roman Empire

(c. 210 CE)

Whatever the ultimate origin of Mithraism, Roman expansion into Asia Minor appears to have been a significant factor facilitating its introduction into the Roman Empire. Mithraism was early on, and for a long time, intimately associated with the Roman military. According to Cumont (1903),

In 67 BCE the first congregation of Mithras-worshipping soldiers existed in Rome under the command of General Pompey. From 67 to 70 C.E., the legio XV Apollinaris, or Fifteenth Apollonian Legion, took part in suppressing the uprising of the Jews in Palestine. After sacking and burning the Second Temple in Jerusalem and capturing the infamous Ark of the Covenant, this legion accompanied Emperor Titus to Alexandria, where they were joined by new recruits from Cappadocia (Turkey) to replace casualties suffered in their victorious campaigns.

After their transportation to the Danube with the veteran legionnaires, they offered sacrifices to Mithras in a semicircular grotto that they consecrated to him on the banks of the river. Soon, this first temple was no longer adequate and a second one was built adjoining a temple of Jupiter. As a municipality developed alongside the camp and the conversions to Mithraism continued to multiply, a third and much larger Mithraeum was erected towards the beginning of the second century.

Due to its close connection with the Roman military (see Gordon, 1972: 111-112), Mithraism quickly spread throughout the Roman Empire to wherever Roman soldiers were stationed. Over 420 Mithraic sites have been discovered (Clauss 2001:xii).¹⁴ It began its expansion during the first century CE, reached its peak in the third century, and declined in the face of increasing competition from Christianity during the fourth century. Mithraea have been discovered throughout Great Britain, including in London near St. Paul's Cathedral, in Segontium in Wales, and along Hadrian's Wall in Northern England. Mithraism was also introduced into Northern Africa by Roman military recruits from abroad. At the height of its popularity, Mithraic temples could be found from one end of the empire to another, "from the banks of the Black Sea to the mountains of Scotland and to the borders of the great Sahara Desert." (Cumont 1956: 43, quoted in Ulansey 1989: 4; see also Gnoli 1987: 580-581).

Mithraic sites were very unevenly distributed, however. The greatest number of Mithraea have been discovered in Germany, due in large part to Rome's heavy military occupation of the region.¹⁵ Numerous Mithraic sites have also been found in Italy, especially in Ostia¹⁶ and in Rome where major mithraea have been discovered beneath the Baths of Caracalla, Circus Maximus, the Barbarini, Santa Prisca (Martin 1989:2) and most recently in the castra Peregrinorum, Roman barracks discovered during the renovations of S. Stefano Rotondo.¹⁷ One of the best preserved of all mithraea lies under the ancient church of San Clemente in Rome. However, while a considerable number of Mithraic temples have been found in Rome, Ostia, Numidia, Dalmatia, Britain and along the Rhine/Danube frontier, far less have been discovered in Greece, Egypt, and Syria. In other words, the cult was much more heavily concentrated in the western portions of the empire, the very territory later to be dominated by Roman Christianity.

Mithraeum at Hadrian's Wall

Mithraeum near Saarbrucken, Germany

Mithraeum Beneath Circus Maximus

(Rome)

Caeseria Mithraeum

(Palestine)

Dura-Europos Mithraeum

(Eastern Syria)

Mithraeum at Ostia Antica

Mithraism's greater concentration in Germany and Italy is further indicated by the distribution of votive offerings.¹⁸ According to Gordon (1972: 103), 49% of all such offerings have been found in the Rhine-Danube frontier provinces in Germany, and 31% in Italy [18% in Rome itself]. The sizeable number of Mithraic artifacts in Rome led Martin (1989: 2) to observe,

The flood of new Mithraic discoveries in the capital of the Roman world allowed Cumont to conclude by 1945 that Rome was the capital of Mithraism, and almost the seat of its papacy.¹⁹

Votive Offerings to Mithras

Mithraic membership was limited to men. As Brandon (1954: 113) noted,

Mithraism appealed primarily to those sections of society in which the qualities of discipline, loyalty, austerity and comradeship were most natural and necessary. . . . it was essentially a masculine faith, and, except for one doubtful instance, there is no evidence that women could share in its fellowship or participate in its rites.²⁰

Mithraists were primarily soldiers, merchants and imperial officials. Mithraism was a hierarchical religion, consisting of seven grades through which individuals would pass following the performance of a ritual that initiated them into the next higher grade.²¹ According to Gnoli (1987: 581), each grade was protected by a specific celestial body: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, the moon, the sun and Saturn. Such a hierarchical cult would have been highly compatible with those who were committed to military service, from which the cult drew most of its members, as well as with others aspiring to wealth, power and social status. Mithraism was clearly not a marginal religious sect appealing to social outsiders.

"The Mithraist of the sacred paintings is young, strong, unbearded, the image of social conformity, not of marginality. He accepted a slow, methodical, long-term commitment, for which the religious organization is designed to provide continuous support, so as to ensure his spiritual promotion. And promotion was achieved only by acceptance of and submission to authority." (Gordon 1972: 101).

Hierarchy was, thus, central to Mithraic cult organization. Those occupying the higher ritual levels in the cult organization would most probably have been the same people who occupied superior positions outside the cult organization. As Gordon (1972: 109) points out,

A good deal of nonsense has been talked about the egalitarian functions of the cult, as though the status differences of the outside world were simply forgotten in the religious context. That is surely no more true of Mithraism than of early Christianity. The idea of an ordinary private soldier lording it over his, or any centurion, is absurd: it would have meant an enduring reversal of proper social relations impossible not only (but particularly) in the army but in the society of the Empire more generally.

Mithraic membership provided individuals with connections in widespread socioeconomic and political networks that would facilitate their social advancement, including potentially to the highest corridors of wealth and power, since even senators from prominent families were among its adherents. From the perspective of Roman political elites, Mithraism promoted discipline and loyalty as sacred virtues and a sense of brotherhood that would not only provide them with loyal followers and subjects, but that would also sanctify their rule. For this reason, Mithraism increasingly benefited from imperial patronage, and Mithras became progressively linked to, and eventually identified as, the Roman Sun God, the supreme god in the Roman pantheon. The ultimate conquest by Mithras was achieved when the Emperor Aurelian established Mithras as the Roman High God (Sol Invictus) in 274 CE,²² followed, according to Brandon (1954: 111) in 307 CE by the tetrarchs Diocletian, Galerius and Licinius dedicating an alter to Mithras at Carnuntum (one of the oldest centers of Mithraic worship in the Empire), proclaiming him fautori imperii sui ["the promoter of their empire"].²³ Mithras, thus, became the special protector of both the emperors and the empire.²⁴

Mithra's ascendancy in the Roman pantheon occurred rather quickly. Considerable Mithraic art depicts Mithras and Helios²⁵ as equals, including scenes in which Mithras and Helios are pictured banqueting or riding a chariot together. One inscription that appeared frequently on votive offerings, was DSIOM, an abbreviation standing for deo invicto mithrae et soli socio, which translated means "to the Invincible God Mithras and the Sun his Ally" (Kaminski 2008: 8, following Shandruk 2004). Eventually, however, the title of Sol Invictus was transferred to Mithras, as Mithras supplanted/became Sol Invictus, Numerous inscriptions also exist, some dating as early as the third century CE, in which Mithras is himself referred to as Mithras Sol Invictus ["Mithras the unconquered sun"] (Roselaar 2014: 203).

Mithras with Sol Invictus

(Invincible Sun God)

In one inscription discovered in Rome, dedicated to "One Zeus, Sarapis, Helios, maker of the universe, invincible", the name Sarapis²⁶ was replaced with Mithras, suggesting that both gods were interchangeable, and that both were to be equated with Zeus and Helios.

Sol/Mithras Riding a Chariot Pulled by four Horses

In addition, through the portrayal of Mithras as the kosmokrator ("ruler of the cosmos"; cf. Ulansey 1989: 97, Figure 7.1) in artistic representations that mirror those of Apollo at Pompeii (ibid: 96, Figure 7.2), Mithras assumed the role and iconographic representation formerly attributed to Apollo.²⁷

Apollo-Helios with Sphere

Mithras Holding the Celestial Globe

Mithras' association with the sun became especially important during the reign of the Emperor Julian ("Julian the Apostate") (361-363) who chose Mithras/the Sun as the focus of his efforts to restore paganism throughout the empire. By the fifth century, according to Roselaar (2014: 204), only six references to Mithras exist, most of which referenced his identification with the Sun. Mithras' identification with the sun was, in fact, the only element of Mithraism still discussed by Christian authors after c. 400 CE (ibid.). Indeed, according to Roselaar (ibid.) some Christian authors knew little about Mithras other than that he was associated with the sun.²⁸

Apollo is to be regarded as the Sun in his course, the offspring of Zeus, named also Mithra, as he completes the cycle of the year" (Clement, Homily 6.10, Appendix 14)

Ultimately, according to Ulansey (1989: 95-103; 1994: 107), by controlling the structure of the cosmos and the movement of all objects within it, Mithras became superior to all other celestial objects, including the sun. Thus, several Investiture scenes show the sun (Helios) kneeling before Mithras.

When Mithras is referred to as the unconquered sun, one naturally becomes curious whether or not there is a conquered sun. Mithraic iconography gives us the answer. All of those scenes depicting the sun god kneeling before Mithras or otherwise submitting to him make it abundantly clear that it is the sun itself who is actually the conquered sun. Mithras, therefore, becomes the unconquered sun by conquering the sun. He accomplishes this deed by means of the power represented by the symbol of the celestial pole which consists in his ability to shift the position of the celestial pole by moving the cosmic structure, which makes him more powerful than the sun. Mithras has become entitled to be called sun insofar as he has taken over the role of the kosmokrator formerly exercised by the sun itself. (Ulansey 1989: 110)

Investiture Scenes Showing Helios kneeling Before Mithras

(Ulansey 1989: 104, Figs. 7.9 & 7.10)

The Mithraeum

The Mithraeum was the principal place of worship for members of the Mithraic cult. Just as Christian churches have standard designs that reflect Christian myths, which can be observed with only minor variations in churches throughout the world, so also were the various Mithraea constructed using common design features that reflected Mithraic beliefs.²⁹

Based on a belief in Mithra's birth in a grotto ("Born of the Rock"), most Mithraea were located either in caves, in subterranean cave-like structures or, if such locations were not available, in surface structures constructed to simulate caves.

Birth of Mithras

("Born of the Rock")

(Capitoline Museum, Rome)

The ceiling of a mithraeum contained a firmament filled with stars and reproductions of the planets and the various signs of the zodiac (Gnoli 1987: 581). As Kaminski (2008: 14-15) notes regarding the Mithraeum at Dura-Europos (170 CE),

"the floor plan of the Mithraeum is typical of most other Mithraeums that were part of the Roman Empire . . . . The vaulted ceiling was painted to look like the sky, blue with stars that were still painted white.

Dura-Europos Mithraeum

(showing ceiling)

Water played a purificatory role in Mithraism, as it does in Christianity. Consequently, Mithraea were also commonly located near springs, streams or other water sources (Gnoli 1987: 581), and a basin was often incorporated into the temple's structure (Pearse n.d.). Several of the Mithraea discovered at Ostia contained sunken basins in the floors, which, referencing the writings of Porphyry, Kaminski (2008: 17-18) suggests were used for ritual baptism (see also Lease 1980: 1312).

. . . the importance of water for all manner of ritual purposes is revealed by the water-basins and cisterns, by the representations of Oceanus, and also by the evident desire to locate temples in the vicinity of a river or a spring. Water-basins were clearly part of the basic equipment of all mithraea. (Clauss 2001: 73),

A 4^th century Mithraeum has been discovered at the Roman port of Caesarea, the provincial capital of Palestine. Significantly, this temple was built in a large public building at the water's edge. Hopfe and Lease (1975: 10) note,

"it comes as no surprise that a Mithraic community would choose such a setting; in remembrance of Mithra's birth in a grotto, most Mithraea were located in cave-like structures. and a vaulted ceiling was highly favored."

The centerpiece of every Mithraeum, however, was the Tauroctony, a representation of Mithras, wearing a tunic, cloak and distinctive Phrygian cap, killing a bull by stabbing it in the neck.

Although the iconography of the cult varied a great deal from temple to temple, there is one element of the cult's iconography which was present in essentially the same form in every mithraeum and which, moreover, was clearly of the utmost importance to the cult's ideology; namely the so-called tauroctony, or bull-slaying scene, in which the god Mithras, accompanied by a series of other figures, is depicted in the act of killing the bull. (Ulansey 1989: 6)

An inscription in the Mithraeum under the Church of Santa Prisca in Rome referred to Mithras saving men by shedding the eternal blood of the bull.³⁰ Thus, a depiction of Mithras' redemptive act, the slaying of the bull, occupied a central place in every mithraeum for the same reason that a representation of Jesus' redemptive act --his crucifixion-- occupied a central place in later Christian churches. As Sauer (2003: 136) points out, both soteriological acts were achieved through the spilling of blood.

Tauroctony

(Pio Clementino - Vatican Museums)

Tauroctony & Tauroctony Relief

(Capitoline Museum - Rome)

Tauroctony

(Circus Maximus Mithraeum - Rome)

Tauroctony Scene

(Dura-Europos Mithraeum - Eastern Syria)

Descriptions of the tauroctony discovered in different mithraea throughout the Roman Empire demonstrate that it followed a standard form, based on an established mythology.

Central to each mithraeum there was the tauroctony, the image of the bull slaying which was shown at the main altar. In the tauroctony Mithras is clad in a tunic, trousers, cloak, and a pointed cap usually called a Phrygian cap. He looks away from the bull while half-straddling its back, and pulling the bull's head back by its nostrils with his left hand. Mithras is plunging a dagger into the bull's shoulder with his right hand. Various figures surround this dramatic event. Under the bull a dog laps at the blood dripping from the wound and a scorpion attacks the bull's testicles. Often the bull's tail ends in wheat ears and a raven is perched on the bull's back. The scene is bracketed at the sides by the two smaller figures of Cautes and Cautopates,³¹ both of whom wear costume similar to that of Mithras. Cautes is to the right, holding an upraised and burning torch. Above him, in the upper left corner, is the sun god, Sol, in his chariot. On the viewer's left there is Cautopates, who holds a torch that points downards and is sometimes, but not always, burning. Above Cautopates in the upper right corner is the moon, Luna. This group of figures is almost always present, but there are variations, of which the most common is an added line of the signs of the zodiac over the top of the bull-sacrificing scene.

(http://www.mithraeum.info/history.htm)

At the rear of the mithraeum was always found a representation (generally a carved relief, but sometimes a painting or statue) of the principal icon of Mithraism: the tauroctony (bull-slaying scene). In this scene, which takes place within a grotto, Mithras is accompanied by a dog, snake, raven and scorpion. He is depicted in the act of killing a bull. Mithras is clad in a tunic, trousers, cape, and a pointed cap (known as a Phrygian cap). He is seen half-straddling the back of a bull with his right knee astride the bull's back. The bull had been forced to its knees. With his left hand, Mithras grabs the bull by its nostrils and pulls its head back. With his right hand, Mithras plunges a short dagger into the bull's throat. Three shoots of wheat spring from the wound. Various animals and human-like figures surround Mithras and the bull. A dog laps the blood flowing from the wound. A snake lies in the fore ground by the bull's right knee. A scorpion attacks the bull's genitals. A raven is perched on the bull's back. It appears to be bringing a message to Mithras. On the observer's left, a small, male figure is seen. He is known as Cautopates and is clad in the same fashion as Mithras. Cautes is holding an upraised, burning torch. On the observer's right is another small, male figure. He is known as Cautopates and is also clad in the same style as Mithras. Cautopates is also holding a burning torch, but this one is held downwards. Above the grotto and Cautes is the sun god, Sol, who is sitting in a chariot with the horses heading skyward. In front of Sol, is a small, child-appearing male figure. Above the grotto and Cautopates is another male figure in a chariot with the horses moving downward. In front of him is also seen a small, child-appearing male figure, Above him is the moon, Luna (Morse 1999: 34-35)

Though the sculpting is coarse, the figures of the tauroctony are easily identifiable. Mithra wears the familiar Phrygian cap, cape, and short skirt. He sits astride the sacrificial bull with a dagger in his right hand poised above the neck of the bull. He is looking upward over his right shoulder. On either side of him stand his companions. the torchbearers Cautes on the right with his torch lifted and Cautopates on the left with his torch pointed down. Beneath the bull one can barely see the figure of the serpent, but his head is clearly visible reaching up toward the wound Mithra has inflicted with his sword. From between the legs of Cautes, the dog who usually appears in the scenes leaps toward the right shoulder of the bull. Though they are not clear in this medallion. there may be representations of the sun and the moon Mithra. The lower third of the medallion is divided into three panels. Although these are not clearly identifiable in the medallion, other tauroctones indicate that these may be three scenes from the life of Mithra. In the left panel, there is a scene in which one figure is being crowned by another. In the central panel is a scene in which two figures appear to be eating a meal together. In the right panel there is a scene with two figures behind an animal, perhaps in a chariot drawn by the animal. [Hopfe and Lease's (1975: 6-7) description of the tauroctony in the Caesarea Mithraeum in Palestine]

Another unique feature of the Mithraeum is the Mithraic Kronos,³² the naked lion-headed figure frequently found in Mithraic temples. He is entwined by a serpent, with the snake's head often resting on the lion's head. The lion's mouth is often open. He is also usually represented having four wings, two keys (sometimes a single key) and a scepter in his hand (Pearse n.d.). This mythological representation is entirely restricted to Mithraic art.

Mithraic Kronos of Florence

The Mithraeum served as a meeting place for followers of the religion. The worship service, which culminated in a "common banquet," usually consisted of a few dozen people (Gnoli 1987: 581).

The second most important scene after the tauroctony in Mithraic art is the so-called banquet scene. The two scenes are sometimes sculpted on the opposite sides of the same relief. The banquet scene features Mithras and the Sun god banqueting on the hide of the slaughtered bull. (Pearse n.d.)

The importance of the banquet in both mythology and ritual is demonstrated by its presence in Mithraic art.

In addition to this central scene . . . [the tauroctony] . . . there can be numerous smaller scenes which seem to represent episodes from Mithras' life. The most common scenes show Mithras being born from a rock, Mithras dragging the bull to a cave, plants springing from the blood and semen of the sacrificed bull, Mithras and the sun god, Sol, banqueting on the flesh of the bull while sitting on its skin, Sol investing Mithras with the power of the sun, and Mithras and Sol shaking hands over a burning altar, among others.

(http://www.mithraeum.info/history.htm)

Mithraic Banquet / Eucharist

In imitation of

The Sacred Banquet following Mithras' Killing of the Bull

Mithraism and Christianity

Numerous beliefs became associated with Mithras that were typical of Hellenistic mystery religions and that eventually became incorporated into Christian belief. Morse (1999) lists 23 similarities between Mithraism and Christianity, including:³³

1.    Mithras was a god incarnated into human form;

2.    Mithras was born on December 25th (Sol Invictus' birth date);

3.    Mithras was born through a miraculous virgin birth witnessed by shepherds (Murdoch et.al. (n.d.);³⁴

4.    Mithras was born in a cave;³⁵

5.    Mithras was viewed as a Savior God who redeemed believers through his death and resurrection (see also Brandon 1954: 109-110; 1957: 125-126); Gordon 1972; Lease 1980: 1319);

6.    Mithras was known as the "light of the world";

7.    Mithras was believed to have performed miracles;

8.    Mithraism preached a dualistic doctrine of good and evil and of heaven and earth;³⁶

9.    Mithras was a chaste god who remained celibate throughout his earthly life;

10.    Baptisms were performed as a ritual of initiation into the Mithraic cult;³⁷

11.    Mithraic initiations were celebrated with a Eucharistic meal (see Sauer 2003: 35 (image 18), 136-137, (image 64);

12. Mithras was worshipped on Sunday (the day of the Sun God), the same day of the week eventually chosen for the worship of Jesus.

Lease (1980: 1329, note 173) adds that Christians borrowed artistic models and motifs from Mithraism, including depictions of Moses striking the rock for water during the Israelite Exodus from Egypt, Elijah's flight to heaven in a fiery chariot and Sampson's killing of a lion, many versions of which are remarkably similar to the portrayal of Mithras killing the bull in the tauroctony.

Sampson Fighting a Lion

(c. 1270)

Sampson Fighting a Lion

Lease (ibid.) describes yet another example of early Christian art that betrays a Mithraic influence.

An interesting example of such an apparent borrowing can also be found in the Coptic Museum, Cairo, exhibit 7118: a 6th century niche removed from the Coptic monastery of Apa Apollo, at Bawit in Upper Egypt, shows Jesus seated on his throne, which is in turn placed on a fiery chariot. A face on his right side, enclosed in a circle, is light and bright; while a face depicted on his left side is dark. This is clearly reminiscent of Mithraic representations: the central divine figure represents the bright sun of midday, while the smaller figures to the side show early day, or morning, and late day, or evening; just as Mithra represents the sun at its full power, and Cautes and Cautophates represent the rising and falling of that sun with their upturned and downturned torches.

Perhaps, most compelling, is the representation of Christ as Orpheus in which Jesus "uncannily resembles Mithra with his Phrygian cap." (ibid.)³⁸

Christ as Orpheus

(Roman Catacombs)

Lease (1980: 1329, note 173) notes, however, that as Saxl (1931) long ago pointed out, many of the artistic similarities shared by Mithraism and Christianity consisted of elements belonging to the general world of Greco-Roman art during the imperial period. At the same time, Lease notes that, while Mithraism and Christianity shared many similarities in common, both had separate traditions from which they would likely have independently borrowed some of their shared beliefs and practices. Two examples:

Cave birth: . . . as early as the letter of Barnabas at the beginning of the second century, Christianity has a clear tradition that Jesus was born in a cave, though this is not mentioned in the canonical gospels. Some have felt that this belief is one of the clearest candidates available for a direct influence between Mithraism and Christianity. Benz, however, has shown conclusively that this Christian tradition does not come from a dependency on Mithraism, but rather from an ages old tradition in Palestine itself of holy shrines in caves. Indeed, at the end of the fourth century, Jerome writes that the cave is still visible in Bethlehem where Jesus was born, and over 100 years earlier Origen makes the same claim. (Lease 1980: 1321-1322; see also Abruzzi, The Birth of Jesus)

Baptism: Tertullian refers to an ablution of water in Mithraic rites. However, he does not speak specifically of baptism in anything approaching the Christian meaning of that word, and indeed both the origin and the context of such ritual washings are quite different for each religion. It is known that Zarathustra prescribed a purificatory washing as part of his religious reform of Persian ritual. . . . The sources for the Christian practice of baptism are so firmly anchored in the Jewish traditions of Palestine that there is scarcely a need to go outside of that context. Finally, little claim is raised that the widely spread practice of a purificatory washing before a ritual act, or as part of an initiation, throughout the Mediterranean Basin area was either unique only to Mithraism and Christianity or was derived from one common source. The central place of baptism in Christianity and the ideological content granted that act make it much different from anything described for the Mithraic community and it is difficult to posit any causal connection between the two religions' practice in this regard (Lease 1980: 1323-1324).

Over time, Mithraism and Christianity became increasingly competing sects. The expression of that competition evolved over time, reflecting both the intensity of the competition and the relative position of the two sects in relation to imperial power. Examining some three dozen passages written by Christian authors about Mithraism between the 2nd and 5th centuries, Roselaar (2014) argues that both the number and the tone of Christian comments changed over time.

Because so many similarities existed between Mithraic and Christian beliefs and rituals, several early Christian writers, including Justin (2nd century), Tertullian and Origen (3rd century) and Firmicus Maternus (4th century), accused Mithraists of copying Christian beliefs (Lease 1980: 1316). The earliest references explained that similarity as the result of Mithraic imitation of prior Christian beliefs and practices. Of the 9 passages identified by Roselaar that specifically accuse Mithraism of imitating Christian practice, 7 can be dated to the 2nd and early 3rd centuries, such as Justin Martyr's comment on the use of bread and water during Mithraic initiation ceremonies.

Which also the wicked demons have imitated in the mysteries of Mithras and handed down to be done; for that bread and a cup of water are placed with certain words said over them in the secret rites of initiation, you either know or can learn. (Justin Martyr, Apology 66.4; quoted in Roselaar 2014: 189)

However, while Justin Martyr, writing in the 2nd century, proposed demons ("the imitation of the serpent of error") as the source of Mithraic copying of Christian practices, Tertullian, writing during the late 2nd and early 3rd centuries, saw more sinister forces at work. He attributed such copying to the direct work of the devil (see Roselaar 2014: 189-196; Gnoli 1987: 581-582), as can be seen in his comments on the Mithraists use of water in their purificatory rites.

In certain rites they are initiated by means of a bath so as to belong to Isis perhaps or Mithras. . . . Here too we observe the devil's zeal in hostility to the things of God, in that he also practises baptism among his own. (Tertullian, Baptism 5; quoted in Roselaar 2014: 191)

But does someone ask by whose ingenuity these things are explained so that they lead to heresy? By the Devil, whose work it is to twist the truth, who imitates the sacraments in his mysteries of divine idols. He even sprinkles some of his believers and faithful, and promises redemption of sin through the bath, and if I remember Mithras, he signs his soldiers on the forehead (or: ,by the water). He celebrates the sacrifice of the bread and shows an image of resurrection, and under the sword he denounces the crown. (Tertullian praescr. 40, 1-4; quoted in Roselaar 2014: 192)

The devil [is the inspirer of the heretics] whose work it is to pervert the truth, who with idolatrous mysteries endeavors to imitate the realities of the divine sacraments. Some he himself sprinkles as though in token of faith and loyalty; he promises forgiveness of sins through baptism; and if my memory does not fail me marks his own soldiers with the sign of Mithra on their foreheads, commemorates an offering of bread, introduces a mock resurrection, and with the sword opens the way to the crown (Tertullian, De paraescriptione haereticorum, 40:3-4).

In certain rites they are initiated by means of a bath, so as to belong to Isis perhaps or Mithras. [...] Here too we observe the devil's zeal in hostility to the things of God, in that he also practises baptism among his own. (Baptism 5, Appendix 5; quoted in Roselaar 2014: 191)

In a similar vein, Justin Martyr (100-165) accused Mithraists of teaching that Mithras was born in a cave in an explicit attempt to copy the Christian story of Jesus' birth in a cave. ³⁹

By the second half of the third century, the number of Christians had already begun to rise significantly, a development that continued throughout the fourth century. Simutaneously, Christianity gained increasing political prominence, enhanced first by Constantine's conversion in 313⁴⁰ and culminating in the Emperor Theodosius I declaring Christianity the official religion of the empire in 380. Mithraism, on the other hand, appears to have gradually declined in popularity during this same time period. It is at this time that all references to Mithraic imitation of Christianity disappear, and a new criticism arises: Christian authors begin accusing Mithraists of committing criminal behaviors, including incest and murder, during their ceremonial practices.⁴¹ They also accused Mithraism of being a foreign cult.

In the fourth century pagan cults gradually lost ground to Christianity.This resulted in a change in the way these cults were addressed by the Christians. Hardly any attention was given to the similarities between the cults which had been so important earlier. Instead many new themes were introduced, such as the accusation of crimes committed by Mithras and his followers, the foreign origin of the cult, the syncretistic nature of the Mithras cult, and his association with the Sun. Every opportunity was seized by the Christians to emphasize the supremacy felt by Christianity, and the defeat of the pagan gods, which they presented as inevitable. In the fifth century references to the Mithras cult almost disappeared, with the exception of the continuing attention given to Mithraic sun-worship. (Roselaar 2014: 208)

By the 5th century, when Christian power had been thoroughly established, all mention of Mithraism by Christian sources disappears (Roselaar 2014: 205-206). Once the Roman Church gained power,⁴² it eliminated all vestiges of competing pagan religions, including Mithraism its principal competitor. This was accomplished:

1. by destroying whatever literature these competing belief systems had produced;

2. by either acquiring the sacred buildings of competing religions, or by constructing its churches atop their ruins; and

3. by appropriating many of the beliefs and rituals associated with Mithraism and other pagan religions as its own.

As indicated previously, many Mithraic temples, especially those in and around Rome, have been discovered buried under existing Christian churches.

On the very spot on which the last Taurobolium took place at the end of the fourth century, in the Phrygianum, today stands the Vatican's St. Peter's Basilica." (Fingrut 1993; quoted in Tarkowski 1996:4)⁴³

Mithraeum beneath Basilica di San Clemente

(Rome)

Mithraeum beneath Santa Prisca Church

(Rome)

As Christianity gained power and influence through rulers such as Constantine and Theodosius, it exhibited greater intolerance of pagan religions.⁴⁴Mithraists likely found themselves under increasing pressure to convert to Christianity if they wished to advance socially, or either maintain or elevate their positions in the imperial administration. Few Mithraic inscriptions are dated after 325, and most Mithraea seem to have been abandoned shortly thereafter.As has been the case for most indigenous belief systems, those pagan cults that did survive into the 5th century and beyond would have existed largely as remnant ritual communities scattered among rural populations far from the centers of power. However, as an organized belief system with a large network of adherents in both the military and the imperial administration heavily concentrated in Rome, Italy and Ostia, Mithraism would have represented a direct challenge to the emerging Christian Church. It, therefore, likely received greater direct hostility from the Church than did most other pagan belief systems.⁴⁵

However, the continuing strength of Mithraic communities in and around Rome, particularly among the ruling elite (see Clauss 2001: 29-30), contributed to the intensity of their conflict with Christian authorities. The power of these communities is suggested by the brief reversal of Christian fortunes during the "Pagan Revival" under Emperor Julian (361-363). Julian was the nephew of Constantine and a Roman traditionalist who believed in the reestablishment of traditional Roman religions. His Tolerance Edict of 362 directly targeted the concentrated power of the Roman Church, which to this day refers to him as "Julian the Apostate." However, following this brief revival, Mithraism as an active cult vanished completely. The last inscription referring to Mithras dates from 391 (Roselaar 2014: 199), and the last known archaeological dating of a Mithraeum is 408 (Pearse n.d.).

A central question considered by Mithraic scholars concerns how directly the Church was responsible for the downfall of Mithraism. Sauer (1996) presents a detailed argument for the direct role Christian hostility played in the demise of Mithraism. In a subsequent book, Sauer (2003) provides substantial, detailed evidence to support his thesis of deliberate Christian destruction of pagan --in particular Mithraic-- temples and icons. According to Sauer (2003: 157),

There can be no doubt on the basis of written and archaeological evidence that the Christianization of the Roman Empire and early Medieval Europe involved the destruction of works of art on a scale never before seen in human history.

More precisely, he (ibid.: 152) adds,

While a small proportion of Mithraic temples on the Continent suffered willful destruction during the first two thirds of the fourth century, the vast majority of excavated temples, at least in those territories then still under Roman control, did not. . . . It was only between the AD 380s or 390s and the fifth century that catastrophe overtook Mithraism, and the artwork in the vast majority of devastated temples was smashed then. . . . It can hardly be coincidental that the archaeological evidence for destruction on a hitherto unparalleled scale coincides precisely with the period from the AD 380s onwards when written sources also attest that the destruction of pagan art was, with increasing frequency, tolerated and soon even sanctioned, encouraged and actively supported by the imperial government.

This was precisely the period when Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire and when the Roman Church consolidated its power within the empire.

The direct role of the Church in the demise of Mithraism has been a widely-accepted thesis among Mithraic scholars, as Gordon (1999: 683) notes in his largely critical review of Sauer's (1996) book.

In his main thesis, that in general worshippers continued to use mithraea up to the late 4th and even the first decade or two of the 5th c., and that their destruction was due to Christian hatred of a dangerous rival, Sauer is thus pushing at an open door.

Gordon, however, questions this thesis. He (ibid.: 684-686) proposes two distinct "theses" regarding the role Christians played in the demise of Mithraism. In his "strong thesis", Christians are viewed as having been actively involved in Mithraism's decline, intentionally destroying mithraea as part of their open hostility to the religion, as argued by Sauer and others (cf. Nicholson 1996). Gordon (ibid.: 682-683) lists several documented incidents in which Christians did, in fact, attack and destroy specific mithraea. However, he objects to the degree to which the strong thesis has uncritically dominated scholarly explanations for the demise of Mithraism and offers the "weak thesis" as an alternative explanation. In the weak thesis, the decline of Mithraism is the result of an organic process in which the success of Christianity indirectly caused the decline of Mithraism; as Christianity gained more adherents and became more dominant institutionally, the attraction of belonging to Mithraic ritual communities would have declined. Over time, Christian congregations had either occupied abandoned mithraea or purchased those experiencing a decline in membership (see also Martin 1989). The increasing Christianization of the army would also have contributed to the demise of Mithraism, as the military had been a leading stronghold of Mithraic recruitment, organization and power (Martin 1989: 12). Gordon (1999: 685, 687-688) offers various evidence that he believes validate his weak thesis and argues for the primacy of this thesis.

The end of Mithraism may be ascribed to the hostility of Christians in a weak or a strong sense. The weak sense would imply the gradual abandonment of worship as the Christianization of the State and of public life took ever more interventionist form, particularly in small cities and towns where individuals could scarcely escape notice. On that scenario, Mithraism would have ceased mainly as a result of indirect pressures, which caused its adherents to feel that the benefits of practising their beliefs had come to be outweighed by the costs. (Gordon 1999: 684-685)

As a further critique of the strong thesis, Gordon adds that in many cases it is simply not possible to determine conclusively whether the violent destruction of a particular mithraeum occurred years, or even centuries, later. It is perhaps most likely that both theses are correct. As Christianity gained prominence, it would have attracted more adherents than competing religions, inducing the member of competing cults to leave their ritual communities and join the increasingly prominent Christian ones. At the same time, ample evidence exists that clear hostility was directed towards Mithraism from the highest levels of the Christian hierarchy and that violent attacks were directed against local Mithraic congregations by neighboring Christian communities, at times instigated by members of the Church hierarchy. This dual level of violence by Christians against non-Christians, as well as among competing Christian sects, has a long and enduring history.

In the end, Mithraism was at a distinct disadvantage in competing with Christianity, due in large part due to two central features of the religion: Mithraism (1) allowed only male members, and (2) was an exclusive religious organization requiring initiates to undergo a series of increasingly difficult initiations in order to join the sect and rise within its ranks. Christianity, on the other hand, was an inclusive religion that was open to both males and females (indeed, many of its earliest adherents were female), and that required only a simple baptism to become a member. In addition, Mithraism largely functioned through local independent cult centers and lacked a central organization comparable to that of the Roman Church, which maintained hierarchically connected sees throughout the empire (in Rome, Carthage, Constantinople, Antioch and Alexandria), which better served Rome's imperial ambitions. Finally, Mithraism lacked a canon of sacred literature comparable to that of the Christian Church, which had produced extensive writings throughout the fist several centuries, culminating in a central canon in the fourth century.⁴⁶ These three factors largely invalidate Ernest Renan's (1882: 579) statement that "if the growth of Christianity had been arrested by some mortal malady, the world would have been Mithraic." Quite the contrary, except for a brief resurgence during the Emperor Julian's "Pagan Revival", Mithraism declined steadily throughout the fourth and fifth centuries until it first survived only as a marginalized cult in isolated rural areas and then eventually ceased to exist at all as an organized religious community. It was completely replaced by Roman Christianity, which became the dominant religion throughout the empire during the fourth century and then the declared Imperial religion by the beginning of the fifth century, after which all other forms of religious expression were defined as heresy.

* * * * *

NOTES

1. According to Moghdam (see CAIS), Cumont (1903) claimed that an entire district in Armenia was dedicated to the "Virgin Mother Anahita." In addition, the largest Mithraeum (temple for the worship of Mithras) built in the Near East was located at Kangavar in western Persia (Iran) and dedicated to "Anahita, the Immaculate Virgin Mother of the Lord Mithras." (see also Moghdam and Beny 1978: 37).

2. "Mystery religion" is the term applied to numerous religious cults that were popular throughout the ancient Mediterranean world. The term "mystery" derives from the Greek mysterion, or secret rites (Stephens 2010: 2). Such cults generally involved secret ceremonies and professed secret knowledge that offered their followers salvation in the afterlife. Central to each cult was the belief in a deity who returned to life after death offering redemption from all that was earthly and temporal. A central goal of these cults was to generate a mystical experience that led members to believe that they had achieved union with their god through some kind of redemption or salvation, eventually achieving immortality. During their rituals, these cults used many different means to stimulate the emotions of their members in order to bring about the desired "union with the god", including processions, fasting and acts of purification.

there are some elements which do appear frequently in most of the mystery cults. These religions are invariably characterized by an initiation act and therefore by the recognition that a person has been changed and made different by participation in that cult; by an emphasis upon present and future salvation ordinarily interpreted as immortality or union with the transcendent divinity; by the persuasion that this salvation is the goal of human existence here on earth and is achieved through a celebration of the god's fate; by the belief that the transcendent divinity has already passed through death and has achieved a triumphant immortality; and finally by the hope that identification with the divinity marks the achievement of salvation (Lease 1980: 1309).

3. Christianity and Islam also spread in conjunction with the expansion of empire. Islam spread throughout North Africa and into Europe during the growth and expansion of the Umayyad and Ottoman Caliphates. Similarly, Christianity's expansion into Europe and Asia during the first millennium was dependent on its becoming the official religion of the Roman and later Byzantine Empires. Its more recent global expansion, beginning in the 17^th century, has been fundamentally dependent on its association with European colonialism and subsequent American global dominance.

4. Significantly, according to Cumont (1903), the Roman historian Quintus Rufus recorded in his History of Alexander that before going into battle against the "anti-Mithraean country" of Rome, Persian soldiers would pray to Mithras for victory (see Moghdam n.d.). This would have been somewhat ironic; given that the Persian (Parthian) Empire was Rome's principal rival in the ancient world, Rome would eventually have come to accept its principal enemy's high god as its own supreme deity.

5. According to the Roman Military Research Society web page,

The first extant record of Indo-Aryan Mitra, in the form mi-it-ra-, is in the inscribed peace treaty of c. 1400 BCE between Hittites and the Hurrian kingdom of the Mitanni in the area southeast of Lake Van in Asia Minor. In the inscription Mitra appears together with four other Indo-Aryan divinities as witnesses and keepers of the pact.

6. If Mithra began as a local ethnic god among the Mitanni and only later became a universal Persian god, he followed a path similar to that of Yahweh [Elohim], who originated as the Canaanite god El to become the universal god of the ancient Hebrews (see Eissfeldt 1956), and Allah, who began as an Arabian tribal god governing the relationships among strangers to become the universal god of Muslims (see Wolf 1951).

7. "Thus spake Ahura Mazdah to the holy Zarathustra : When I created Mithra, lord of wide pastures, then, 0 Spitama, I created him as worthy of sacrifice, as worthy of prayer as myself, Ahura Mazdah. . . . Whom the poor man, who follows the teaching of righteousness, when wronged and deprived of his rights, with uplifted hands invokes for help." (Mihir Yasht [x.1]; quoted in Brandon 1954: 108-109).

8. Hipparchus (190-120 BCE) had demonstrated that Plato's concept of a uniform and stationary cosmos was incorrect. He showed, instead, that the cosmos was moving westward (its axial precession) at a rate of about 1 degree or less per century. At the time, Perseus (Mithras) stood at the center of the precession and came to be seen as the "Primary Celestial Mover" (see Stephens 2010: 3-5). Stephens (ibid.: 6) explains the role that Hipparchus' discovery played in the rise of Roman Mithraism.

Astrology and astronomy had wide influence in the Greco-Roman period. The stars and planets were the immortal deities, as they had been for millennia. With the discovery of the axial precession, a new god had appeared possessing a world-shaking power to move the heavens themselves. This all-powerful god, Mithras, the Sol Invictus, had control over the cosmos and therefore would automatically have power over the astrological forces determining life on Earth. Mithras’s control of the Universe meant that, with the appropriate homage, he possessed the ability to guarantee the soul a safe journey through the celestial spheres after death, something on the minds of all Roman soldiers. Discovering the precession of the equinoxes meant knowing how to ascend through the newly identified layout of the cosmos.

9. Mithraism, like Christianity and the numerous other religious movements that emerged during the first century CE, arose in response to the social disorder created by Roman colonialism. Indeed, significant religious change began in Rome during the 2^nd Century BCE, as it incorporated new territories and peoples into its expanding empire. The rapidity of Rome's conquest of the Mediterranean from 202-146 BCE led to many foreign cults being introduced into Roman society. The social changes and disruptions that followed Roman colonization contributed to the increased popularity of "savior gods' and mystery cults, including Christianity and Mithraism. Indeed, Christianity was not the only religious movement to arise in Palestine as a response to Greek and later Roman colonization of that region. Numerous messianic religious movements arose in Palestine between the second centuries BCE and CE, beginning with the Maccabean Revolt in 167 BCE and ending with the Bar-Kokhba Revolt in 132-135 CE. (see Horsley and Hanson (1985); Abruzzi, The Jesus Movement). Religious movements arose throughout the empire with such rapidity that "for the first time, the Senate found itself unable to control religious innovation to its own satisfaction" (Gordon 1972: 93). A similar explosion of religious movements occurred throughout the world in response to European colonial expansion.

10. According to Beck, Mithraism spread to Rome and elsewhere in the empire as a result of:

(1) the movement of Antiochus IV and his entourage to Rome and, more importantly,

(2) the interaction between Commagenian and Roman soldiers stationed throughout the Empire.

Given the mobilization of soldiers to Palestine, Germania, Britain and elsewhere, Mithraism would have spread over a large territory rather quickly.

11. Gordon (1972: 103) similarly calculated that 49% of votive inscriptions dedicated to Mithras between 150-300 CE were from the Rhine-Danube area, while 31% were from Italy as a whole, with 18% from Rome.

12. Kaminski (2008) notes that Mithraism evolved as it spread throughout the empire, attributing the diversity of artifacts found in specific Mithraeum at different locations to the assimilation of local beliefs into the practice of Roman Mithraism in different regions of the empire (see note 29 below; see also Lease 1980).

The Roman Empire was among the largest in history, spanning three continents and encompassing thousands of square miles. Therefore, it stands to reason, particularly in an empire where the fastest mode of transport was a horse, that such a secretive cult religion would undergo certain changes as it spread.

The worship of Mithras was practiced and spread primarily by soldiers of the Roman army. Because soldiers were drafted from all areas of the empire, they surely would have brought with them many preexisting beliefs and practices. The Mithraeum at London is a prime example of this. Not only was it found to contain the typical elements of Mithraic worship, but representations of several other deities were found in context as well. . . . In Asia Minor, we archaeologists found carved reliefs of the founders of Zoroastrianism, which is highly unusual and not found in any other Mithraeums within the Roman Empire. This can only be explained by Dura-Europos' close proximity to the area where Zoroastrianism first began. (Kaminski 2008: 19-20)

13. As a note of caution, it should perhaps be remembered that the overwhelming majority of Christian churches are located in Europe, not in Palestine and Syria where the religion traces its origin.

14. "Evidence for the cult has been found at some 420 sites. There are about 1,000 inscriptions, and 700 depictions of the bull-killing (only about half of them complete); and in addition 400 monuments with other subjects." (Clauss 2001: xxi)

15. According to Brandon (1954: 110), many Mithraic remains have also been discovered at locations where large numbers of slaves were employed throughout the Danubian provinces and in Italy.

16. Ostia alone contains the ruins of 17 Mithraic temples (Kaminski 2008: 17).

17. Extrapolating from the ratio of Mithraea to population in Ostia, Coarelli (1979) estimated that as many as 2,000 Mithraea may have existed in Rome. Martin (1989:3), however, argues that this number is excessive and is based on inappropriate assumptions about population size, especially of Rome. Using what he considers Coarelli's (1979) more conservative estimate for the number of mithraea in Rome, based on topographical distribution of Mithrae in Ostia and assuming an average membership of 60 persons per mithraeum, Martin (1989: 3-4) estimates the number of Mithraists in Rome to have been about 41,000 out of a total population variously estimated between 538,000 to 1,250,00. In any case, Martin maintains that "The density of Mithraic finds in and around the city emphasizes its importance for any understanding of the relationship of Mithraism to Christianity." (ibid: 2)

18. Votive offerings are significant because they represent the only textual evidence available for Mithraic beliefs. Roselaar (2014: 195-196) states that writings may once have existed describing Mithraic beliefs and practices, which she believes were used by early Christian writers in their attacks on the religion and its beliefs. However, no such writings have survived. Unlike Christianity, which produced a plethora of written documents, including nearly three dozen gospels portraying the life of Jesus, no Mithraic texts exist which document the ritual practices or theological principles defining Mithraism. The lack of Mithraic writings is likely due to the fact that, in contrast to Christianity which was an inclusive religion accepting all comers, Mithraism was a secretive, exclusive cult that was selective in its membership and that guarded its secrets closely (see Ulansey 1989: 3; Kaminski 2008: 7-8). Moreover, if any Mithraic writings existed, they would likely have been destroyed by early Christian authorities, as were many other "heretical" writings. Of the various votive inscriptions that have been discovered, the most common consisted of the letters VSLM (votum solvit libens merito), which translates "The dedicator has gladly fulfilled his vow in return for a benefit received" (Kaminski 2008: 8, after Shandruk 2004), suggesting that, like prayers in Christianity, such offerings were made so that the individual making the offer would receive something in return, or in gratitude for a benefit already received.

The votive dedications also provide some indication of the social status of the Mithraists who commissioned the offerings. The popularity of Mithraism among soldiers is clear. According to Gordon (1972: 103), 81 (38%) of the 210 dedicators whose status in the outside world is known were soldiers of the rank of centurion or below. Of the military members, 22% were centurions, 44% occupied one of the several ranks between junior centurion and private, and only 35% were privates (ibid.: 109). Gordon (ibid.: 103.) notes that "this must be compared with the much smaller numbers of soldiers recorded as members of other mystery cults." and concludes that "the mere existence of so many dedications means that any discussion of the social catchment of Mithraism must begin with the army."

Lease (1980: 1325-1326) argues that beginning with Constantine, Christianity also presented military service as an ethical undertaking, suggesting that once Christianity replaced Mithraism as the official religion of the Roman Empire, duty to military service became an integral part of its belief system as well.

19. Mithraism was discussed by Origen, St. Jerome and several other church fathers, primarily in the course of their attacking it (Morse 1999:34).

20. According to Morse (1999: 36), the wives and daughters of Mithraists partook in the worship of Anahita, Artemis, Cybele, Ma-Bellona, and Magna-Mater (see also Tarkowski, 1996). These goddess religions practiced a ritual of regeneration known as the taurobolium (bull sacrifice), a rite in which a neophyte in the cult would lie in a pit, over which a bull would be slaughtered, during which its blood would fall upon her until she was completely drenched (Perowne 1984).

21. Gordon (2001: 248) states that there is "uneven evidence" for the existence of grades, which he claims were far more common in Rome and Italy generally than in the Rhine-Danube area. Turcan (1999) argues more specifically that the extensive grade system was limited exclusively to Rome and its immediate environs, with several grades never attested epigraphically outside of Rome and Dura (Gordon 2001: 250).

22. This dedication by Aurelian was done to mark his multiple military victories against threatening "barbarian" tribes, his establishment of permanent frontiers on the Danube and the Rhine, his defeat of secession in Gaul, and his overthrow of the powerful Kingdom of Palmyrene, which had replaced Rome in Syria and Mesopotamia. Just as Constantine was later to attribute his victory at Milvian Bridge to a vision of Christ, Aurelian attributed his good fortune to having been favored by the sun-god.

23. According to Roselaar (2014: 203, note 62.) this dedication occurred in 308 CE, with the full dedication made to the "Unconquered Mithras, the Sun God, protector of their Empire" (Deo Soli Invicto Mithrae, fautori imperii sui).

24. The intimate association of Mithraism with Roman authority and the close connection between Mithraic cult membership and participation in the very organizations --military, trade and imperial administration-- that promoted, defended and maintained Rome's dominion over its vast territories and subject peoples, inhibited the religion's appeal to many individuals and groups within the empire who would have viewed it as an exclusive, imperial cult dominated by powerful elites within the empire. This would explain Mithraism's concentration among soldiers stationed along the Danube and on the Italian peninsula, particularly in Rome and nearby Ostia, the centers of imperial power. It would also explain its near absence among subject peoples in these same areas, as well as throughout the largely Greek-dominated regions of the eastern empire where local populations were hostile to Roman rule and resisted the spread of Roman culture. Mithraism's exclusivity would eventually prevent it from competing effectively with Christianity among the general Roman population and among the mass numbers of subject peoples inhabiting the colonized regions of the empire. Mithraism's demise was ultimately sealed when in 380 CE Theodosius I proclaimed Christianity the official religion of the empire, and in subsequent decrees (389-391 CE) banned all forms of pagan worship.

25. Helios was the personification of the sun in Greek mythology. He was the son of Titan and was believed to create the light of the sun by riding a four-horse chariot across the sky. Sol was the Roman Sun God. He acquired the designation, Sol Invictus ("Unconquered Sun"), when he became the official sun god of Imperial Rome and a patron of its soldiers.

Helios Brings Daylight

(by driving on his four-horse sun-chariot from the East to the West)

26. Serapis was a Greco-Egyptian sun god. The cult of Serapis was introduced during the 3rd century BC on the orders of Ptolemy I of Egypt as a means to unify the Greeks and Egyptians in his realm. The Ptolemys were Greek rulers in Egypt following the death of Alexander the Great. Serapis was depicted as Greek in appearance, but with Egyptian trappings. According to both Plutarch (Life of Alexander, 76) and Arrian (Anabasis, VII, 26, 2), a temple for the worship of Serapis existed in Alexandria as early as 323 BCE. The Alexandrian Serapeum was destroyed in 391 CE by a Christian mob led by the Patriarch Theophilus, together with the destruction of other pagan temples following the Emperor Theodosius I outlawing of pagan worship throughout the empire.

27. According to Cumont (1903),

Emperor Nero adopted the radiating crown as the symbol of his sovereignty to exemplify the splendour of the rays of the sun, and to show that he was an incarnation of Mithras. He was initiated into the Mithraic religion by the Persian Magi brought to Rome by the King of Armenia. Emperors from that time onwards proclaimed themselves destined to the throne by virtue of having been born with the divine ruling power of the sun.

Livingston (2002: 186), however, presents a different account of the same event.

Nero, the Roman Emperor from 54 to 68 AD, adopted the radiating crown as the symbol of his sovereignty, to exemplify the rays of the Sun, and according to Pliny, was initiated into the "magic banquets" of Magi brought to Rome by the King of Armenia, though there was no mention of Mithras.

28. Roselaar (2014: 203) states that the association --sometimes identification-- between Mithras and the Sun did not receive Christian attention until the fourth century, after which that identification became an important aspect of Christian condemnation of Mithraic beliefs and worship. She even notes that the first Christian reference to Mithras as the Sun only dates to the early fourth century.

You barbarian priest and conspirator with Mithras, you will worship only the sun, Mithras, the illuminator of places of mystery, according to you, and the self-conscious one; that is to say you will dally with them and conduct their mysteries like an elegant mime. (Hegemonius, Acta Archelai 40: 7, Appendix 12; quoted in Roselaar 2014: 203)

29. While all mithraea were constructed according to common architectural and iconographic forms, unique features were often added to specific mithraea that reflected the influence of local beliefs and traditions. In describing the second century mithraeum discovered in London in 1954, Kaminski (2008: 16-17) notes that this Mithraeum

contains several representations of other deities not readily apparent in the Roman pantheon. There is a relief carving of two horsemen from the Danube, a sculpture of Mercury, and one also of the Egyptian god Serapis, ruler of the underworld and also a deity of fertility.

Similarly, in describing the Mithraeum at Dura-Europos (170 CE) in eastern Syria, Kaminski (2008: 14) adds that

this Mithraeum has a painting in it of two bearded Persian men, which are interpreted to be Zoroaster and Osthanes, the supposed founders of the Mithraic mysteries (Elsner 2001). This is unique because no Mithraeums that occur further within the bounds of the Roman Empire have these paintings in common, which may tell us something about how closely connected this area of the empire still was to the earlier eastern traditions.

The presence of the tauroctony at the Dura-Europos mithraeum, which is exclusive to Roman Mithraism, clearly indicates that this temple was constructed as part of the expansion of the Roman Empire into eastern Syria, and was not of Iranian origin.

30. Line 14: Et nos servasti eternali sanguine fuso.

"And you saved us after having shed the eternal blood" (Betz 1968: 77)

Sauer (2003: 135) also mentions this inscription. He adds, however, that the wall containing the inscription was later covered with a layer of paintings depicting a procession advancing towards Sol and Mithras that were mutilated by an axe prior to the mithraeum being filled in with sand during the construction of the church. One motivation for the attack on the paintings may have been the depiction of Mithras and Sol with light blue halos surrounding their divine heads, symbols of sanctity that were later applied by Christians exclusively to Jesus and to Christian saints (ibid.: 136).

31. According to Ulansey, Cautes and Cautopates symbolize the equinoxes.

Cautes, with his torch pointing up and his association with the bull's head, represents the spring equinox in Taurus, and Cautopates, with his torch pointing down and his association with a scorpion, represents the autumn equinox in Scorpius. (Ulansey 1989: 112-116),

32. Kronos was a Greek god who ruled the cosmos during the Golden Age of Peace and Prosperity. Known as Saturn in Roman mythology, he later became a god of time.

33. For additional discussions of similarities, see Brandon (1954: 109-111), (1957: 125-131); Gordon (1972: 97); Lease (1980: 1311-1312, 1319); Gnoli (1987: 580); Murdock et al. (n.d.); Sauer (2003: 132-142); Kaminski 2008: 8-9).

34. According to Lease (1980: 1311), in one version of Mithra's birth story, "shepherds prayed to the young god who was seen naked wearing only the Phrygian cap," which was associated exclusively with Mithras. For an extensive discussion of Anahita and the virgin birth of Mithras in ancient (most notably Armenian) religious thought, see Murdoch et al. (n.d.); Cumont (1903);

Mithras wearing a Phrygian Cap

35. See Abruzzi (The Birth of Jesus) for a discussion of early Christian beliefs regarding Jesus' birth in a cave.

36. Mithras led the forces of righteousness against the forces of evil and taught that good would triumph over evil. Those who followed Mithras in his struggle to overcome evil would be reunited with him in the afterlife. Mithras' resurrection was celebrated during Easter, the time of the Spring equinox (Tarkowski 1996).

37. Lease (1980: 1323-1324) claims that in his reference to Mithraic "baptisms" Tertullian was not describing a ritual in any way comparable, let alone ancestral, to Christian baptisms.

Tertullian refers to an ablution of water in Mithraic rites. However, he does not speak specifically of baptism in anything approaching the Christian meaning of that word, and indeed both the origin and the context of such ritual washings are quite different for each religion.

Lease adds that "purificatory washing" before a ritual act or as part of an initiation ceremony was widespread throughout the Mediterranean Basin, and that there was no need to propose Mithraic origins of Christian baptism when considerable precedent for cleansing by water existed in Judaism from which early Christians would more likely have adopted the practice. Examples include Leviticus (14-15; 16: 23-24); Ezekial (16: 9); 2Kings 5: 1-14) and, most obviously, the ministry of John who performed a "baptism of repentance" (Luke 3: 3; Acts 19: 4) and who, according to all four canonical gospels, baptized Jesus himself.

38. Orpheus, like Jesus, descended into the underworld, which would likely suggest why Jesus was portrayed as Orpheus in the catacombs. Scholars disagree as to whether the images of Orpheus in Christian settings are meant to represent Christ. (see Elsner 2009; Shanks 2014: 27)

39. The story of Jesus' birth in a cave is a later innovation which did not exist in either of the two canonical gospels (Matthew and Luke) that contain infancy narratives. The earliest mention of Jesus' birth in a cave does not occur until the 2nd century CE in the Protevangelium of James, where in the midst of their trip from Nazareth to Bethlehem Mary calls out, "Joseph, take me down from the ass, for the child within me presses me, to come forth," upon which Joseph takes Mary to a nearby cave where she gives birth to Jesus. The church of the Kathisma of the Theotokos ("Seat of the God-Bearer") was constructed in the 5th century some three miles north of Bethlehem to mark the place where Mary purportedly paused to give birth to Jesus. (See Shoemaker 2001, 2003; Abruzzi, The Birth of Jesus for discussions of this church and its significance.) Both Origen in the 3rd century and Jerome near the end of the 4th century claim that the cave where Jesus was born could still be seen (Lease 1980: 1322).

40. The year 313 would constitute the date of Constantine's conversion, if that conversion is based on his purported vision preceding his victory in the Battle of Milvian Bridge. However, 337 would mark his conversion, if the date in which he was baptized is used as the date of his conversion, inasmuch as his baptism took place just before his death.

41. Roselaar (2014: 201) notes that these were the same charges leveled in previous centuries against Christians when theirs was the minority religion. According to Roselaar (ibid.: 186-187), the 4th century was also the century containing the greatest number of Christian authors (10) and passages (19) referencing Mithraism. It was during this century, when Christianity achieved official status as the imperial religion, that it would have viewed Mithraism as a clear political threat. The ruins of so many Mithraea have been discovered in Rome that Franz Cumont, a leading Mithraic scholar, claimed that "Rome was the capital of Mithraism, and almost the seat of its papacy" (Martin 1989: 2). The very density of Mithraic finds in and around Rome, the capitol and most important city in the empire, strongly suggests that an intense competition existed between Mithraism and Christianity during the fourth century as the newly emerging Roman Church began to challenge the previously dominant faith in the central corridors of power. This would have contributed to an increase in both the number and hostility of Christian attacks on Mithraism and its adherents.

42. The supreme position of the Christian Church was demonstrated by Theodosius' capitulation to Ambrose, bishop of Milan. Theodosius was excommunicated by Ambrose for the massacre of 7,000 people at Thessalonica in 390 following the murder of the Roman governor there by rioters, and was only reinstated by Ambrose after he had performed several months of penance. This submission of Theodosius to Ambrose (i.e., emperor to bishop) followed an earlier capitulation by Theodosius the previous year. After Christian rioters burned a synagogue at Callinicum in December 388, Theodosius ordered the Bishop of Callinicum, the instigator of the riot, to rebuild the synagogue at his own expense, to restore stolen properties, and to discipline those involved in the riot. Theodosius subsequently compromised and offered to rebuild the synagogue at state expense. Ambrose, however, demanded that no reparation whatever be made to the Jews, either by Christians or by the state, and that the rioters not be punished. Theodosius yielded and cancelled the order. Ambrose's back-to-back victory in these two situations --in particular, the public penance successfully demanded of Theodosius by the bishop-- formalized the new relation of power between church and state. As Martin (1989: 10) clearly notes, "A clergy claimed the power to judge, condemn, punish and pardon a monarch; a monarch submitted to spiritual authority which he recognized and publicly acknowledged as higher than his own." The Church had become the supreme power in Rome.

St. Ambrose

wielding a scourge

(late 17th Century)

(Museo del Duomo, Milan)

43. The term Taurobolium refers to the ritual practice of sacrificing a bull, which came to be associated with Mithras' salvation of humankind. The significance of this ritual sacrifice as the most important icon in Mithraism, as indicated above, is shown by the central position of the Tauroctony in every mithraeum throughout the Roman Empire. McLynn (1996) discusses this ritual at length. He argues that early descriptions of the bestial excesses associated with the ritual can largely be attributed to Christian anti-Pagan propaganda and that the modern perpetuation of such descriptions are based on the credulous acceptance of one author's (Prudentius) account (see McLynn 1996: 314-320). He also shows that what had previously been a private ritual performed in secret evolved during the fourth century into a public spectacle in concert with the performance of increasingly elaborate and public Christian rituals (ibid.: 326-328) as the two sects came increasingly into direct competition for adherents among the Senatorial class and elite families in Rome itself.

But what remains certain is that the fourth-century taurobolium was a significant public event. . . . As such, they will have afforded pagan aristocrats (as has been said of their Christian peers, in another context) "the opportunities so essential to them, to be seen by whole crowds, active in the public pursuit of their religion". . . .

But above all, the inscriptions set the taurobolium firmly in a context of competitive publicity and family loyalties that should be familiar to every student of the senatorial aristocracy. . . .

They also suggest significant parallels between the activities of the Phrygianum and what went on in the vast basilica of St Peter's that stood directly adjacent. The famous Petronius Probus, probably a relative of the tauroboliated prefect Caesarius, who was laid to rest in the basilica about the time that the last recorded taurobolia were being performed, celebrated his worldly fame and intimacy with the divine with as much gusto as any tauroboliate . . . The key parallels between the Roman taurobolium and Roman Christianity in the fourth century are to be sought at this level. Far more significant than any shared soteriological promise or "Oriental" character is their common function as a means for senatorial self-expression. . . .

But although the two sites operated beside one another for a generation, spectacular advertisements for their rival faiths, there is not the slightest indication that Christians and pagans so much as acknowledged each other's presence on the Vatican. Pope Damasus (during whose papacy the great majority of the attested Roman taurobolia occurred) took an active interest in the Vatican, but never unleashed his notorious fossores upon the sacrilegious rites next door; nor is there any reason to suppose that the activities of the Phrygianum were interdicted during the construction of St Peter's. Instead, their mutual indifference indicates the aristocratic hauteur that-in fourth-century Rome-characterized both Cybele and St. Peter . . . . (McLynn 1996: 326-328)

44. Vermaseren (1965; 33-40) describes an incident in the late 4th century in which Christians, who had previously performed their rituals in the same building as Mithraists attacked and destroyed the Mithraeum and built a Christian basilica (Santa Prisca) over it (referenced in Lease 1980: 1315, n. 74).

45. Christianity was spreading rapidly throughout the empire during the third century CE. This is when it began to come into increasing competition with Mithraism, and when Christian criticisms of Mithraism became more intense. (see note 41). According to Frend (1982:109-110), Christianity found its greatest success at the time among rural populations.

Of more significance was the apparent loss of favor of the great national deities who had held sway in their respective territories for millennia. In one North African township the last of a long series of dated dedications to Saturn-Baal Hammon is A.D. 272, and the next dated inscriptions there are Christian, or that in another town dedications to Saturn were being used in the fourth century to pave the streets. In the same period, however, the number of Christian bishoprics doubled. . . . As the records of that time show, the country population of Numidia had become violently pro-Christian though the depleted city oligarchies remained loyal to old cults. By 300 North Africa was largely lost to paganism. (Frend 1982: 109)

The North African experience was mirrored elsewhere. Frend notes that during the same time Christianity was becoming the dominant faith in North Africa, it was also becoming increasingly prominent in Asia Minor. To illustrate his point, he (ibid.) cites one report of a dramatic increase in the number of Christians in Cappadocia following the arrival of Gregory the Wonderworker in 243, a significant increase in the number Christian funerary inscriptions in Phrygia between 248-279, and a petition by the the town of Orcistus in Galatia to be granted legal municipal status in part on the grounds that all the citizens of the town were Christian.

On the other hand, while the legal victory of Roman (Nicene) Christianity came in 380 with Theodosius' declaration of Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire, followed in 389-392 with Theodosius' various decrees establishing the Roman (Nicene) Church as the sole religious authority, MacMullen (1986: 65, note 16) estimates that shortly after Theodosius' death in 395, more than half the population of the Roman Empire was still pagan. Similarly, Martin (1989: 4) suggests that the size of the Mithraic and Christian communities in Rome itself during the 4th century may have have been roughly equal, making the intensity of their conflict, and the potential for shifts in relative political power within the empire, still possible until the Christian Church established its undisputed dominance during the 5th century.

46. No written literature exists that chronicles the life of Mithras or that describes Mithraic theology. As a result, all discussions of Mithraic beliefs and practices have had to be based on votive offerings and the interpretation of artistic representations discovered in various mithraea.

* * * * *

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