Mithraism in the private and public lives of 4th-century senators in Rome
By Alison Griffith
Electronic Journal of Mithraic Studies, Vol. 1 (2000)
Introduction: A well-known series of inscribed dedications to Magna Mater from the Vatican Phrygianum also attests the participation of late 4th-c. Roman senators in the cult of Mithras. This group of dedications is intriguing for many reasons, not the least of which is that it attests the devotion of senators to Mithras for the first time in the centuries-long history of the cult. Years ago Reinhold Merkelbach advanced the view that the Mithraism these senators practiced differed from that of earlier centuries, although he may have overstated his case when he denied that the Magna Mater dedications were true testimonials of the Mithraic cult. More recently Manfred Clauss has adopted a similar view by relegating the names of the 4th-c. senators responsible for these dedications to a separate appendix in his Cultores Mithrae. While both scholars agree that the practice of Mithraism among 4th-c. senators in Rome constituted a distinct phase and aspect of the cult, neither substantiates or otherwise elucidates his case. This is an issue not readily apparent and thus well worth exploring. What distinguished 4th-c. Mithraism was the avid participation of senators — not the slaves, freedmen, and legionaries of the previous centuries — who went so far as to install mithraea in their domus and to worship Mithras in the public context of the Phrygianum in the Ager Vaticanus. What concerns us here is why these senators embraced Mithraism so wholeheartedly when they had never had done so before.
Using Merkelbach and Clauss as a point of departure to examine the nature of Mithraism in 4th-c. Rome, my aims in this discussion are twofold. First, I will show that the social, historical, and in this particular case, political and topographical contexts shaped and distinguished this phase of the Mithraic cult from that practiced elsewhere and at other times. More importantly, I will explore the reasons for Mithraism’s tremendous popularity in Rome — at a point when it had all but fallen into obscurity elsewhere in the empire — by reassessing the role of the cult in preserving certain ancestral traditions and social customs among senators. The social nature of Mithraic worship created an excellent venue for advancing and facilitating personal interactions among the senators who practiced it. Moreover, Mithraism’s structure of grades mimicked the hierarchy of Roman society and was thus able to replicate and promote the social organization in which the senators had once had so much influence. Publicly, the cult offered senators a locale for important interaction and, as one scholar has put it, a “means for public self-expression.” Privately, as I hope to show, it reaffirmed hierarchy, and especially fides, within the familia and amongst peers.
Click here to read this article from the Electronic Journal of Mithraic Studies
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By Alison Griffith
Electronic Journal of Mithraic Studies, Vol. 1 (2000)
Introduction: A well-known series of inscribed dedications to Magna Mater from the Vatican Phrygianum also attests the participation of late 4th-c. Roman senators in the cult of Mithras. This group of dedications is intriguing for many reasons, not the least of which is that it attests the devotion of senators to Mithras for the first time in the centuries-long history of the cult. Years ago Reinhold Merkelbach advanced the view that the Mithraism these senators practiced differed from that of earlier centuries, although he may have overstated his case when he denied that the Magna Mater dedications were true testimonials of the Mithraic cult. More recently Manfred Clauss has adopted a similar view by relegating the names of the 4th-c. senators responsible for these dedications to a separate appendix in his Cultores Mithrae. While both scholars agree that the practice of Mithraism among 4th-c. senators in Rome constituted a distinct phase and aspect of the cult, neither substantiates or otherwise elucidates his case. This is an issue not readily apparent and thus well worth exploring. What distinguished 4th-c. Mithraism was the avid participation of senators — not the slaves, freedmen, and legionaries of the previous centuries — who went so far as to install mithraea in their domus and to worship Mithras in the public context of the Phrygianum in the Ager Vaticanus. What concerns us here is why these senators embraced Mithraism so wholeheartedly when they had never had done so before.
Using Merkelbach and Clauss as a point of departure to examine the nature of Mithraism in 4th-c. Rome, my aims in this discussion are twofold. First, I will show that the social, historical, and in this particular case, political and topographical contexts shaped and distinguished this phase of the Mithraic cult from that practiced elsewhere and at other times. More importantly, I will explore the reasons for Mithraism’s tremendous popularity in Rome — at a point when it had all but fallen into obscurity elsewhere in the empire — by reassessing the role of the cult in preserving certain ancestral traditions and social customs among senators. The social nature of Mithraic worship created an excellent venue for advancing and facilitating personal interactions among the senators who practiced it. Moreover, Mithraism’s structure of grades mimicked the hierarchy of Roman society and was thus able to replicate and promote the social organization in which the senators had once had so much influence. Publicly, the cult offered senators a locale for important interaction and, as one scholar has put it, a “means for public self-expression.” Privately, as I hope to show, it reaffirmed hierarchy, and especially fides, within the familia and amongst peers.
Click here to read this article from the Electronic Journal of Mithraic Studies
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