The Mithraic Prophecy 9781407359137, 9781407359144

Table of contents :
Front cover
Title page
Copyright page
Of Related Interest
Contents
List of Figures
1. Introduction
1.1. The Prophecy
1.2. Virgil and Mithraism
1.3. Virgil, the Gigantomachy, and the Iron Generation
1.4. The Sistrum and the Thunderbolt
1.5. Saturn, the Birth of Mithras, the Coming of a New Generation, and the Harvest
2. Mithras and the Golden Age
2.1. He will see the Gods
2.2. Molli paulatim flavescet campus arista
2.3. Durae quercus sudabunt roscida mella.
2.4. Tauris iuga soluet arator
2.5. The Golden Age
2.6. Shepherds and Ships in the Golden Age
2.7. nec nautica pinus mutabit merces
2.8. convexo nutantem pondere mundum, terrasque tractusque maris caelumque profundum
2.9. The Sacrifice of the Bull
2.10. The Final Episodes on Mithraic Panels
Sources
The most important Virgilian references
Meaning
3. The Origin of the Virgilian Prophecy
3.1. Virgil and Isaiah
3.2. The Testimony of Nigidius Figulus
3.3. The Apocalypse of Hystaspes
3.4. Lactantius and Commodianus
3.5. Hystaspes and Persia
3.6. Persian Apocalypses
3.7. The Meaning of Similarities between Iranian Apocalypses and Mithraism
4. Mithras and Dawn
4.1. Mithras, Venus, Libra, and Dawn
4.2. Augustus and Libra
4.3. Augustus and Dawn
4.4. Mithras Mesites
4.5. Mithras between Sol and Luna
4.6. Eros and Mithraism
4.7. Eros, Mithras, and Mercury
Conclusions
Abbreviations
Bibliography
Back cover

Citation preview

B A R I N T E R NAT I O NA L S E R I E S 3 0 7 4

The Mithraic Prophecy AT T I L I O M A S T R O C I N Q U E

2022

B A R I N T E R NAT I O NA L S E R I E S 3 0 7 4

The Mithraic Prophecy AT T I L I O M A S T R O C I N Q U E

2022

Published in 2022 by BAR Publishing, Oxford BAR International Series 3074 The Mithraic Prophecy isbn isbn doi

978 1 4073 5913 7 paperback 978 1 4073 5914 4 e-format

https://doi.org/10.30861/9781407359137

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library © Attilio Mastrocinque 2022 cover image

Relief from Transdierna. National Museum in Belgrade

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Contents List of Figures..................................................................................................................................................................... vii 1. Introduction..................................................................................................................................................................... 1 1.1. The Prophecy............................................................................................................................................................ 5 1.2. Virgil and Mithraism................................................................................................................................................. 6 1.3. Virgil, the Gigantomachy, and the Iron Generation.................................................................................................. 7 1.4. The Sistrum and the Thunderbolt............................................................................................................................ 10 1.5. Saturn, the Birth of Mithras, the Coming of a New Generation, and the Harvest.................................................. 11 2. Mithras and the Golden Age........................................................................................................................................ 13 2.1. He will see the Gods............................................................................................................................................... 13 2.2. Molli paulatim flavescet campus arista................................................................................................................... 15 2.3. Durae quercus sudabunt roscida mella.................................................................................................................... 18 2.4. Tauris iuga soluet arator.......................................................................................................................................... 22 2.5. The Golden Age...................................................................................................................................................... 29 2.6. Shepherds and Ships in the Golden Age................................................................................................................. 30 2.7. nec nautica pinus mutabit merces........................................................................................................................... 33 2.8. convexo nutantem pondere mundum, terrasque tractusque maris caelumque profundum..................................... 34 2.9. The Sacrifice of the Bull......................................................................................................................................... 40 2.10. The Final Episodes on Mithraic Panels................................................................................................................. 45 3. The Origin of the Virgilian Prophecy.......................................................................................................................... 49 3.1. Virgil and Isaiah...................................................................................................................................................... 49 3.2. The Testimony of Nigidius Figulus......................................................................................................................... 52 3.3. The Apocalypse of Hystaspes................................................................................................................................. 53 3.4. Lactantius and Commodianus................................................................................................................................. 62 3.5. Hystaspes and Persia............................................................................................................................................... 66 3.6. Persian Apocalypses................................................................................................................................................ 69 3.7. The Meaning of Similarities between Iranian Apocalypses and Mithraism........................................................... 71 4. Mithras and Dawn........................................................................................................................................................ 75 4.1. Mithras, Venus, Libra, and Dawn............................................................................................................................ 75 4.2. Augustus and Libra................................................................................................................................................. 80 4.3. Augustus and Dawn................................................................................................................................................ 82 4.4. Mithras Mesites....................................................................................................................................................... 84 4.5. Mithras between Sol and Luna................................................................................................................................ 88 4.6. Eros and Mithraism................................................................................................................................................. 89 4.7. Eros, Mithras, and Mercury.................................................................................................................................... 92 Abbreviations...................................................................................................................................................................... 99 Bibliography..................................................................................................................................................................... 101

v

List of Figures Fig. 1.1. Detail of the mosaic on the floor of the Mithraeum of Felicissimus, in Ostia...................................................... 11 Fig. 2.1. Mithraic relief from Osterburken. Karlsruhe, Badisches Landesmuseum, inventory no. C 118......................... 14 Fig. 2.2. Relief of Ottaviano Zeno. From A. Lafreri, Speculum Romanae magnificentiae, 1564...................................... 16 Fig. 2.3. Mithraic relief from Osterburken. Detail.............................................................................................................. 17 Fig. 2.4. Relief in the Israel Museum.................................................................................................................................. 17 Fig. 2.5 Mithraic relief from Apulum. Alba Iulia National Museum of the Union............................................................ 19 Fig. 2.6. Mithraic relief from Maros Porto, near Apulum, in the National Brukenthal Museum in Sibiu......................... 23 Fig. 2.7. Mithraic relief from Potaissa................................................................................................................................ 25 Fig. 2.8. Mithraic relief from Romula................................................................................................................................. 26 Fig. 2.9 Relief from Transdierna......................................................................................................................................... 27 Fig. 2.10. Roman lamp depicting a shepherd leaning on a stick and two goats................................................................. 28 Fig. 2.11. Bronze coin of Pautalia depicting the abundance of the city.............................................................................. 30 Fig. 2.12. Roman sarcophagus in the National Archaeological Museum in Tarquinia depicting the sleeping Endymion and a pastoral scene............................................................................................................................ 30 Fig. 2.13. Christian sarcophagus from Rome depicting Jonas in a pastoral landscape...................................................... 31 Fig. 2.14. Christian sarcophagus from Rome depicting Jonas in a pastoral landscape and two sheep running out of a small house............................................................................................................................................... 31 Fig. 2.15. Fresco from the Barberini Mithraeum................................................................................................................ 35 Fig. 2.16. Mithras touching the vault of the sky and the earth. From the Mithraeum II of Poetovio................................. 35 Fig. 2.17. The Barberini Mithraeum and Mithras under Libra, illuminated by a sunbeam passing through Capricorn.... 41 Fig. 2.18. The Gemma Augustea. Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna........................................................................... 41 Fig. 2.19. Mithras killing the bull and Victory killing the bull........................................................................................... 42 Fig. 2.20. Augustus and the celebration of his victory over Armenia................................................................................. 43 Fig. 2.21. Denarius of Augustus depicting the corona civica with the inscription Ob civis servatos................................ 44 Fig. 2.22. Aureus of Claudius depicting the corona civica with the inscription Ob C(ives) S(ervatos)............................. 44 Fig. 2.23. Mithraic sculpture from Poetovio depicting the “Transitus”.............................................................................. 45 Fig. 4.1. Silver coin of Amastris, in Asia Minor................................................................................................................. 77 Fig. 4.2. Queen Anzaze with Kamnaskires, king of Elymais, ca 82–75 BC....................................................................... 77 Fig. 4.3. Musa, wife of king Phraatakes of Parthia, ca 2 BC–4 AD................................................................................... 77 Fig. 4.4. The Persian satrap Tiribazos on an obol from Mallos, ca 386–380 BC............................................................... 78 Fig. 4.5. The Grand Camée de France................................................................................................................................ 84 Fig. 4.6. Zeus Oromasdes, Mithras, and Heracles on the Nemrud Dagh (mid-1st cent. BC)............................................. 85 Fig. 4.7. Mithraic relief from Trier. Rheinisches Landesmuseum Trier............................................................................. 87 Fig. 4.8. Mithraic relief once in the archaeological museum of the city of Bologna......................................................... 91 Fig. 4.9. Mithraic relief from Virunum (Landesmuseum Kärnten, Klagenfurt)................................................................. 93 Fig. 4.10. Quadrans of Augustus struck in 9 BC depicting a caduceus between two clasped hands................................. 96 vii

1 Introduction In the 16th and 17th centuries learned authors, such as Pirro Ligorio (1513–1583) and Filippo Della Torre (1657–1717),1 faced the puzzling archaeological evidence of magical amulets and some mystery cults, especially Mithraic monuments and, therefore, had to interpret such evidence in light of information on Mithras gleaned from ancient literary sources (e.g., Herodotus, Strabo, Statius, Plutarch, St. Jerome, Tertullian, Porphyry, Firmicus Maternus, St. Augustine, Hesychius, and the Historia Augusta). They underscored the solar nature of this god. Ligorio focused on the magical and healing value of his cult. In the engravings of Antonio Lafreri (1512–1577) the famous Mithraic relief of Ottaviano Zeno was reproduced and the religious climate of the Counter-Reformation suggested to this author and his advisers a moral interpretation of the scene as an allegory of agricultural labour. Many contemporary scholars shared his view, which did not find the approval of the humanist Stephanus Pighius (Steven Winand Pigge, 1520–1604).2 The study of Mithraic iconography was affected by the interpretation of the so-called emblemata, i.e. symbolic images (including ancient iconographies), sometimes associated with inscriptions or hieroglyphs. This kind of research was inaugurated in 1531 by the Emblematum liber by Andrea Alciato.3 Athanasius Kircher (1602–1680) dealt with Mithras by resorting to pagan authors such as Plutarch and the Oracula Chaldaica4 but he eventually identified the god with a pharaoh who built the obelisks and with Osiris himself, the first king of Egypt.5 Della Torre repeated ancient arguments against Mithraism,6 such as its putative imitation of Christian rites. This author was also looking for archaeological data concerning Mithras from Italy and Roman provinces. On the other hand, Thomas Hyde (1636–1703)7 tried to understand Mithras through the lens of Persian religion by underlining his connection and, at times, identification with fire. The Christian authors handed over to these modern scholars the debate on possible relationships between the cult of Mithras and Christianity and also some clues to explain Mithraism. Such heritage inevitably made its mark on scholarly debates about Mithras,8 starting from the Renaissance, but the archaeological discoveries, on one hand, and the access to Persian sources, on the other, allowed major developments in this field of the history of religions. At the end of the 17th century CE, Bernard de Montfaucon9 associated the sculptures of the lion-headed god with Mithraism. Then Johann G. Eichhorn10 interpreted the Mithraic sacrifice of the bull as a symbol of creation and salvation. Félix Lajard11 expanded the corpus of Mithraic monuments; unfortunately, although he had at his disposal the Avesta (what Hyde did not), he resorted, instead, to comparisons with the Assyrian culture. Our knowledge of Mithraism took a decisive step at the end of the 19th century thanks to the two volumes by the Belgian scholar Franz Cumont: Textes et monuments figurés relatifs aux mystères de Mithra, I–II, Brussels 1896 and 1898. Here literary sources attesting to Mithras were considerably more numerous than in the prior decades, including   Pirro Ligorio, in an unpublished manuscript kept in the Archivio di Stato di Torino, Book XLIX “Nel quale se tratta dell’antichi intagli e della natura del Sole medico”; Filippo Della Torre, Monumenta Veteris Antii, hoc est inscriptio M. Aquili et tabula Solis Mithrae variis figuris et symbolis exculpta, Rome 1700. Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc (1580-1637), in an unpublished manuscript kept in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Dép. des manuscrits, Dupuy 667: “Recueil de dissertations et de notes relatives à la numismatique, à la glyptique et à l’épigraphie antiques”, also dealt with ancient magic and mystic cults. On the early interpretations of Mithraic monuments in the Renaissance: R.L. Gordon, “Interpreting Mithras in the Late Renaissance, 1: the ‘monument of Ottaviano Zeno’ (V. 335) in Antonio Lafreri’s Speculum Romanae magnificentiae (1564)”, EJMS 4, 2004, 1-42; I. Campos Méndez, “Panorámica historiográfica de los estudios sobre el Mitra védico, avéstico y romano”, Revista de historiografía 29, 2018, 297-311. 2   See the important essay of Gordon, “Interpreting Mithras”. The Italian scholar Girolamo Aleandro (1574-1629), in a manuscript in the Barberini library, hypothesized that Mithras was the spark produced by a flint: B. de Montfaucon, L’antiquité expliquée, I.2, Paris 1719, 368. 3   On Renaissance studies on emblemata see a recent work by L. Volkmann, Hieroglyph, Emblem, and Renaissance Pictography, transl. and ed. By R. Raybould, Leiden and Boston 2018 (on Mithras see page 170). 4   Obeliscus Pamphilius, Rome 1650, 63-64 (Kircher dates the reign of Mithras-Osiris to 1837 BC); Oedipus Aegyptiacus, I, Rome 1652, 145; Id., Sphinx mystagoga, Rome 1673, pars I, caput 1, 3. 5   He reads the name Mitres (instead of the correct reading Mespheres; Mitres appears in one codex and in one instance) in Plin., N.h. 36.64; cf. 69: Oedipus Aegyptiacus, I, 91-92. 6   I use the modern name “Mithraism” because it is traditional and I declare that I do not do that in order to instil the idea that the Roman cult of Mithras was a religion. 7   Th. Hyde, Veterum Persarum et Parthorum et Medorum religionis historia, Oxford 1700, second ed. 1760, chap. 4, 110-114. An early translation of and commentary on the Persian Hymn to Mithras was that of F. Windischmann, Mithra. Ein Beitrag zur Mythengeschichte des Orients, Leipzig 1857 (Abhandlungen für die Kunde des Morgenlandes 1.1, 1859). 8   See recently Ph. Adrych, “‘The Seven Grades of Mithraism’, or how to build a Religion”, in Mystery Cults in visual Representation in Graeco-Roman Antiquity, eds. N. Belayche and F. Massa, RGRW 194, Leiden and Boston 2021, 103-122, part. 111-112. 9   B. de Montfaucon, Diarium Italicum sive monumentorum veterum, bibliothecatum… notitiae, Paris 1702, 170, 196-202; L’antiquité expliquée, I.2, 368-372. 10   J.G. Eichhorn, De deo Sole invicto Mithra commentatio, Göttingen 1814. 11   F. Lajard, Introduction a l’étude du culte public et des mystères de Mithra en Orient et en Occident, Paris 1847. 1

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The Mithraic Prophecy oriental works different from the Greek and Roman texts known to the previous scholarship. Moreover, Cumont published his large corpus of monuments and inscriptions, which allowed him and subsequent researchers to ground their work on a solid documentary foundation. His new and original reconstruction of the cult of Mithras was included in this work and was also published in the first scientific book on Mithraism, Les mystères de Mithra.12 Cumont carried out studies in the Persian and Anatolian cultic traditions and the Roman cult of Mithras, underscoring the main features of this old oriental god in the Roman mystery cult which scholars typically call “Mithraism”.13 He thought that Roman Mithraism was a transformation of elements of Zoroastrianism into a cult for the Roman Empire. In a subsequent study, Cumont14 compared select oriental apocalyptic texts (especially the Apocalypse of Hystaspes) with beliefs of Magi living in Asia Minor and the Roman cult of Mithras. Cumont noticed the similarities between Christianity and Mithraism and developed further this problem in his private correspondences, especially with Alfred Loisy.15 Cumont wrote a still famous sentence: Notre situation est à peu près celle où nous serions s’il nous fallait écrire l’histoire de l’Église au Moyen Âge en ne disposant pour toute ressource que de la Bible hébraïque et des débris sculptés de portails romans et gothiques.16 These words still hold their value and the reason of the mysterious nature of Mithraism resides in its being a secret cult. This aspect was always known thanks to passages of Jerome, Firmicus Maternus, and other Christian authors. The difficult task of knowing what was intrinsically “mysterious” and secret encouraged the search for other documents, mostly depending on archaeological discoveries. The useful corpus published by Cumont was later expanded and enriched by Maarten Joseph Vermaseren in his two volumes of the Corpus inscriptionum et monumentorum religionis Mithriacae (CIMRM; The Hague 1956 and 1960). In 1961 the same scholar edited a series of 113 volumes called “Études préliminaires aux religions orientales dans l’Empire romain” (EPRO), where many contributions to the Mithraic studies have been published. The mysteries of Mithras included many puzzling features: for example, they previewed seven successive grades of initiation, which corresponded to the seven planets: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Luna, Sol, Saturn; the Mithraic temples were dining rooms that looked like caves (at least partially), although there was only one extant case in which a Mithraic temple was a dining room in a natural cave (the Mithraeum of Duino, near Aquileia). Scholars were also captivated by the ostensible visual culture of Mithraism; this fascinating and mysterious cult depicted the puzzling image of the god sacrificing a bull on reliefs, statues, and frescoes. What is their meaning? Why were there seven initiations corresponding to the planets? Adding a further layer of complexity, a series of minor characters, such as the torchbearers Cautes and Cautopates, and minor scenes were displayed in Mithraea. Following in the tradition of Cumont, scholars have looked within the Persian tradition for comparisons and possible clues. Mithraic studies have followed two different paths that are inextricably linked to the different specializations of scholars. Specialists of Iranian studies often recognized true Persian elements in Roman Mithraism,17 whereas other scholars, mostly educated in Graeco-Roman studies, have been skeptical of this Persian interpretation and have, instead, underlined the Roman features of Mithraism. The sharpest criticism to the Mazdaean roots of Mithraism was put forwards by Richard Gordon starting from 1974.18 Many comparisons, such as that between Zurvan (the Iraninan god of time) and the lion-headed Mithraic god, or between Ahura Mazda and the Mithraic god Jupiter, have been proved false. The Cumontian model of transmission from Iran to Rome, via Anatolia, has also been criticized insofar as it depended on a parallelism with the spread of Christianity. Incomers from the East were not responsible for the spread of Mithraism19 because in the East the cult of Mithras had no mysterious feature, and the initiates in the mysteries of Mithras were, with few exceptions, Roman citizens.20 Moreover,   F. Cumont, Les mystères de Mithra (3rd ed., Brussels 1913), new ed. by N. Belayche, A. Mastrocinque, and D. Bonanno, Bibliotheca Cumontiana. Scripta maiora III, Turin 2013. 13   This term has been used since the 19th century: see M. McCarthy, M. Egri, and R. Rustoiu, “Connected Communities in Roman Mithraism: Regional Webs from the Apulum Mithraeum III Project (Dacia)”, Phoenix 71, 2017, 370-392, part. 370. 14   F. Cumont, “La fin du monde selon les mages occidentaux”, RHR 103, 1931, 29-96. 15   “Mon cher Mithra…”: La correspondance entre Franz Cumont et Alfred Loisy, I-II, eds. A. Lannoy, C. Bonnet, D. Praet, Leuven 2019. 16   Cumont, Les mystères de Mithra, 6. “Our predicament is somewhat similar to that in which we should find ourselves if we were called upon to write the history of the Church of the Middle Ages with no other sources at our command than the Hebrew Bible and the sculpted débris of Roman and Gothic portals” (transl. McCormack). 17   See, for ex., G. Gnoli, “Sol persice Mithra”, in Mysteria Mithrae. Atti del Seminario Internazionale Roma and Ostia 28-31 Marzo 1978, ed. U. Bianchi, EPRO 80, Leiden 1979, 725-740; A.D.H. Bivar, “Mithraic Images of Bactria: are they related to Roman Mithraism?”, ibidem, 741-750; Id., The Personalities of Mithra in Archaeology and Literature, New York 1998; M. Boyce and F. Grenet, A History of Zoroastrianism, III. Zoroastrianism under Macedonian and Roman Rule, Handbuch der Orientalistik, I. Abt. 8.2, Leiden, New York, Copenhagen, and Cologne 1991, part. 468-490; J. Lahe, Mithras – Miθra – Mitra. Der römische Gott Mithras aus der Perspektive der vergleichenden Religionsgeschichte, Münster 2019. 18   R.L. Gordon, “Franz Cumont and the Doctrines of Mithraism”, in Mithraic Studies, ed. J.R. Hinnells, I, Manchester 1975, 215-248. 19   R. Gordon, “Who worshipped Mithras?”, JRA 7, 1994, 459-474. 20   M. Clauss, Cultores Mithrae. Die Anhängerschaft des Mithras-Kultes, Stuttgart 1992. 12

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Introduction the category of “Oriental cults (or religions) in the Roman Empire” has been recently dismantled21 and, consequently, the social status of Mithraists and their net have been freed from a supposed network of “oriental cults”. Devotees of Mithras were mostly integrated into the army and the imperial administration of the Roman Empire.22 Differences between Mithraism and Persian religion, on one hand, and between Mithraism and other foreign cults, such as those of Isis and the Jewish god, on the other hand, became more relevant than similarities. To solve the riddles of Mithraism, several scholars focused on philosophical ideas associated with the mysteries of Mithras. Instead of relying mostly on Christian authors, who dealt with Mithras, some scholars23 exploited Porphyry’s de antro Nympharum and few other philosophical works which interpreted the mysteries of Mithras from a Platonic perspective. However, Robert Turcan24 underlined that these philosophers were not initiates in these mysteries and, in some cases, incorrectly described features of the Mithras cult. Given the proliferation of zodiacal signs, stars, and planets on Mithraic monuments, it should not come as a surprise that astrological studies provided another tool for understanding Mithraism. Scholars, such as David Ulansey and Roger Beck,25 recognized stars and constellations in the Mithraic characters and symbols recurring in the Tauroctony. As Beck observed, these constellations are apparently those of the northern heavenly hemisphere. From this point of view, however, it is difficult to explain how stars interacted with initiations. A Christian model might suggest a Mithraic paradise among the stars, but such an explanation is not without problems. Stars had different meanings in the beliefs of different ancient peoples, and we should investigate them before accepting a comparison with Christianity. Only some Christian Gnostics seemed to have borrowed from Mithraic beliefs, conceiving of a ladder with seven rungs that led to paradise, as is witnessed by both pagans (Celsus’ alethès logos) and Christians (Origen, in his contra Celsum, fifth book).26 Many interpretations of Mithraism are unsatisfactory because they do not attend sufficiently to differences and uncertainties. Comparisons between Mithraism and Christianity, or Mithraism and Persian religion, or Mithraism and Platonism cannot be overestimated. At the same time, comparisons cannot be taken as completely reliable clues for understanding Mithraism, especially if they gloss over the many and important differences. It is also not advisable to limit research merely to deconstructive criticisms and demolitions of other scholarly theories. For example, one cannot automatically dismiss the numerous studies that have noted the clear parallels between Christianity and Mithraism. Nor can one set aside the search for Persian elements in Mithraism until we know how – and how many – Persian elements were incorporated into Roman religious thought and transformed into this mystery cult. Greek philosophy reshaped almost all the cults in the Roman Empire. Platonism gave an impetus to the creation of a metaphysical world that located the lords of the whole cosmos, such as the deified emperors, the Jewish god, Serapis, Isis, Tyche, Nemesis and other gods. In some cases, the interpretation of Mithraism by Porphyry corresponds to real features of Mithraea.27 Although we need to think critically about our comparative starting points, all clues must be followed because they convey data whose significance and value should be investigated and ascertained. Scholars have recently looked to cognitive studies to understand Mithraism. Some scholars28 have thus stressed the value of vision of Mithraic images as a source of knowledge for initiates. In short, their brains were activated by the images   Religions orientales – culti misterici. Neuen Perspektiven – nouvelles perspectives – prospettive nuove, eds. C. Bonnet, J. Rüpke, and P. Scarpi, Stuttgart 2006; Les religions orientales dans le monde grec et romain: Cent ans après Cumont (1906-2016). Bilan historique et historiographique. Colloque Rome 2006, eds. C. Bonnet, V. Pirenne-Delforge, and D. Praet, Brussels and Rome 2009; R. Gordon, “Coming to Terms with the ‘Oriental Religions’ of the Roman Empire”, Numen 61, 2014, 657-672. A recent debate on the “Oriental cults” can be found in Entangled Worlds: Religious Confluences between East and West in the Roman Empire. The Cults of Isis, Mithras and Jupiter Dolichenus, eds. S. Nagel, J.F. Quack, and C. Witschel, ORA 22, Tübingen 2017. 22   For the army, see the discussion by R. Gordon, “The Roman Army and the Cult of Mithras: a critical View,” in L’armée romaine et la religion, eds. C. Wolff and Y. Le Bohec, Paris 2009, 379-450. 23   See, in particular, R. Merkelbach, Mithras, Hain 1984 (2nd ed., Königstein im Taunus 1994). 24   R. Turcan, Mithras Platonicus: recherches sur l’hellénisation philosophique de Mithra, EPRO 47, Leiden 1975. 25   See, in particular, K.B. Stark, “Die Mithrassteine von Dormagen”, Jahrbücher des Vereins von Altertumsfreunden im Rheinlande 46, 1869, 1-25; M.P. Speidel, Mithras-Orion, EPRO 81, Leiden 1980; D. Ulansey, The Origins of the Mithriac Mysteries. Cosmology and Salvation in the Ancient World, New York and Oxford 1989; R. Gordon, “The Sacred Geography of a Mithraeum: the Example of Sette Sfere”, JMS 1.2, 1976, 119-165; J. Insler, “A New Interpretation of the Bull-Slaying Motif”, in Hommage à Maarten J. Vermaseren, I, EPRO 68, Leiden 1978, 519-538; R. Beck, Planetary Gods and planetary Orders in the Mysteries of Mithra, EPRO 109, Leiden 1988; R. Beck, Beck on Mithraism, Collected Works with New Essays, Aldershot 2004, 251-265; R. Beck, The Religion of the Mithras Cult in the Roman Empire: Mysteries of the Unconquered Sun, Oxford 2012; se also T. Gnoli, “Mithras and the Stars: a Note”, in Ancient and Middle Iranian Studies. Proceedings of the 6th European Conference of Iranian Studies, Vienna, 18-22 September 2007, Wiesbaden 2010, 77-86. 26   A. Mastrocinque, Des mystères de Mithra aux mystères de Jésus, PAwB 26, Stuttgart 2009. A relatively recent discussion on the supposed relationships between pagan mystery cults and early Christianity: J. Alvar et alii, Cristianismo primitivo y religiones mistéricas, Madrid 1995. 27   Gordon, “The Sacred Geography of a Mithraeum”; A. Blomart, “Mithra et Porphyre: quand sculpture et philosophie se rejoignent”, RHR 211, 1994, 419-441. 28   L. Martin, “Performativity, Discourse and Cognition: ‘Demythologizing’ the Roman Cult of Mithras”, in Rhetoric and Reality in Early Christianity, ed. W. Braun, Waterloo, ON, 2005, 187-217; Id., The Mind of Mithraists, London, New Delhi, New York, and Sydney 2015; R. Beck, The Religion of the Mithras Cult in the Roman Empire: Mysteries of the Unconquered Sun, Oxford 2012; Id., R. Beck, “Ecstatic Religion in the Roman Cult of Mithras”, in Practicing Gnosis. Essays in Honor of Birger A. Pearson, eds. A.D. DeConick, G. Shaw, and J.D. Turner, NHMS 85, Leiden and Boston 2013, 75-89; O. Panagiotidou and R. Beck, The Roman Mithras Cult. A Cognitive Approach, London-New York 2017; A. Chalupa, “What Might Cognitive Science Contribute to our Understanding of the Roman Cult of Mithras?”, in Past Minds: Studies in Cognitive Historiography, eds. L.H. Martin and J. Sørensen, London and Oakville 2010, 107-124; A.B. Griffith, “Dead Religion, Live Minds: Memory and Recall of Mithraic Bull”, Journal of Cognitive Historiography 1.1, 2014, 72-89. 21

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The Mithraic Prophecy themselves. The parallel research stream of “lived religion”, promoted by Jörg Rüpke and his research group in Erfurt, has also focused on the personal response to rituals and religious enactments. This line of research can be fruitful since it seeks to understand what ancient initiates recognized by contemplating Mithraic iconographies. Our modern perspectives and sensibilities, including, inter alia, Christian attitudes toward “salvation” (a word connected by some scholars with the blood of the Mithraic bull), beliefs about paradise and afterlife, assumptions about miracles, materialistic views of the cosmos, and ethics about animals, can impede our understanding of this ancient Roman cult. Our scholarly perspective must attempt to take seriously, instead, the ideological, religious, philosophical, literary education and training of the Romans. While objectivity is impossible, we should make every possible effort to understand Roman habits on their own terms. In short, we should use all available tools at our disposal (e.g., iconographical and art historical studies, hermeneutics, and philology) to approach the mind of Roman pagans such as the Mithraists and reduce the gap between European and Roman mentalities. The imagery of Mithraism was rather evocative because it recalled images familiar to onlookers: a person sacrificing a bull in the Roman Empire fatally recalled the image of Victory; a person holding a torch upwards, in a religious iconography, recalled a god of the increasing light; a beautiful landscape with shepherds and pasturing animals recalled peace, abundance, and possibly the Golden Age. We are not ancient Romans, but we have a large repertory of iconographies, mythological and religious texts, and we can single out the ones which best fit the images and texts of Mithraism. For a Roman, “salvation” did not necessarily mean salvation of the soul in the afterlife, but could denote salvation from the civil wars, from a terrible enemy, or from pestilence. The Greek words soter and soteria were also used for rulers or heroes who provided freedom from tyranny, threatening enemies, and similar evils. We assume that Mithraic adherents recognized what they were ready and trained to recognize. In that vein, the majority of literate Romans knew the works of the most important poets and famous monuments. Virgil and Horace, the Ara Pacis, the Capitol, and temples to the imperial cult, for example, were largely known – and their vestiges are likewise known to us, at least in part. Some Christian monuments can be used for comparison with Mithraic iconography because even Christians drew heavily on pagan, Graeco-Roman iconography. For example, the Good Shepherd with his sheep was another image of peace, piety, and happiness. There was not a genealogical link between Mithraic and Christian iconographies; they borrowed independently from Graeco-Roman iconographic canons. The method of analysis adopted here consists of identifying comparisons with the most famous poetic traditions as well as monuments and images, especially those with recurring iconographic schemes, in order to account for some otherwise mysterious Mithraic images. I will continually make use of the most famous poet of Latin literature, Virgil, as a point of reference for interpreting these images.29 I will also adopt a comparative approach to Mithraism that takes seriously the imperial cult, yet avoids automatically assuming a Christian idea of salvation of the soul in the afterlife. We cannot take for granted that Mithraic believers only wanted salvation in a Mithraic paradise – even thought this is possible – because the concept of servare was extremely important in the Roman imperial ideology; it was the foundation of the imperial power and was different from the servare in the Christian sense. Augustus saved the Roman people from tyranny, and not from the Devil. A few years ago, I proposed a new interpretation of the Mithraic stories depicted on the panels of cultic reliefs30. This interpretation relies on reading the scenes on the left side of the Tauroctony because the sequence is the same as that in Virgil’s fourth Eclogue. In this new book, we will see that the prophecy reported in Virgil is similar to other prophecies, including that of Hystaspes, the Bahman Yasht, and the Jamasp Nama (i.e., they have a similar structure and share many details). But we will confirm that the closest parallels with Mithraism come from Virgil. Toward that end, we will see that Virgil provides us with sufficient evidence to explain in a precise sequence some scenes in the upper part of Mithraic reliefs. When I was studying the relationships between Mithraic iconography and imperial ideology, I came across two major topics that had never been noticed before: 1. the mysteries of Mithras had a prophet, known to Firmicus Maternus, and a prophecy written in a sacred text; 2. the first scenes in the Mithraic predellas correspond to the Sibylline prophecy reported by Virgil in his fourth Eclogue. The first point has scarcely been noticed before, while the second has only convinced some scholars. Although I was not at that time completely convinced by the influence of Virgil on early Mithraism, the evidence I had gathered was   A comparison between the Mithraic pastoral scenes and the fourth Eclogue of Virgil was proposed, more than one century ago, by J. Geffcken, “Die Hirten auf dem Felde”, Hermes 49, 1914, 321-351. This author also compared this Mithraic iconography with the Christian Nativity scene. 30   A. Mastrocinque, The Mysteries of Mithras: A Different Account, ORA 24, Tübingen 2017. 29

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Introduction so strong that I was compelled at least to present it, with full awareness of the risks inherent in such a proposal. My insufficient confidence prevented me from realizing that the same prophecy continues in the scenes often represented over the Tauroctony, which are in fact the most puzzling scenes. I had mistakenly thought that the scenes carved in the upper part of the Mithraic relief from Dieburg were the same as those on most Mithraic reliefs. I thus supposed that the bull sheltered in a temple from Mithras’ attack, carved in Dieburg, was the same as the bovine in a small house in many reliefs from Danubian provinces. But the central part of the relief from Dieburg depicts Mithras as a hunter and not the Tauroctony. It is also the only case in which Mithras is throwing either a stone or something else against a bull resting in a temple. This is not the case with all the scenes in the upper parts of other reliefs. Before dealing with Virgil and the Iranian prophecies, and with the above-mentioned scenes, we should repeat the main reasons why the scenes on the left have something to do with the Sibylline prophecy in Virgil. The scenes, in their recurring order, are the following: 1. 2. 3. 4.

Zeus striking the Giants with his thunderbolts Saturn sleeping on a rock Mithras arising out of a rock the birth of a man or some men from a tree.

In addition to these themes, we also take into account the harvesting Mithras,31 who appears above, on the horizontal panelled series over the Tauroctony. We will recall here why the Gigantomachy could be an image of civil wars and the heads sprouting from some trees are an image of the coming of a new generation on earth. Then we will also see why the scenes in the upper predellas could be interpreted as a depiction of the Golden Age, according to Virgil and other authors of the Imperial Age. A comparison between the Mithraic scenes on the panels and some ancient prophecies is necessary, especially if the prophecies are apparently or allegedly of Persian origin. The question we must ask ourselves is: does the Virgilian prophecy in the fourth Eclogue have a Persian background? Nigidius Figulus knew of a prophecy of the Magi about the ages of the world. This testimony demonstrates the dissemination of such Persian (or “Persian”) prophecies. The investigation in ancient prophecies shows that the Virgilian text is the most appropriate for a comparison with the Mithraic prophecy. Another important series of questions we must ask is: why was Mithras so important for the Roman people? Why do many of the dedications to Mithras include prayers on behalf of emperors? Why does the Grand camée de France depict Mithras holding the cosmic globe beneath the divus Augustus? In my opinion, an underestimated testimony on Mithras is Herodotus’s identification of Aphrodite with the Iranian “goddess Mitra”. We will see that this testimony referred to the morning star (i.e., the star of Venus), and this identification coheres with many statements in ancient Persian and Indian traditions. Moreover, it allows us to explain the relationship between Augustus, the Roman emperors, and Mithras. Indeed, Venus was the mother of Aeneas and the protectress of Rome, and Mithras was the mediator between light and darkness. In conclusion, this book provides another tool for understanding Mithraism: the comparison of the Mithraic prophecy with other prophecies, especially the famous prophecy of the Virgilian Eclogue. This tool can help us view Mithraism in conjunction with Roman imperial ideology and, therefore, situate this cult within the wider context of the majority of cults in the Roman Empire. Mithraism was not necessarily an outlier in comparison with the imperial cults and with the cults of gods that the emperors cherished (for ex. Augustus and Apollo, Domitian and Minerva). We will link Mithraism with the morning light (the light of Venus) – the light between darkness and daylight. Venus was very important for the Roman ideology. It is not surprising, therefore, that the light of Venus in the morning was also meaningful in the Roman cult for Mithras. 1.1. The Prophecy Many scholars did not notice that the polemic of Christian authors against Mithraism mostly targeted the Mithraic prophecies more than the sacraments. In an early phase of the polemic, Justin Martyr (2nd cent. AD) complained about the Mithraic sacred rock and condemned the pagan beliefs by quoting biblical prophets who had allegedly been read, used, and falsified:

  CIMRM 1083, 1137, 1301, 2338(?).

31

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The Mithraic Prophecy Ὅταν δὲ οἱ τὰ τοῦ Μίθρου μυστήρια παραδιδόντες λέγωσιν ἐκ πέτρας γεγενῆσθαι αὐτόν, καὶ σπήλαιον καλῶσι τὸν τόπον ἔνθα μυεῖν τοὺς πειθομένους αὐτῷ παραδιδοῦσιν, ἐνταῦθα οὐχὶ τὸ εἰρημένον ὑπὸ Δανιήλ, ὅτι Λίθος ἄνευ χειρῶν ἐτμήθη ἐξ ὄρους μεγάλου, μεμιμῆσθαι αὐτοὺς ἐπίσταμαι, καὶ τὰ ὑπὸ Ἠσαίου ὁμοίως, οὗ καὶ τοὺς λόγους πάντας μιμήσασθαι ἐπεχείρησαν; And when those who transmit the mysteries of Mithras say that he was begotten of a rock, and call the place where those who believe in him are initiated “a cave”, do I not perceive here that the utterance of Daniel, that a stone without hands was cut out of a great mountain, has been imitated by them, and that they have attempted likewise to imitate the whole of Isaiah’s words?32 Justin quotes Jewish prophets who allegedly alluded to Jesus and makes it evident that a Mithraic prophetic text was disturbing because it proposed an interpretation of Jewish prophecies that were – according to Justin – the proof of the redeeming deeds of Jesus and of his being the Messiah. Evidently, some Jewish prophecies presented similarities with the Mithraic prophecy, and these similarities explain why the Christian authors triggered a controversy concerning the person alluded to in the prophecies. We do not know how Justin was informed about Mithraism, but it is improbable that he was informed carefully and first-hand about the sacred book of Mithraism even though he quotes a passage from it.33 On the other hand, Firmicus Maternus, in the 4th century, had the opportunity of reading, at least partially, a holy book of Mithraism, written by a prophet: sicut propheta eius (i.e. Mithrae) tradidit nobis. Firmicus argues at length against the Mithraic cult. In the 5th chapter of his De errore profanarum religionum, this author quotes some sentences in Greek from this book: Firm. Mat., de errore 20: θεὸς ἐκ πέτρας Firm. Mat., de errore 19: δὲ νύμφε, χαῖρε νύμφε, νύμφε νέον φῶς. Firm. Mat., de errore 5 / sicut propheta eius tradidit nobit dicens: Μύστα βοοκλοπίης, συνδέξιε πατρὸς ἀγαοῦ Another clause is reported by Justin: Firm. Mat., de errore 5: sicut propheta eius tradidit nobit dicens:Μύστα βοοκλοπίης, συνδέξιε πατρὸς ἀγαοῦ Iustin., Dial. cum Tryphone 70: ἐκ πέτρας γεγενῆσθαι Most arguments targeted the identification of the protagonist of the prophecy with Mithras and not Jesus, and this fact suggests that the Mithraic prophecy forecasted the coming of a saviour who was to come out of a rock. On the contrary, blame was simply laid on the theft of cattle (βοοκλοπίη) by Mithras, probably because no comparison with Jesus was possible. Firmicus Maternus does not tell us who this prophet was, but there is a certain degree of probability that he was Zoroaster himself, who was a famous prophet. Franz Cumont34 supposed that the two Magi, depicted in a fresco from the Mithraeum of Dura Europos, were Zoroaster and Osthanes – one was the Father of the Mazdean religion and the other was the wellknown Magus of king Xerxes – i.e., the two most famous Magi of all time. But this is of less importance, and one can put forward another hypothesis or give up formulating any hypotheses at all. 1.2. Virgil and Mithraism When I realized that the series of scenes on the left of the Tauroctony corresponded to the prophecy of the Sibyl in Virgil, in his fourth Eclogue, I did not want to admit it. Not a single similarity, but a specific series of events and characters were at stake. I had studied the cult of Mithras for many years and I was convinced that it was an intriguing and puzzling cult, whose secrets were impossible to crack. Like almost all the researchers, I knew that these mysteries depended on Persian traditions, Anatolian influences, and forms of adaptation to the Roman religious tradition. I also knew that these mysteries were performed by Romans and not by Persians nor by other peoples. Virgil, as a clue to understanding Mithraism, was an unacceptable heresy. Consequently, I tried to camouflage and reduce the impact of such a discovery.  Iustin., Dial. cum Tryphone 70. In the same century, Celsus knew of a “Persian” theology and the related interpretation: Celsus, apud Orig., contra Celsum 6.22: Περσῶν θεολογία ... δευτέραν διήγησιν. 33   On sacred books and poetic texts of Mithraism: J. Alvar Ezquerra, “Mithraism and Magic”, in Magical Practice in the Latin West. Papers from the International Conference held at the University of Zaragoza 30 Sept.-1 Oct. 2005, eds. R.L. Gordon, F. Marco Simón, RGRW 168, Leiden 2010, 510549, part. 533. 34   J. Bidez and F. Cumont, Les mages hellénisés. Zoroastre, Ostanès et Hystaspe d’après la tradition grecque, I, Paris 1938, 39 and pl. I; CIMRM 44; F. Cumont, “The Dura-Mithraeum”, in Mithraic Studies, ed. J.R. Hinnells, I, Manchester 1975, 182-184. 32

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Introduction But let us see what these similarities are. Virgil, in his famous poem, the fourth Eclogue, wrote the following verses: Ultima Cumaei venit iam carminis aetas; magnus ab integro saeclorum nascitur ordo. iam redit et Virgo, redeunt Saturnia regna, iam nova progenies caelo demittitur alto. tu modo nascenti puero, quo ferrea primum desinet ac toto surget gens aurea mundo, casta fave Lucina: tuus iam regnat Apollo. … molli paulatim flavescet campus arista.

Now the last age of the Cumaean prophecy begins: the great roll-call of the centuries is born anew. Now the Virgin returns, and Saturn’s reign: now a new race descends from the heavens above. Only favour the child who is born, pure Lucina, under whom the first race of iron shall end, and a golden race rises up throughout the world: now your Apollo reigns. … The plain will slowly turn golden with tender wheat. (Transl. Kline)

On the predellas we see Jupiter destroying the giants, Saturn sleeping, a boy coming out of a rock, some human heads coming out of a tree, and Mithras harvesting. The sequence, until now, is the following one: Virgil

Left panels of Mithraism

1) end of the iron generation 2) Saturn on earth 3) Birth of a divine child 4) Birth of a new generation 5) the final era 6) reign of Apollo 7) fertility on earth.

1) Gigantomachy 2) Saturn 3) Birth of the young Mithras 4) Birth of men from trees 7) fertility on earth.

1.3. Virgil, the Gigantomachy, and the Iron Generation In my book The Mysteries of Mithras. A different Account I have already presented the series of scenes usually depicted on the left of the Tauroctony, but it is necessary to repeat or summarize some parts or even expand others to let the readers understand why the Gigantomachy alluded to the Civil Wars of Rome, and the human heads sprouting out of a tree represented the birth of a new generation. The other parallels are easier to understand: Virgil

Mithraic reliefs

redeunt Saturnia regna nascenti puero molli paulatim flavescet campus arista

sleeping Saturn Mithras’ birth from a rock Mithras harvesting

We begin with the Gigantomachy. Gigantomachy and Titanomachy were not only a myth for the ancients but were often a model of historic fights and victories over dreadful enemies.35 In the 5th century the Athenians represented two Gigantomachies in the decoration of the Parthenon to symbolize the victory over the Persians. Pindar’s first Pythian ode celebrated Hieron’s victory over the Etruscans at Cumae by speaking of Zeus conquering the Giant Typhon. After the long war against Antiochus III, Eumenes II had the famous altar built to Zeus at Pergamum, where the magnificent Gigantomachy was depicted.36 After having liberated Athens from Cassander, Antigonos Monophthalmos and Demetrios Poliorcetes wanted to be represented in the peplos of Athena among the gods fighting the giants.37 Callimachus38 spoke of Titans when he mentioned the victory over Celts – who wanted to plunder Delphi – at the hands of the Aetolians, in 279 BC. The poetry of Augustan Age used the Gigantomachy as a metaphor for the victories of Augustus and the triumph over wicked mankind. This metaphor was so popular that in the following periods it became a recurring cliché.

  See F. Vian, “La guerre des géants devant les penseurs de l’antiquité”, REG 65, 1952, 1-39.   Cf. for instance: F. Howard, “Another Prototype for the Gigantomachy of Pergamon”, AJA 68, 2, 1964, 129-136. Many scholars suppose that the altar celebrated Attalus I’s victories over the Galatae in Asia Minor, but one could wonder if Eumenes II, shortly after 188 AD, did not celebrate the end of the most dramatic war for Pergamon, that against Antiochus III. 37   Diod. 20.46; Plut., Dem. 10. 38  Callim., Hymn. 4 in Delum 172-175; cf. Callimachus, ed. R. Pfeiffer, Oxford 1953, on fr. 592. 35 36

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The Mithraic Prophecy Ovid, in his Fasti,39 describes the temple of Mars Ultor in the Forum of Augustus, vowed before the war against Brutus and Cassius, and adds the following verse: digna Giganteis haec sunt delubra tropaeis. The shrine is worthy of trophies won from Giants. Virgil describes the battle of Actium as a fight between gods and monstruous superhuman beings: regina in mediis patrio uocat agmina sistro, necdum etiam geminos a tergo respicit anguis. omnigenumque deum monstra et latrator Anubis contra Neptunum et Venerem contraque Mineruam tela tenent. The queen in their midst Summons her trups with her native sistrum, nor does she glance Back t the twin serpents behind her. Monstruous gods of Every form and barking Anubis hurls weapons at Neptune and Venus and at the goddess Minerva.40 The commentary by Servius explains the verses by quoting the parallel case of the giants, even if he did so by recalling the episode of their initial success: bello autem Gigantum plures deos ferarum formas accepisse traditur. Gods are said to have assumed forms of beasts during the Gigantomachy.41 And Horace describes the Muses as giving their advice to Augustus, who won his wars as the gods defeated the Titans. Vos lene consilium et datis et dato gaudetis, almae. scimus, ut inpios Titanas immanemque turbam fulmine sustulerit caduco, qui terram inertem, qui mare temperat ventosum et urbis regnaque tristia, divosque mortalisque turmas imperio regit unus aequo. magnum illa terrorem intulerat Iovi fidens iuventus horrida bracchiis fratresque tendentes opaco Pelion inposuisse Olympo. sed quid Typhoeus et validus Mimas aut quid minaci Porphyrion statu, quid Rhoetus evolsisque truncis Enceladus iaculator audax contra sonantem Palladis aegida possent ruentes? hinc avidus stetit Volcanus, hinc matrona Iuno et numquam umeris positurus arcum, qui rore puro Castaliae lavit crinis solutos, qui Lyciae tenet dumeta natalemque silvam, Delius et Patareus Apollo.

You give calm advice, and you delight in that giving, kindly ones. We know how the evil Titans, how their savage supporters were struck down by the lightning from above, by him who rules the silent earth, the stormy sea, the cities, and the kingdoms of darkness, alone, in Imperial justice, commanding the gods and the mortal crowd. Great terror was visited on Jupiter by all those bold warriors bristling with hands, and by the brothers who tried to set Pelion on shadowy Olympus. But what power could Giant Typhoeus have, or mighty Mimas, or that Porphyrion with his menacing stance, Rhoetus, or Enceladus, audacious hurler of uprooted trees, against the bronze breastplate, Minerva’s aegis? On one side stood eager Vulcan, on the other maternal Juno, and Apollo of Patara and Delos, who is never without the bow on his shoulder ...42

 Ovid., Fasti V.555.  Verg., Aen. 8.696-700 (transl. Johnston); see P.R. Hardie, “Some Themes from Gigantomachy in the ‘Aeneid’”, Hermes 111, 1983, 311-326, part. 320-324. 41  Serv., in Aen. 8.696. On this tradition cf. Hygin., Astron. 2.28. There were genuine Egyptian sources for a flight of the gods in form of animals, connected with the war against the giants. See J.F. Quack, “Isis, Thot und Arian”, in The Carlsberg Papyri 11. Demotic Literary Texts from Tebtunis and Beyond, ed. K. Ryholt, Copenhagen 2019, 77-138. 42   * Hor., Carm. 3.4. 41-62, transl. Kline. 39 40

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Introduction In another poetry Horace mentions Lapiths, Centaurs, and Giants when Augustus’ enemies were to be recalled: Nolis longa ferae bella Numantiae nec durum Hannibalem nec Siculum mare Poeno purpureum sanguine mollibus aptari citharae modis nec saevos Lapithas et nimium mero Hylaeum domitosque Herculea manu Telluris iuvenes, unde periculum fulgens contremuit domus Saturni veteris, tuque pedestribus dices historiis proelia Caesaris, Maecenas…

You’d not wish the theme of Numantia’s fierce wars matched to the lyre’s soft tones, nor cruel Hannibal, nor the Sicilian Sea turned to dark crimson by the Carthaginians’ blood, nor the savage Lapiths, and drunken Hylaeus filled with excess wine, nor Hercules with his hand taming the sons of earth, at the danger of which ancient Saturn’s glittering house was shaken: you’d be better yourself, Maecenas, at writing prose histories of Caesar’s battles.43

The theme of the Gigantomachy was the standard reference for the Roman Civil Wars and was thus proposed by several poets following the Civil War of 69 AD between the four emperors and Vespasian’s subsequent victory.44 The same topic recurs in Claudius Mamertinus, following the civil war won by Diocletian,45 and Eunapius spoke of the destruction of temples in Egypt under Theodosius as if the Christians responsible for this were Giants fighting the gods.46 During the siege of Perusia, Quintus Salvius Salvidienus Rufus, one of Octavian’s generals, threw lead bullets (glandae missiles) bearing the symbol of a thunderbolt.47 On a denarius of Octavian, issued in 29 BC, shortly after the battle at Actium, a thunderbolt was depicted behind the princeps’ laureate head.48 In the event, the analogy with the Gigantomachy was even more obvious, for in the final phase of the battle at Actium Octavian’s fleet smote the enemies with darts, arrows, ignited balls, and anything else that could recall Jupiter’s thunderbolts, as we can read in Cassius Dio: κἀνταῦθα ἄλλο αὖ εἶδος μάχης συνηνέχθη. οἱ μὲν γὰρ πολλαχῇ ἅμα προσπλέοντές τισι βέλη τε πυρφόρα ἐπ’αὐτοὺς ἐξετόξευον καὶ λαμπάδας ἐκ χειρὸς ἐπηκόντιζον καί τινας καὶ χυτρίδας ἀνθράκων καὶ πίττης πλήρεις πόρρωθεν μηχαναῖς ἐπερρίπτουν. And now another kind of battle was entered upon. The assailants would approach their victims from many directions at once, shoot blazing missiles at them, hurl with their hands torches fastened to javelins and with the aid of engines would throw from a distance pots full of charcoal and pitch.49 During the Classical and Hellenistic Ages, the Gigantomachy was a metaphorical myth for speaking of savage enemies, often barbarians, defeated in a difficult battle. In Rome, the same mythical account became the symbol of Civil Wars, which were supposed to be the greatest of evils, the cause of doom. Lucanus50 opened his Pharsalia by comparing the reign of Jupiter after the war against the giants with the reign of Nero after the Civil Wars. Virgil, in his fourth Eclogue, speaks of the end of the wicked generation, the generation of iron, and of the scelus which marked this generation: ferrea primum desinet (scil. progenies)   …si qua manent sceleris vestigia nostri  …solvent the first race of iron shall end … any traces of our evils that remain will be cancelled.  Hor., Carm. 2.12.1-12, transl. Kline. Cf. R.G.M. Nisbet and M. Hubbard, A Commentary on Orace, Odes, II, Oxford 1987, 180. Horace’s Carm. I.3 alludes to the Gigantomachy by saying: “Nothing’s too high for mortal men:/ like fools, we aim at the heavens themselves,/ sinful, we won’t let Jupiter/ set aside his lightning bolts of anger”. See D. Traill, “Horace C. 1.3: A Political Ode?”, The Classical Journal, 78, 1982-1983, 131-137. 44  Lucan., Phars. 7.144-50; Stat., Silv. 5.3.195-7; Historia Augusta, Galba 1.4; see. B. Gibson, Statius: Silvae 5, Oxford 2006, 343; T. Stover, Epic and Empire in Vespasianic Rome: a New Reading of Valerius Flaccus’ Argonautica, Oxford 2012, chap. 4. 45   Panegirici Latini 2, 4. 46   Eunapius, Vitae soph. 472. 47   E. Zangemeister, “Glandes plumbeae”, Ephemeris Epigraphica VI, 1885, 52-78, part. 53-55. On thunderbolts on missiles of Agrippa: F. Verdin and M. Chataigneau, “Marcus Agrippa et l’Aquitaine”, Aquitania 29, 2013, 69-104. 48   RIC I, 270; cf. also 269a. 49   Cass. Dio 50.34.3; transl. Cary. Two omens forecast the defeat of Cleopatra and Antony: “a two-headed serpent, so huge that its length came to eightyfive feet, had suddenly appeared in Etruria, and after doing much damage had been killed by lightning”, and “the statues of herself and Antony in the guise of gods that the Athenians had placed on their Acropolis, had been hurled down by thunderbolts into the theatre”: Cass. Dio 50.8 and 15; transl. Cary. 50  Lucan., Phars. 1.33-52. 43

9

The Mithraic Prophecy The word scelus was specifically used by authors who were speaking of the Civil Wars.51 When the Mithraic iconography appears in the archaeological record, in the second half of the 1st century AD, the Gigantomachy was a common mythological account to speak of the Civil Wars. In addition, the sistrum was used in the Mithraic iconography along with the thunderbolt: two symbols that were recurring in Roman poetry describing the war between Octavian and Cleopatra. 1.4. The Sistrum and the Thunderbolt The major protagonist of the Gigantomachy was Jupiter, who is depicted on Mithraic predellas. The symbols of the grade that he patronized, that of Leo, included the sistrum, which caused some embarrassment among scholars.52 The poetry of the Augustan and Julio-Claudian Ages celebrated the war between Cleopatra and Jupiter with their own symbols, the sistrum and the thunderbolt, respectively. We can quote the verses of Virgil that referred to the battle of Actium: regina in mediis patrio uocat agmina sistro, 
 necdum etiam geminos a tergo respicit anguis. omnigenumque deum monstra et latrator Anubis contra Neptunum et Venerem contraque Mineruam. The queen in the centre signals to her columns with the native sistrum, not yet turning to look at the twin snakes at her back. Barking Anubis, and monstrous gods of every kind brandish weapons against Neptune, Venus, and Minerva.53 Propertius recalls that the Egyptian queen was wielding a sistrum during the battle: scilicet incesti meretrix regina Canopi, una Philippeo sanguine adusta nota, ausa Iovi nostro latrantem opponere Anubim, et Tiberim Nili cogere ferre minas, Romanamque tubam crepitanti pellere sistro Truly that whore, queen of incestuous Canopus, a brand burned by the blood of Philip, dared to oppose our Jupiter with yapping Anubis, and forced Tiber to suffer the threats of Nile, and banished the Roman trumpet with the rattle of the sistrum.54 Then we read the verses of Manilius: restabant Actia bella dotali commissa acie, repetitaque rerum alea et in ponto quaesitus rector Olympi, femineum sortita iugum cum Roma pependit atque ipsa Isiaco certarunt fulmina sistro. War at Actium was still to come, waged by an army pledged in dowry, when the destiny of the world was again at stake and the ruler of the heaven was determined on the sea; the fate of Rome, threatened with a female yoke, hung in the balance, and the very thunderbolt clashed with the sistrum of Isis.55 And Lucanus says:

  Traill, “Horace C. 1.3: A Political Ode?”, 134.   Several proposals are quoted in my The Mysteries of Mithras, 119. 53  Verg., Aen. 8.696-9. 54   Prop. 3.11.39-43; transl. Kline. 55   Manil. 1.914-918; transl. Goold. 51 52

10

Introduction

Fig. 1.1. Detail of the mosaic on the floor of the Mithraeum of Felicissimus, in Ostia.

terruit illa suo, si fas, Capitolia sistro Cleopatra threatened (if it were possible) the Capitol with her sistrum.56 The symbol of the sistrum is coupled with the thunderbolt on the mosaic of Felicissimus, at Ostia, where they are symbols of the fourth grade, that of Leo and the god Jupiter. Part of a sistrum was recently found in the so-called “Mitreo dei marmi colorati” at Ostia.57 According to Cassius Dio,58 Cleopatra used to swear that her purpose was that of dispensing justice on the Capitol. The pair of symbols of Leo, sistrum and thunderbolt, has a meaning that was more evident in the 1st century AD than now. For decades, after the battle of Actium, the ancients recognized the sistrum-thunderbolt pair as the symbols of Cleopatra and Jupiter who fought: the first was the loser and the second the winner. The thunderbolt was the successful weapon, the sistrum was a trophy of the victor.  Lucan., Phars. 10.63.   M. David, “First Remarks about the Newly Discovered Mithraeum of Colored Marbles at Ancient Ostia”, Mediterraneo Antico, 20, 1-2, 2017, 171-182. 58   Cass. Dio 50.5. 56 57

11

The Mithraic Prophecy 1.5. Saturn, the Birth of Mithras, the Coming of a New Generation, and the Harvest The scenes on the Mithraic predellas depict episodes on earth and not in the world of the gods, as the harvest of Mithras shows. The rock which Mithras was born from was on earth and, before that, the Gigantomachy was fought in Phlegra, in Pallene, on the Kekaumene plain or elsewhere on earth. Saturn was on earth, as well, where he is depicted asleep. I do not repeat the data I have collected and discussed in my previous book on Mithraism59 concerning the birth of Mithras and its connection with a dream of Saturn. Here we only underline that Saturn seems to be free, after his exile or imprisonment at the hands of Jupiter/Zeus. Moreover, a Mithraic relief shows Saturn handing over a thunderbolt to Jupiter for the fight against giants.60 The Virgilian verses redeunt Saturnia regna … tu modo nascenti puero correspond to the series of Mithraic predellas depicting the birth of Mithras. Virgil also writes: tuus iam regnat Apollo, and this fits the Mithraic scenes, being Mithras identified to Apollo. After the birth of Mithras, another scene follows, that of the birth of one man or several men from one tree or some trees. We know of a dovetailing myth thanks to Hesiod, who probably inspired the hypothetical founder of Mithraism. This ancient poet described the four ages of men: the first, that of gold, the second, that of silver, the third, that of bronze, and finally that of iron, and wrote the following verses: Ζεὺς δὲ πατὴρ τρίτον ἄλλο γένος μερόπων ἀνθρώπων χάλκειον ποίησ’, οὐκ ἀργυρέῳ οὐδὲν ὁμοῖον, ἐκ μελιᾶν ... Zeus the Father made a third generation of mortal men, a brazen race, sprung from ash-trees; and it was in no way equal to the silver age.61 The birth of the primeval inhabitants of Latium from trees was well-known in the Augustan age, as these verses of Virgil prove: haec nemora indigenae Fauni Nymphaeque tenebant gensque uirum truncis et duro robore nata.

These woods were first the seat of native Nymphs and Fauns, who took their birth from trunks of trees and stubborn oak.62

A similar tradition of birth of men from trees was also known in Persia, even if it is documented in medieval works. In § 3.6 we will discuss some Persian prophetic texts, among which the Jamasp Nama where, in chapter 3, we read: “from the seed of Gayômard, men came forth from the earth in the body of the plant rovâs”. In the following chapter of the Jamasp Nama the creation of the first men is so described: “from him (Gayômard) the seed passed to the tree. The tree accepted it, and it passed off to the earth. The earth accepted it. It remained in the earth for thirty years. Then in the form of the plant rovâs, it grew up from the earth. From them were first born a noble woman and a man.” We will also see that another Persian work, the Bundahishn, reports a similar tradition concerning the birth of humans from some plants. In order to summarize, we read the verses taken into account: redeunt Saturnia regna, iam nova progenies caelo demittitur alto. tu modo nascenti puero, quo ferrea primum desinet ac toto surget gens aurea mundo 
 All this does not imply that Virgil was the author of the Mithraic prophecy; his fourth Eclogue was simply similar to the Mithraic prophecy. Hitherto we have presented parts of the results already achieved with The Mysteries of Mithras, and now we go forth.   The Mysteries of Mithras, § 28.   CIMRM 1283 (Heidelberg, Neuenheim) and probably 1359 (Königshofen). 61  Hes., Op. et dies 143-145; transl. Evelyn-White. The ash-trees were called meliai, and an ancient name of Samothrace was Melites: Strabo 10.3.19 = 472. 62  Verg., Aen. 8.314-315. On this mythology: C.P. Charalampidis, The Dendrites in Pre-Christian and Christian Historical-literary Tradition and Iconography, Rome 1995. 59 60

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2 Mithras and the Golden Age Tu se’ lo mio maestro e ’l mio autore (Dante Alighieri, Inferno, canto I) 2.1. He will see the Gods In the studies of Mithraic upper predellas, only Mithras harvesting has been recognized correctly hitherto. The abundance of crops is the obvious interpretation. All the other scenes need reconsideration. Given that the reading of these scenes is extremely difficult and the risk of pitfalls is high, we begin with the central scene in the upper part of many reliefs and we again choose Virgil as our guide. My fault has been that of not trusting Virgil enough. The discovery of parallels between Mithraism and Virgil was disconcerting and I have been reluctant. Now we go forth, instead, as an experiment, by hoping that the comparison will be meaningful. The central image on the upper part of many reliefs is a series of altars. Often they are seven (or they are supposedly seven, in case of fragmentary reliefs): • seven altars.1 They probably correspond to the seven planetary gods; indeed, the relief once kept in Bologna (now lost) shows seven busts of these gods.2 But this was not a rule because other possibilities are documented: • two altars3 • three altars4 • six altars above and seven below 5 • nine altars6 • eight altars7 • Seven stars, instead of altars.8 • Seven altars and seven stars.9 Sometimes images of gods are represented instead of altars: Mercury, Mars, and Saturn10 in two cases: Jupiter, Mercury, Mars.11 Two large and expensive reliefs bear groups of gods: in Osterburken: Jupiter, Apollo, Mars, Hercules, Juno, Minerva, Venus, Victoria, Neptune, Proserpina, Pluto, Diana;12 in Saarburg: Vulcanus, Mercury, Jupiter, Mars (?), Hercules, Neptunus, Dionysus, Sol;13 in Biljanovac (Moesia Superior): Minerva, Jupiter, Mercury, Mars.14 In Veles (Macedonia): Neptunus, Luna, Juno, Minerva, Jupiter, Sol, Mars.15 The upper part of reliefs was an important focus for the viewer, placed above Mithras sacrificing the bull. The focal point   CIMRM 40; 335; 390; 670; 1475; 1650; 1791; 1797; 1815; 1816; 1818; 1900; 1935; 1972; 1973; 2043; 2044; 2052; 2068; 2079 (?); 2085; 2172 (?); 2182; 2226 (?); 2237; 2244; 2245; 2264; 2292; 2325 (?); V. Bottez, “Mithras in Moesia Inferior. New Data and New Perspectives”, Acta Ant. Hung. 58, 2018, 243-262, part. 245 (= CIMRM 2265), and 248; J.R. Harris, “Mithras at Hermopolis and Memphis”, in Archeological research in Egypt: The Proceedings of the Seventeenth Classical Colloquium of the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities, British Museum, held on 1-4 December, 1993, ed. D. M. Bailey, Ann Arbor 1996, 169-176 (= CIMRM 105, and www.tertullian.org/rpearse/mithras/display.php?page=cimrm105). 2   CIMRM 693. 3   CIMRM 2263 (?); 2292. 4   CIMRM 2315. 5   CIMRM 368. 6   CIMRM 1128; 1974; 2000. 7   CIMRM 2338. 8   A. de Jong, “A new Syrian Mithraic Tauroctony”, Bulletin of the Asia Institute n.s. 11, 1997 [2000], 53-63. Sometimes seven stars are cut around the head of Mithras; cf. CIMRM 1216; 1727, and perhaps 1206. 9   CIMRM 2052. 10   CIMRM 1128. 11   CIMRM 1475 (where gods and altars are represented) and 2338. 12   CIMRM 1292. 13   CIMRM 966. In an inscription from Diana, in Africa a dedication is written to: Mithras, Iuppiter Optimus Maximus, Iuno regina, Minerva, Hercules, Mars, Mercurius, and genius loci: CIMRM 140. 14   CIMRM 2202. 15   CIMRM 2340. 1

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The Mithraic Prophecy

Fig. 2.1. Mithraic relief from Osterburken. Karlsruhe, Badisches Landesmuseum, inventory no. C 118, photograph by Thomas Goldschmidt.

was occupied by the gods, obviously the gods of the Roman pantheon. The altars were easier to carve and thus cheaper than images of gods but were sufficient to symbolize the cult to the gods, perhaps the pax deorum as the Romans called it, the gods at the head of the world and the Roman Empire. Now, as another experiment, we ask how verses, such as those of Virgil’s fourth Eclogue, could be represented in images: ille deum vitam accipiet divisque videbit permixtos heroas et ipse videbitur illis. Probably the best way would be that of depicting the gods themselves.16

  Seneca (de brev. Vitae 4.2) conveys a similar idea: Divus Augustus, cui di plura quam ulli praestiterunt (the deified Augustus to whom the gods gave more than any other man). 16

14

Mithras and the Golden Age 2.2. Molli paulatim flavescet campus arista In the reliefs from Dieburg and Mauls17 Mithras (or a man wearing a Persian cap) is depicted harvesting in a field with a sickle.18 This image depends on the prophecy and symbolizes the abundance provided by Mithras to humankind. This prophecy corresponds to the Virgilian verse: molli paulatim flavescet campus arista The plain will slowly turn golden with tender wheat Horace helps explain the forecasted harvest in the aurea aetas, with this verse: tua, Caesar, aetas 
fruges et agris rettulit uberes. Caesar, your age has restored rich crops to the fields.19 The relief from Neuenheim20, on the first of the upper predellas, shows Mithras (or a man with a Persian cap) in front of a plant. Vermaseren describes the scene in this way: “Mithras standing before a cypress and apparently breaking off branches”. This is actually a shrub and cannot be recognized as a cypress. We might suppose that he was picking some fruits, because the relief from Osterburken21 (fig. 2.3) in the same position, depicts a tree with a low trunk, two boughs, several branches and large leaves, partially hidden behind Sol driving his chariot, and Mithras (or a man with a Persian cap) cutting fruit with a knife. This tree is probably a vine. On top of this tree, one recognizes either a group of leaves or a big flower that does not pertain to the tree.22 On a relief kept in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem23 (fig. 2.4) some scenes are cut in high relief close to the Tauroctony24 and in the left side we see, from top to bottom, Saturn reclining, the birth of Mithras, and the baby Mithras (or a baby with Persian cap) raising his hands to pick grapes from a vine. Another two sculptures depicting the birth of Mithras, one from Carnuntum and another from the Mithraeum of Santo Stefano Rotondo, in Rome,25 show some similarities with the same scene in the Israeli relief, even though it is difficult to recognize what kind of tree is carved behind the god. A sculpture kept in Dublin26 represents the birth of Mithras, flanked by Cautes and Cautopates; they look upwards, and Mithras raises his right hand. The sculpture has been restored by adding a vine over the god, but we are unsure whether this vine depends on the record of a lost fragment or on the fantasy of the restorer. The tree and its fruits are another image of the abundance provided by Mithras to humankind. In the upper part of the Mithraic reliefs the altars sometimes alternate with trees.27 Vermaseren often describes these trees as cypresses, but in many cases they are not and it is difficult to recognize their type. In the upper part of the large and magnificent relief from the Capitol of Rome (now in the Louvre of Lens)28 three oak trees can be seen. On the fragmentary relief from the Mithraeum of Königshofen29 parts of trees appear between Sol and Luna. In some cases, the symbols of the dagger and the Persian cap appear in alternation with the trees. On the relief of Ottaviano Zeno (fig. 2.2),30 seven burning altars alternate with daggers in holders. On a relief from Apulum (Dacia),31 the border of   CIMRM 1400.   CIMRM 1247. 19  Hor., Carm. 4.15.4-5. 20   CIMRM 1283. 21   CIMRM 1292. 22   Over the tree a bust of a man can be seen. Vermaseren describes the tree in this manner: “a tree from the top of which Mithras emerges; he is dressed in a tunic and in a Phrygian cap”, but an image of Mithras does not exist in this tree. 23   A. de Jong, “A new Syrian Mithraic Tauroctony”, Bulletin of the Asia Institute n.s. 11, 1997 [2000], 53-63. 24   This kind of representation also recurs in CIMRM 556 (from Ocriculum). 25   Carnuntum: CIMRM 1687; S. Stefano Rotondo: E. Lissi Caronna, Il mitreo dei Castra Peregrinorum, EPRO 104, Leiden 1986, 36. 26   CIMRM 590. 27   CIMRM 368; 390; 670; 1083 (from Heddernheim; in this case the trees are placed in different parts of the relief and one of them is the tree with a sprouting man); 1791; 1816; 1900; perhaps 2237. 28   CIMRM 415. 29   CIMRM 1359. 30   CIMRM 335; M.J. Vermaseren, Mithriaca IV. Le monument d’Ottaviano Zeno et le culte de Mithra sur le Celius, EPRO 16, Leiden 1978. 31   CIMRM 1973. 17 18

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The Mithraic Prophecy

Fig. 2.2. Relief of Ottaviano Zeno. From A. Lafreri, Speculum Romanae magnificentiae, 1564. Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1941

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Mithras and the Golden Age

Fig. 2.3. Mithraic relief from Osterburken. Detail

Fig. 2.4. Relief in the Israel Museum. © The Israel Museum, by Meidad Suchowolski

the grotto is decorated with seven series of a dagger, a burning altar, a Persian cap placed on a stick, and a tree. Dagger and cap are recurring symbols of Mithras and even some depictions of his birth include them. The earthly adventures of Mithras described in the prophecy spoke of trees, vines, and fruits. On the other hand, in the fourth Eclogue we read: At tibi prima, puer, nullo munuscula cultu 
 errantis hederas passim cum baccare tellus mixtaque ridenti colocasia fundet acantho. … ipsa tibi blandos fundent cunabula flores. … Assyrium uulgo nascetur amomum … incultisque rubens pendebit sentibus uua et durae quercus sudabunt roscida mella.

And for you, boy, the uncultivated earth will pour out her first little gifts, straggling ivy and cyclamen everywhere and the bean flower with the smiling acanthus. … Your cradle itself will pour out delightful flowers … Assyrian spice plants will spring up everywhere … the ripe clusters hang on the wild briar, and the tough oak drip with dew-wet honey. (transl. Kline)

17

The Mithraic Prophecy It was impossible to depict perfumed plants or roots (those of the baccar), but vine and oaks were depicted in the reliefs. On the other hand, Virgil says that the wondrous plants were growing over the cradle, and this detail fits the iconography of Mithras born out of the rock and a vine producing its grapes over the god. 2.3. Durae quercus sudabunt roscida mella. Many reliefs show the so-called “miracle of water” on the left of the upper predellas.32 Mithras shoots an arrow against a protruding, rocky mountain, probably a cave, and makes water gush forth. This is a convincing interpretation of the scene and forms a pair with the wonderful harvest. I have underlined that the provision of crops and water to a hungry and thirsty mankind had been the task of Augustus and also of his followers on the throne. Augustus once said: satis provisum a genero suo Agrippa perductis pluribus aquis, ne homines sitirent. He said that his son-in-law, Agrippa, has sufficiently provided for quenching the thirst of men, by the great plentitude of water with which he has supplied the town!33 Augustus was celebrated for having created the new province of Egypt, rich in grain for Rome, for having distributed grain from his own granaries,34 and his harvest was celebrated on coins with the image of a bunch of ears.35 Several modern scholars recognized, in the Mithraic miracle of water, evident connections with the miracle of Moses, who made water gush from a rock in the desert (Exodus 17), and with the salvific water of Christianity.36 The only true connection is actually that between late antique Christian sarcophagi, representing the miracle of water by either Moses or Peter and their Mithraic iconographic model.37 This is simply an iconographic similarity. However, a problem arises from a Mithraic relief from Apulum, in Dacia (fig. 2.5),38 where Mithras is shooting towards a tree and a man is leaning against this tree to drink. A spring gushing out of a tree constituted an unexpected phenomenon. It is possible that a poetic sentence painted on a wall of the Santa Prisca Mithraeum was alluding to the spring created by the “miracle of water”:39 Fons concluse petris, geminos qui aluisti nectare fratres. O source, hidden in the rocks, you who fed with nectar the twin brothers. The word nectar does not mean “water” but is a word that is often coupled with ambrosia and they were, respectively, the names of drink and food of the gods.40 The word nectar often means “honey”,41 sometimes “wine”,42 “balm”,43 “milk”,44 or “pleasant odor”.45

 See CIMRM 42; 390; 1225; 1283; 1292; 1301; 1359.  Suet., Aug. 42. The water supply depended on Augustus and on the curatores aquarum: Frontin., de aquaed. 99.3-5; 103.2; cf. Ulp., Dig. 43.20.1.42. 34   Cass. Dio 54.1.1-4. 35   RIC I, 494. 36   See Cumont, TMM, I, 164-6; H.D. Betz, “The Mithras Inscriptions of Santa Prisca and the New Testament”, Novum Testamentum 10, 1968, 62-80, part. 66-67; M. Clauss, The Roman Cult of Mithras, Engl.transl., New York 2000, 80-2; R. Beck, “Ritual, Myth, Doctrine, and Initiation in the Mysteries of Mithras: New Evidence from a Cult Vessel”, JRS 90, 2000, 145-180, part. 152. R. Merkelbach, Mithras, Hain 1984 (2nd ed., Königstein im Taunus 1994), 114, was looking for comparisons in the Iranian mythology. 37   See L. Renaut, “Moïse, Pierre et Mithra, dispensateurs d’eau: figures et contre-figures du baptême dans l’art et la littérature des quatre premiers siècles”, in Fons vitae. Baptême, baptistères et rites d’initiation (IIe-VIe siècle), Actes de la journée d’études, Université de Lausanne, 1er décembre 2006, eds. I. Foletti and S. Romano, Rome 2009, 39-64. On common models for both Christian and Mithraic iconographies see P. Testini, “Arte mitriaca e arte cristiana”, in Mithraic Studies, ed. J. Hinnells, Manchester 1975, 429–485. 38   CIMRM 1958. 39   M.J. Vermaseren and C.C. Van Essen, The Excavation in the Mithraeum of the Church of Santa Prisca in Rome, Leiden 1965, 193; see J. Alvar, Romanising Oriental Gods. Myth, Salvation and Ethics in the Cults of Cybele, Isis and Mithras, RGRW 165, Leiden and Boston 2008, 375. 40   For ex. Cic., Tusc.1.65; De nat. deorum 1.112; Ovid., Met. 3.318; 10.161; 14.606; Pont. 1.10.11; Hor., Carm. 3.3.12; 34; Iuv. 13.45. See R. Gordon, “‘Den Jungstier auf den goldenen Schultern tragen’: Mythos, Ritual und Jenseitsvorstellungen im Mithraskult”, in Burial Rituals, Ideas of Afterlife, and the Individual in the Hellenistic World and the Roman Empire, eds. K. Waldner, R. Gordon, and W. Spickermann, PawB 57, Stuttgart 2016, 207-229, part. 223-224; R. Gordon, “Persae in spelaeis solem colunt: Mithra(s) between Persia and Rome”, in Persianism in Antiquity, eds. R. Strootman and M.J. Versluys, Oriens et Occidens 25, Stuttgart 2017, 289-325, part. 303: “a divine liquid destined for gods”. 41   For ex. Verg., Georg. 4.164; Aen. 1.433; Schol. Serv. Aen. 1.433; Calpurn. 2.19-20; 4.150-151; Sil.It. 14.26; Stat., Silv. 3.2.118; Mart. 4.32.2; 13.104.1-2; Ambros., Exam. 5.69. About the Greek νέκταρ: Eur., Bacch. 143; Theocr. 7.81; Porph., De antro 16. On Virgil’s Georgics see A. Hardie, “The Epilogue to the Georgics and Virgil’s nurturing Bees”, Vergilius 66, 2020, 35-67. part. 54: “the bees’ storage of honey as nectar connects the food of the gods and the bees’ association with the divine”. 42  Verg. Ecl. 5.71; Georg. 4.384; Prop. 2.33b, 27-28; Ovid., Met. 1.111; Stat., Silv. 2.2.99. 43   Ovid., Met. 4.250; 10.732. 44   Ovid., Met. 15.116. 45   Lucr. 2.848. 32 33

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Mithras and the Golden Age

Fig. 2.5 Mithraic relief from Apulum. Alba Iulia National Museum of the Union.

Honey was an appropriate food for two children, as it was the case of the divine Cautes and Cautopates, the gemini fratres. The Greek mythology knew of some divine babies fed with honey: it occurred with Zeus,46 the nymph Pitane,47 the prophet Iamos,48 and Homer himself.49 The tree at which Mithras was shooting his arrow on the Apulum relief probably let honey ooze to feed the man in Persian dress. One can see either one or two50 men receiving or drinking the wondrous liquid, and this fits for the two brothers Cautes and Cautopates, the fratres fed with nectar. In conclusion, we could say that it is far from sure that the arrow of Mithras made water flow. Some reliefs show him shooting at a rock above, probably representing the sky, in the upper part of a grotto, and some others depict him shooting at a sort of pole, which could have been a vertical rock, or a tree, as in the above-mentioned relief from Apulum. In a fragmentary relief from Virunum51 the arrow reaching the rock is visible and there is also a liquid flowing down.

 Callim., Hymn. 1.46-9; Diod. 5.70.3; Antoninus Liberalis, Fab. 19; Verg., Georg. 4.164. See Hardie, “The Epilogue to the Georgics and Virgil’s nurturing Bees”, 53-61. 47   Pind., Ol. 6.27-57. 48  Pind., Ol. 6.45-46. 49   Vita Homeri VII, in Homeri opera, ed. Allen, vol. V; see also Theocr. 7.81-82; Schol. Pind. 111 Drachmann; Nonn., Dion. 41.218. Other poets and philosophers were supposed to have been fed with honey; see A.B. Cook, “The Bee in Geek Mythology”, JHS 15, 1895, 1-24, part. 7-8. 50   For ex. CIMRM 1301 51   CIMRM 1430. 46

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The Mithraic Prophecy Statius described the festival of the Saturnalia principis organized by Domitian and says: largis gratuitum cadit rapinis; molles gaioli lucuntulique et massis Amerina non perustis et mustaceus et latente palma praegnantes caryotides cadebant. non tantis Hyas inserena nimbis terras obruit aut soluta Plias, qualis per cuneos hiems Latinos plebem grandine contudit serena. ducat nubila Iuppiter per orbem et latis pluvias minetur agris, dum nostri Iovis hi ferantur imbres. Biscuits and melting pastries, Amerian fruit not over-ripe, must-cakes, and bursting dates from invisible palms were showering down. Not such torrents do stormy Hyades o’erwhelm the earth or Pleiades dissolved in rain, as the hail that from a sunny sky lashed the people in the theatre of Rome. Let Jupiter send his tempests through the world and threaten the broad fields, while our own Jove sends us showers like these!52 These and other dainties, hanging from ropes over the theatre (or amphitheatre), were released and fell on the Roman people like rain and abundant wine was offered to everybody. Sweet food dropping from the sky was indeed a reenactment of Saturn’s Golden Age. Lucian,53 when arguing against some Cynic philosophers who received money without working, quotes a famous expression: ταῦτα ὁ ἐπὶ Κρόνου βίος δοκεῖ αὐτοῖς καὶ ἀτεχνῶς τὸ μέλι αὐτὸ ἐς τὰ στόματα ἐσρεῖν ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ. It seems to them (Cynic philosophers) that this is ‘life in the age of Cronus,’ and really that sheer honey is distilling into their mouths from the sky! (transl. Harmon) In a passage of the Oracula Sibyllina we read the following feature of the Golden Age: νᾶμα μελισταγέος ἀπὸ πέτρης a spring from a rock which drops honey. Virgil begins his fourth Georgica with these words: aërii mellis caelestia dona air-born honey, gift of heaven. This expression shows that the liquid dropping from the rock could have been honey. This is one of the recurring features of the Golden Age. Virgil was describing the Golden Age when he wrote the vv. 28–30 of the fourth Eclogue: molli paulatim flavescet campus arista incultisque rubens pendebit sentibus uva et durae quercus sudabunt roscida mella. The plain will slowly turn golden with tender wheat and the ripe grape hang on the spontaneous briar, and tough oaks drip with dew-wet honey. We should not confuse the source that fed the twins with the sacred spring in the Mithraic cave. In the Mithraea of Poetovio and Aquincum dedications to the fons perennis have been found near the pit of these temples.54 On a water  Stat., Silv. 1.6.17-27, transl. Mozley.   Lucian., Fugitivi 17. 54  Poetovio: CIMRM 1533; Aquincum: CIL III, 10462. 52 53

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Mithras and the Golden Age basin in the Mithraeum of Königshofen the following inscription was written: …[a]qua flui[t] votum…55 (flowing water, vow…). The spring created by the arrow was located in the upper part of a rock, or in the vault of the sky, or in a tree, whereas the spring in the cave was on the ground level and was actually a pit, a basin, water from an aqueduct,56 but never a spring gushing from above. Porphyry describes the Mithraic cave as an imitation modelled after the Persian cave of Zoroaster: Eubulus tells us that Zoroaster was the first to dedicate a natural cave in honor of Mithras, the creator and father of all; it was located in the mountains near Persia and had flowers and springs. This cave bore for him the image of the cosmos which Mithras had created, and the things which the cave contained, by their proportionate arrangement, provided him with symbols of the elements and climates of the cosmos.57 The Mithraic Golden Age did not take place in a cave, but on the whole earth: the new generation sprung out of trees on some lands, Mithras harvested on fields and picked fruits from some plants, cattle, sheep, and goats were on their pastures with shepherds, and it would be surprising if the sole scene of Mithras’ archery occurred in a cave. Both wheat and honey were associated with the Mithraic grade of the Perses. In fact, a sickle appears as a symbol of this grade in the mosaic of Felicissimus, at Ostia, and Porphyry says that honey was offered to the Perses: ὅταν δὲ τῷ Πέρσῃ προσάγωσι μέλι ὡς φύλακι καρπῶν, τὸ φυλακτικὸν ἐν συμβόλῳ τίθενται …when they offer honey to the Persian, as the guardian of fruits (or harvest), consider it as the symbol of a preserving and defending power.58 A fresco from the Mithraeum of Caesarea Maritima possibly depicts this scene.59 In chapter 7 of my work The Mysteries of Mithras I have gathered many reasons why the system of the seven Mithraic grades should be divided into two series: 1. Corax of Mercury, 2. Nymphus of Venus, 3. Miles of Mars, and 4. Leo of Jupiter; then a second series consists of the grades 5. Perses of Luna, Heliodromus of Sol, and Pater of Saturn. These gods were those of the latest generation in the Theogonies. I repeat here how the series of grades were conceived: Each god of the first series represents a period of Roman history. 1.  Mercury. An author no less authoritative than Homer60 supposed that Mercury (Hermes) was Faunus’ (Pan’s) father (the author of the Homeric Hymn to Pan speaks of Hermes and Pan, who correspond to the Roman Mercury and Faunus61). Faunus was the first king of Latium, father of Latinus, and ancestor of all Romans. 2.  Venus. Venus was the mother of Aeneas, the leader of the Trojan refugees who joined the early inhabitants of Latium and was the ancestor of the Roman kings, and of the gens Iulia, the ancestry of both Caesar and Augustus. 3.  Mars. Mars was the father of Romulus, the founder of Rome and its first king. 4.  Jupiter. Jupiter was the god of the Roman Republic, whose temple was dedicated by one of the first consuls. Jupiter marked the passage from the Republic to the Empire, through the final Civil Wars. The three higher gods, Luna, Sol, and Saturn, were the most ancient ones in Greek Theogonies: Luna = Selene, Sol = Helios, and Saturn = Cronos. Their corresponding grades, Perses, Heliodromus, and Pater, were accessible only to few initiates whereas many reached the grade of Leo. These three gods were more directly connected to the hypercosmic gods, the gods of destiny, rulers of the whole cosmos: the lion-headed god, Mithras himself, and the human-headed Aion. Plutarch62 knew   CIMRM 1369.   R. Gordon, “The Sacred Geography of a Mithraeum: the Example of Sette Sfere”, JMS 1.2, 1976, 119-165 = Image and Value in the Graeco-Roman World, Aldershot 1996, 119-165. 57  Porph., de antro 6 (the first part is translated according to R. Beck, “Ecstatic Religion in the Roman Cult of Mithras”, in Practicing Gnosis. Essays in Honor of Birger A. Pearson, eds. A.D. DeConick, G. Shaw, and J.D. Turner, NHMS 85, Leiden and Boston 2013, 75-89). 58  Porph., de antro 15-16. 59   This is not ascertained, but a possibility does exist; see R. J. Bull, J. Derose Evans, A. L. Ratzlaff, A. H. Bobeck, R. S. Fritzius, The Mithraeum at Caesarea Maritima, Boston 2017; N. Belayche, “Coping with Images of Initiations in the Mithras Cult”, Mythos 15, 2021, 1-27, part. 11-12. 60  Hom., Hymn. 19 Pan 1; 34-38; Pindar in Serv., in Georg. 1.15 = fr. 65 Snell. Several Orphic theogonies and anthropogonies knew of four kings as gods of the world: Orphicorum Fragmenta 220 Kern = Olympiod., in Phaed. 41f. Westerink and Pap. Derveni = Carmina Orphica fr. 10F and 11F Bernabé. 61   Mithraic images and dedications to Silvanus (i.e., the private form of Faunus) are known: CIMRM 236; 276; 283. On the dedications to Mercury in some Mithraea: A. Hensen, “Mercurio Mithrae”, in Provinzialrömische Forschungen: Festschrift für Günter Ulbert zum 65. Geburtstag, ed. W. Czysz, Espelkamp 1995, 211-216. 62   Plut., De Is. et Os. 46-47. 55 56

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The Mithraic Prophecy of a triad Areimanius, Mithras, Horomazes, which should also be present in the mysteries of Mithras. Areimanius received prayers from Mithraists but it was impossible that Areimanius was worshipped and Horomazes was not. These supreme gods of Persian tradition were reinterpreted by a theologian from Tarsus or a region near Tarsus, and they became the three Aiones. Lion-headed Aion Chronos/Heracles/Arimanius

Mithras

Aion with human head Zeus/Pan/Horomazes

Saturnus

Sol

Luna

Jupiter

Mars

Venus

Mercurius

Chronos/Heracles and Zeus/Pan are two primeval divine entities according to an Orphic cosmogony possibly similar to that of Mithraism.63 My previous research came to this point and now we can take a step forward. Many devotees of Mithras became Leones and experienced a “fiery” initiation.64 The symbols of the Leo and the related god, Jupiter, were the thunderbolt and the sistrum, and the initiates were supposed to survive a crisis similar to that of the Civil Wars and enter a new and better life. This new life was that of the Golden Age, and this is the reason why the Perses had a sickle for harvesting and received honey. The initiates to the grade of Leo had their hands purified with honey. In fact, Porphyry writes : Those who are initiated in the Leontic sacred rites, pour honey instead of water on their hands; they are ordered to have their hands pure from every thing productive of molestation, and from every thing noxious and detestable.   Other initiators employ fire, which is of a cathartic nature, as an appropriate purification. And they likewise purify the tongue from all the defilement of evil with honey.65 Jupiter, the patron of Mithraic Leones, was supposed to have been fed by bees with honey when he was a baby.66 A Mithraic inscription from Novae (Steklen, Bulgaria)67 mentions a leo melichrisus, i.e. a Leo anointed with honey, and the scene of purification with honey has been recognized in a fresco from Rome.68 I dare say that also Virgil speaks of purification from the evil of the Civil Wars after their end at the beginning of the Golden Age, when he writes: te duce, si qua manent sceleris vestigia nostri inrita perpetua solvent formidine terras. any traces of our evils that remain will be cancelled while you lead, and leave the earth free from perpetual fear.69 2.4. Tauris iuga soluet arator Now we will focus on a Virgilian detail describing the Golden Age: robustus quoque iam tauris iuga soluet arator. the strong ploughman too will free his oxen from the yoke. Many reliefs (especially those from Dacia and Moesia) show a series of puzzling images in the upper predellas. On two reliefs from Apulum (CIMRM 1974 and 2000) the scenes’ order is the following: Mithras’ birth from the rock, a walking person, a sitting person, a bovine in a small house, Mithras sitting on a stone and shooting an arrow, a bovine in a small   Damascius, de princ. 123 bis (I, 318 Ruelle; III, 161 Westerink and Combès = OF 54-58 Kern = F 76-80 Bernabé). See Mastrocinque, The Mysteries of Mithras, chap. 6. 64  Tert., adv. Marcionem 1.13. 65  Porph., de antro 15-16. 66   Serv., in Georg. 4.153: apes, aeris sonum secutae, Iovem melle aluisse. 67   CIMRM II, 2269; cf. R. Turcan, Mithras platonicus, EPRO 47, Leiden 1975, 69; R. Beck, “The Mysteries of Mithras: a New Account of their Genesis”, JRS 88, 1998, 115-28, part. 119. 68   CIMRM 350/1; cf. Merkelbach, Mithra, fig. 47 and caption of the figure. A scene in a fresco from Caesarea Maritima can be referred to a ritual with honey pertaining to either the Perses or the Leo; cf. above, footnote 92. 69  Verg., Ecl. 4.13-14, transl. Fletcher. 63

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Mithras and the Golden Age

Fig. 2.6. Mithraic relief from Maros Porto, near Apulum, in the National Brukenthal Museum in Sibiu. CIMRM 1935

boat, Mithras carrying the bovine. A similar sequence is in CIMRM 1019, 1128, 1422, 1740, 1797, 1920, 1935, 1972, 1975. In CIMRM 2171 we find the bovine in a small house; in CIMRM 2037 we see the bovine in a small house, then on a boat under which a forepart of a goat appears; on the relief CIMRM 1958 from Alba Iulia (Dacia) the series is clearly visible: Mithras shoots an arrow, then a man climbs a tree, a bull in a boat, two lying rams, the bovine in a small house, a goat leaps up against a man in oriental dress, a standing man in oriental dress, and a reclining bearded man. On the relief CIMRM 1247 (from Dieburg) the bull is in a temple and Mithras is throwing a stone at it. As I have said before, this iconography is not necessarily the same as that of the bovine in a small house, and the relief from Dieburg does not depict a Tauroctony, but Mithras as a hunter in the central scene. The identification misled me and prevented me from recognizing images of the Golden Age in the upper predellas. The identification between the scene in the Dieburg relief with those with a bovine in a small house is problematic, in part because a relief from Apulum70 (fig. 2.6) shows a dog in the small house instead of a bull. Vermaseren described this scene thus: “Above a row of seven altars is the doglike bull in a small house.” This animal can be a dog or a deer or another similar animal, but not a bull, nor a cow. Other reliefs, from Tekija (Roman Transdierna, Moesia superior) and Apulum, show a deer or an antelope going out of a similar building.71 Therefore, the animal in the small house was not the enemy of Mithras. In addition, one should notice that the bovine on a boat and in the small house is placed above or near the altars of the gods. In one case,72 in a single scene, a bovine is depicted above the seven altars. I thought that it was the bull which was pursued, dragged and sacrificed by Mithras, but the bovine in the upper predellas has no hostile attitude; in its house also lived a dog and other animals. The bovine is placed near the gods, near the miracle of honey, and within the depiction of the Golden Age.   CIMRM 1935.   Transdierna: L. Zotović, Le Mithraïsme sur le territoire de la Yugoslavie, Belgrade 1973, fig. 17, no. 96; A. Cermanović-Kuzmanović, A. Jovanović, Tekija, ed. M. Vasić, Belgrade 2004, 147-151; Apulum: CIMRM 1935; cf. CIMRM 2223-4; http://virtuelnimuzejdunava.rs/home/the-relief-of-the-godmithra.i-107.208.html. 72   CIMRM 1815, from Sárkeszi; cf. the fragment from Cologne: CIMRM 1915. 70 71

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The Mithraic Prophecy The bovine is resting on a moon-shaped barge. This barge cannot be the moon because in some cases its extremities are ondulate73 and in another74 the container is large, like a true barge. In the following descriptions, we continue describing it as a barge and we will explain its meaning later on. On the other hand, the small house from which a bovine, a dog, and other animals are coming out is a stable or a barn, because we can also see a shepherd nearby,75 on the right. Let us describe some examples of these scenes.76 CIMRM 1422 (Lauriacum, Noricum) Mithras carries the bull, a man standing and leaning one hand on a staff; Mithras sitting and causing the honey to flow; a man kneeling with the outstretched right hand for drinking, a bovine in a stable. CIMRM 1475 (Sisak) a man drinking honey from a low rock (or a tree?), above: the bovine in a barge, another bovine coming out from a stable, Mercury, Mars, and Saturn standing and, below, seven altars; the birth of Mithras. CIMRM 1740 (Alcsút, Pannonia inferior): a bovine in a stable, Mithras sitting on a stone and shooting at a rock before which a person kneels down with outstretched hands; a bovine in a barge, a standing person leaning on a stick; at his feet lies a he-goat. CIMRM 1920 (Potaissa, Dacia) (fig. 2.7): Mithras sitting on a stone and shooting at a low curved pillar before which a person kneels and drinks; the bovine in a barge; the bovine in a small house; a lying ram and, above it, a goat; a reclining man (Saturn); a man in oriental dress puts his hands on a staff or a stela. CIMRM 1935 (Apulum, Dacia): Mithras sitting on a chair is shooting an arrow at a curved rock (pilaster?, tree?); a man kneeling and raising his hand to his mouth to drink; over this rock the barge with a bovine is depicted; seven altars over which a bovine in a house can be seen, made of large blocks, from whose door a dog or a deer or a similar animal is going out; a dog is jumping to the right and a ram is lying below; a man wearing a tunic and a mantel is standing and leans with his left hand on a staff; Saturn is reclining and sleeping (the scene which follows below is the birth of Mithras). CIMRM 1958 (Maros Porto, near Apulum, Dacia): a man in oriental dress raises his right hand and touches the shoulder of Mithras with his left hand; Mithras sitting on a rock or a chair is shooting an arrow at a tree; a man climbs and raises his hands to drink; two rams below and the barge with a bovine above; a small house above from whose door an animal is coming out; a goat leaps up toward a man in oriental dress and puts its forelegs on the man’s shoulders; a man wearing a tunic and a mantel is standing and crossing his legs; Saturn is reclining on a kline (the scene that follows below is the birth of Mithras). CIMRM 1171 (Romula, Dacia) (fig. 2.8): Mithras carrying the bull on his shoulders; Mithras riding on the back of a horse (or the bull?); Mithras shooting an arrow; a man taking honey from a low rock; a bovine in a small house. CIMRM 1972 (Apulum, Dacia): a man in oriental dress raises his hands and touches the shoulders of Mithras; Mithras sitting on a rock or a chair is shooting an arrow at a rock (pillar?); a man kneeling raises his hand to his mouth to drink; seven altars, over which a house from which an animal (dog? deer?) is going out, and, above, the bovine in a barge; a man in oriental dress is touching the upper part of the house; a man wearing tunic and mantel stands and leans on a stick; behind him, a ram is moving to the right and a dog is lying below. CIMRM 2223-4 (only the central and lower parts but now the upper part has been found and added) (fig. 2.9); L. Zotović, Le Mithraïsme sur le territoire de la Yugoslavie, Belgrade 1973 fig. 17, no. 96; A. Cermanović-Kuzmanović, A. Jovanović, Tekija, ed. M. Vasić, Belgrade 2004, 147–151 (Tekija, Roman Transdierna, Moesia sup.): Mithras sitting on a chair shooting an arrow at a curved rock (pilaster?, tree?); a man kneeling and raising his hand to his mouth to drink; seven altars over which a bovine in a house can be seen, made of large blocks, from whose door a deer or a similar animal is going out; over this house the barge with a bovine is depicted; a she-goat and a dog are jumping to the right and a bovine squats and rests; a man wearing a Persian hat and a tunic raises a long rod with his hands; another man wearing a tunic and a mantel is standing and and leans with his left hand on a staff; Saturn is reclining. A large and artistic relief is that from Aquileia (now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum of Vienna)77 whose left corner is occupied by the scene of three he-goats.

  CIMRM 1972 and the relief from Tekija just quoted.   CIMRM 1974 and 2000. 75  Shepherd: CIMRM 1422(?), 1740, 1935, 1958(?), 1972, 1974, 2244, 2334. 76   See other cases: CIMRM 2036, 2037, 2051, 2214, 2244, 2291, 2292 77   CIMRM 736. 73 74

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Mithras and the Golden Age

Fig. 2.7. Mithraic relief from Potaissa. National Museum of History of Transilvania, MNIT, inv. 54178, with permission of the MNIR

On the right, a shepherd is often represented. A recurring iconography is that of a man standing, holding a stick or leaning on it, with crossed legs and a short tunic (cf. fig. 2.10).78 Faustulus, the famous shepherd, was represented thus. His attitude is that of a quiet person, watching peacefully over his flock, sometimes singing or playing music, as the shepherds of the Virgilian Bucolics did. These scenes are evidently a representation of the Golden Age, and there are interesting parallels in Virgil. The Mantuan poet describes the Golden Age with the following words: At tibi prima, puer, nullo munuscula cultu errantis hederas passim cum baccare tellus mixtaque ridenti colocasia fundet acantho. ipsae lacte domum referent distenta capellae ubera, nec magnos metuent armenta leones; ipsa tibi blandos fundent cunabula flores. occidet et serpens, et fallax herba ueneni occidet; Assyrium uulgo nascetur amomum. (vv.18–25)

And for you, boy, the uncultivated earth will pour out her first little gifts, straggling ivy and cyclamen here and there and the Egyptian bean flower with the smiling acanthus. The goats will come home themselves, their udders swollen with milk, and the cattle will have no fear of fierce lions. Your cradle itself will pour out charming flowers. Snakes will die, and deceitful poisonous herbs will wither; Assyrian amomum will spring up everywhere.

  R. Ling, Roman Painting, Cambridge 1991, 146; U. Pappalardo, The Splendor of Roman Wall Paintings, Los Angeles 2009, 139.

78

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The Mithraic Prophecy

Fig. 2.8. Mithraic relief from Romula. National Museum of Art of Romania (MNA), inv. 18719, with permission of the MNIR

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Mithras and the Golden Age

Fig. 2.9 Relief from Transdierna. National Museum in Belgrade. Cf. CIMRM 2223-4

molli paulatim flauescet campus arista incultisque rubens pendebit sentibus uua et durae quercus sudabunt roscida mella. (vv.28–30)

The plain will slowly turn golden with tender wheat and the ripe grape hang on the spontaneous briar, and tough oaks drip with dew-wet honey.

omnis feret omnia tellus. non rastros patietur humus, non uinea falcem; robustus quoque iam tauris iuga soluet arator. nec uarios discet mentiri lana colores, ipse sed in pratis aries iam suaue rubenti murice, iam croceo mutabit uellera luto; sponte sua sandyx pascentis uestiet agnos. (vv.39–45)

every land will produce everything. The soil will not feel the hoe: nor the vine the billhook: the strong ploughman too will free his oxen from the yoke: wool will no longer learn how to counterfeit different colours, the ram in the meadow will change his fleece of himself, now to a sweet red purple, now to a saffron yellow: vermillion will clothe spontaneously the grazing lambs.

How could a sculptor depict an ox (taurus is an ox, especially in this case) that does not pull the plough? The Mithraic reliefs depict bovines (one cannot distinguish if they are bulls, oxen or cows) either in a house, i.e. in a cattle shed, or resting on the ground. It is impossible to represent a non-existing action (the ox that does not plough), but it is possible to represent an ox in a cattle shed or resting on the ground. These reliefs also depict goats and sheep. Unfortunately, we cannot know if they were painted red or yellow, according to Virgil, because the colours disappeared. The man standing on the right, with crossed legs and a stick, is evidently a shepherd. As we have said, this is a recurring iconography of shepherds resting close to a tree, leaning on a stick. Such a pastoral Golden Age79 is perfectly harmonized with the Persian beliefs concerning Mithras. He was, in fact, an owner of cattle, but not of normal cattle, but freely pasturing animals, free from diseases, with shepherds moving freely. In the Hymn to Mithras we read:

  The idea of a pastoral Golden Age traces back to Hesiod and Greek poetry, and Virgil described an Arcadian landscape to celebrate the prosperity provided by Octavian to Italy: P. Johnston, S. Papaioannou, “Idylliac landscapes in Antiquity: the Golden Age, Arcadia, and the locus amoenus”, Acta Ant. 53, 2013, 133-144. 79

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The Mithraic Prophecy

Fig. 2.10. Roman lamp depicting a shepherd leaning on a stick and two goats (from G&M Auctions)

The clans dear to Mithra – when he visits the(ir) country – he treats as (he treats) those who treat (him) well; the(ir) valleys (are) wide for pasture, and their own cattle and slaves go about at will.80 The gaoyaoiti, “pasture”, of Mithras were places where humans and animals lived in complete freedom, a place which Émile Benveniste termed “lieu d’asile”.81 Mithras’ cattle were probably similar to those of the Greek god Helios, whose son Augeas received from him: Helios gave his son a most excellent gift, that he be rich in flocks beyond all other men, and moreover Helios himself increased the herds continuously without end, for never did any disease befall them of the kind which destroy the works of the herdsmen.82 The pastoral Golden Age provided to humankind by Octavian, under the benevolent dominion of Apollo, described by Virgil, was thus similar to the pastoral happiness provided by Mithras to his faithful.   Hymn to Mithras 112   E. Benveniste, “Mithra aux vastes paturages”, Journal Asiatique 248, 1960, 421-429; cf. D.H. Sick, “Mit(h)ra(s) and the Myths of the Sun”, Numen 51, 2004, 432-467, part. 454-5. 82   Theocr. 25.118-122; cf. Sick, 455. 80 81

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Mithras and the Golden Age 2.5. The Golden Age The prophecy of the Sibyl was fulfilled by Augustus, who was recognized in the Aeneid as the descendent promised to Aeneas by many prophecies: hic Caesar et omnis Iuli hic uir, hic est, tibi quem promitti saepius audis, Augustus Caesar, diui genus, aurea condet saecula qui rursus Latio regnata per arua Saturno quondam.83 And this man here is Augustus Caesar, whom you, son of a god, heard promised to you so often. He will found again a Golden Age that existed once in Saturn’s Latium. (transl. Johnston) The peace established by Augustus was celebrated by the Ara Pacis where the Golden Age was depicted with images of the deities of Earth, Sky, and Sea, and below a cow and a sheep symbolizing peace and abundance. The city of Pautalia, in Thracia, wanted to represent its happiness, wealth and fortune, and struck a bronze coin,84 under Julia Domna and Caracalla, depicting a Nymph, symbolizing the city itself, surrounded by four boys: Botrys picking grapes, Chrysos washing gold, Argyros carrying a sack (of silver), and Stachys harvesting (fig. 2.11). The iconography of Botrys and Stachys is similar to that of Mithras on Mithraic reliefs. Christian artists adopted the traditional iconography of the Golden Age, of peace and abundance, representing beatitude and the paradisiacal afterlife. The Gospels encouraged such images and Christ was often represented as the Good Shepherd. This fact allows us to find good comparisons for the Mithraic scenes with bred animals, and those comparisons did not depend on imitations between Mithraic and Christian iconographies, but on a common, older tradition85 of depicting abundance, peace, happiness, and the Golden Age, as we can see, for example, on a sarcophagus from Tarquinia depicting the shepherd Endymion (fig. 2.12).86 Thanks to some Christian sarcophagi we can understand some details of Mithraic reliefs. The biblical episode of Jonas resting in peace under a tree, or a pumpkin, was enriched with pastoral scenes on Christian sarcophagi. A scene of beatitude was fated to include sheep, goats, and cattle grazing freely. Let us describe some sarcophagi with Jonas. A sarcophagus in the Museum für Byzantinische Kunst in Berlin87 shows a shepherd with crossed legs leaning on a long stick, a bovine, three sheep, one goat, one dog, and another shepherd sitting under a tree. On a sarcophagus, in the Museo Pio Clementino88 two sheep are coming out of their sheepfold toward a standing shepherd (fig. 2.14). On a sarcophagus in the Santa Maria Antiqua church, in Rome (fig. 2.13),89 Jonas is lying under the pumpkin creating a shelter and on this shelter two rams and a goat are depicted. On another sarcophagus in the villa Doria Pamphili90 the Good Shepherd is surrounded by many sheep and some goats; on the upper left corner there is a small house similar to that in Mithraic reliefs, which is a sheepfold or a cattle shed, and a smaller straw pen below. On one side of a sarcophagus of the Museo Nazionale Romano a shepherd is standing, leaning on a stick, with crossed legs, accompanied by a dog, and watching over a cow, a sheep, and a goat; in another, in the same museum, we see the same scene with the shepherd sitting.91 The paradise itself was conceived as a meadow where Jesus watches over his sheep, as in the dream of St. Perpetua.92 As in the case of the Santa Maria Antiqua church sarcophagus, and of many others, the animals are arranged in more than  Verg., Aen. 6.789-793.   L. Ruzicka, Die Münzen von Pautalia, Sophia 1933, 473 and 634; I. Varbanov, Greek Imperial Coins and their Values II: Thrace (from Abdera to Pautalia) (English Edition), Bourgas 2005, 4922 and 5174. 85   See P. Zanker, B.C. Ewald, Living with Myths. The Imagery of Roman Sarcophagi, Oxford 2004, 168. 86   Die antiken Sarkophagreliefs XII.2, Die mythologischen Sarkophage, second ed., Berlin 1992, 69; M. Koortobojian, Myth, Meaning, and Memory on Roman Sarcophagi, Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London 1995, 79. 87   F. Gerke, Die christlichen Sarkophage der vorkonstantinischen Zeit, Berlin 1940, pl. 53.1= J. Dresken-Weiland, Sarkophagbestattungen des 4.-6. Jahrhunderts im Westen des Romischen Reiches, Rome 2003, pl. 241. 88   J. Wilpert, I sarcofagi Cristiani Antichi, I, Rome 1932, pl. IX.3; Gerke, pl. 16. 89   Wilpert, I sarcofagi Cristiani Antichi, I, pl. I.2. 90   Gerke, pl. 32. 91   Gerke, pl. 24.3. 92   See a recent edition by Th.J. Heffernan, The Passion of Perpetua and Felicity, Oxford 2012. 83 84

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The Mithraic Prophecy

Fig. 2.11. Bronze coin of Pautalia depicting the abundance of the city (from online catalogue, Tyll Kroha coins auction)

Fig. 2.12. Roman sarcophagus in the National Archaeological Museum in Tarquinia depicting the sleeping Endymion and a pastoral scene. Under licence from MiC – Direzione Regionale Musei Lazio – Tarquinia (VT) Museo Archeologico Nazionale Etrusco

one layer, in a sort of conventional perspective where the upper layers are theoretically more distant, but the animals have the same dimensions in the different layers. This sculptural custom explains the ox in a barge depicted over the small house or the altars. The barge was supposed to be in the background. The Christian sarcophagi clarify that the small house was a cattle shed and that these animals were protagonists of the beatitude and of the paradise, because they were the protagonists of the Golden Age. 2.6. Shepherds and Ships in the Golden Age The idea of the early age of mankind being re-established for a second time implies a pastoral economy. Varro said: de antiquis illustrissimus quisque pastor erat93 (among the ancients, important people were shepherds). Cicero94 recalled an ancient phrase of Cato the Censor according to whom breeding was far more profitable than agriculture. Agriculture came after the early Golden Age and implied labour, sweat, anxiety for men and animals, implied a social hierarchy and slavery, implied necessity of trading, sailing, risking human lives and personal fortunes, desiring other’s wealth, hostility, and other evil. Virgil was not the sole author of the Augustan Age who described the Golden Age. Let us read Tibullus’ verses: Quam bene Saturno vivebant rege, priusquam Tellus in longas est patefacta vias! Nondum caeruleas pinus contempserat undas, Effusum ventis praebueratque sinum, Nec vagus ignotis repetens conpendia terris Presserat externa navita merce ratem. Illo non validus subiit iuga tempore taurus, Non domito frenos ore momordit equus,

 Varr, de re rust. 2.1.6.  Cic., de off. 2.25.89: cf. also Colum., de re rust. 6, praef., 4-5 and Plin. N.h. 18.5.29.

93 94

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Mithras and the Golden Age

Fig. 2.13. Christian sarcophagus from Rome depicting Jonas in a pastoral landscape (from Wilpert)

Fig. 2.14. Christian sarcophagus from Rome depicting Jonas in a pastoral landscape and two sheep running out of a small house (from Wilpert)

Non domus ulla fores habuit, non fixus in agris, Qui regeret certis finibus arva, lapis. Ipsae mella dabant quercus, ultroque ferebant Obvia securis ubera lactis oves. Non acies, non ira fuit, non bella, nec ensem Inmiti saevus duxerat arte faber. (Tibull. 1.3.35–48) How well lived folk in olden days when Saturn was the king, before the earth was opened out for distant travel! Not as yet had the pine-tree learned to swim the blue sea wave or surrendered the spreading sail to belly before the wind; nor, seeking gain in unknown lands, had the vagrant seaman loaded his bark with foreign wares. That was the time when the sturdy bull had not bent his neck to the yoke, nor the tamed horse champed the bit. No house had doors; no stone was planted on the land to set fixed boundaries to men’s estates. The very oaks gave honey; and with milky udders came the ewes unbidden to meet the careless swain. Then were no marshalled hosts, no lust of blood, no battles; no swords had been forged by the cruel armourer’s ruthless skill. (transl. Cornish) A similar account can be read in Ovid: Aurea prima sata est aetas, quae vindice nullo, sponte sua, sine lege fidem rectumque colebat. poena metusque aberant, nec verba minantia fixo aere legebantur, nec supplex turba timebat iudicis ora sui, sed erant sine vindice tuti. nondum caesa suis, peregrinum ut viseret orbem, montibus in liquidas pinus descenderat undas,

The first millennium was the age of gold: Then living creatures trusted one another; People did well without the thought of ill: Nothing forbidden in a book of laws, No fears, no prohibitions read in bronze, Or in the sculptured face of judge and master. Even the pine tree stood on its own hills,

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The Mithraic Prophecy nullaque mortales praeter sua litora norant; nondum praecipites cingebant oppida fossae; non tuba derecti, non aeris cornua flexi, non galeae, non ensis erat: sine militis usu mollia securae peragebant otia gentes. ipsa quoque inmunis rastroque intacta nec ullis saucia vomeribus per se dabat omnia tellus, contentique cibis nullo cogente creatis arbuteos fetus montanaque fraga legebant cornaque et in duris haerentia mora rubetis et quae deciderant patula Iovis arbore glandes. ver erat aeternum, placidique tepentibus auris mulcebant zephyri natos sine semine flores; mox etiam fruges tellus inarata ferebat, nec renovatus ager gravidis canebat aristis; flumina iam lactis, iam flumina nectaris ibant, flavaque de viridi stillabant ilice mella. (Ovid., Met. 1.89–112)

Nor did it fall to sail uncharted seas; All that men knew of earth were shores of home, No cities climbed behind high walls and bridges; No brass-lipped trumpets called, nor clanging swords, Nor helmets marched the streets, country and town Had never heard of war: and seasons travelled Through the years of peace. The innocent earth Learned neither spade nor plough; she gave her Riches as fruit hangs from the tree: grapes Dropping from the vine, cherry, strawberry Ripened in silver shadows of the mountain, And in the shade of Jove’s miraculous tree, The falling acorn. Springtide the single Season of the year, and through that hour The soft breath of the south in flowering leaf, In white waves of the wheat across the meadows, Season of milk and wine in amber streams And honey pouring from the green-lipped oak. (transl. Gregory)

Such descriptions of the Golden Age seem to be standard accounts with recurring features. Papias, a pupil of John, the author of the Revelation, listed many pleasures of the same kind, typical of the Golden Age.95 In the third book of the Oracula Sibyllina (probably the most ancient book of the collection, and dated to the 2nd–1st cent. BC96) we read: γῆ γὰρ παγγενέτειρα βροτοῖς δώσει τὸν ἄριστον καρπὸν ἀπειρέσιον σίτου οἴνου καὶ ἐλαίου [αὐτὰρ ἀπ’ οὐρανόθεν μέλιτος γλυκεροῦ ποτὸν ἡδύ δένδρεά τ’ ἀκροδρύων καρπὸν καὶ πίονα μῆλα καὶ βόας ἔκ τ’ ὀίων ἄρνας αἰγῶν τε χιμάρους·] πηγάς τε ῥήξει γλυκερὰς λευκοῖο γάλακτος· πλήρεις δ’ αὖτε πόλεις ἀγαθῶν καὶ πίονες ἀγροί ἔσσοντ’… For all-mother earth shall yield To mortals best fruit boundless, wheat, wine, oil; Also from heaven a delightful drink Of honey and trees shall give their fruit, And fatted sheep and cattle there shall be, Young lambs and kids of goats; earth shall break forth With sweet springs of white milk; and of good things The cities shall be full and fat the fields.97 Then a description of a society without hierarchy and wealth differences follows. This is not the only passage in the Oracula Sibyllina describing the Golden Age in this way. In the fifth book we read: εὐσεβέων δὲ μόνων ἁγία χθὼν πάντα τάδ’ οἴσει, νᾶμα μελισταγέος ἀπὸ πέτρης ἠδ’ ἀπὸ πηγῆς   See Iren., adv. haer. 5.33.3-4: “The predicted blessing, therefore, belongs unquestionably to the times of the kingdom, when the righteous shall bear rule upon their rising from the dead; when also the creation, having been renovated and set free, shall fructify with an abundance of all kinds of food, from the dew of heaven, and from the fertility of the earth: as the elders who saw John, the disciple of the Lord, related that they had heard from him how the Lord used to teach in regard to these times, and say: The days will come, in which vines shall grow, each having ten thousand branches, and in each branch ten thousand twigs, and in each true twig ten thousand shoots, and in each one of the shoots ten thousand clusters, and on every one of the clusters ten thousand grapes, and every grape when pressed will give five and twenty metretes of wine. And when any one of the saints shall lay hold of a cluster, another shall cry out, I am a better cluster, take me; bless the Lord through me. In like manner [the Lord declared] that a grain of wheat would produce ten thousand ears, and that every ear should have ten thousand grains, and every grain would yield ten pounds (quinque bilibres) of clear, pure, fine flour; and that all other fruit-bearing trees, and seeds and grass, would produce in similar proportions (secundum congruentiam iis consequentem); and that all animals feeding [only] on the productions of the earth, should [in those days] become peaceful and harmonious among each other, and be in perfect subjection to man. 4. And these things are borne witness to in writing by Papias, the hearer of John, and a companion of Polycarp, in his fourth book”. (transl. Roberts and Rambaut). Quotations from Isaiah follow, concerning tame and ferocious animals living together in peace and vipers which do not arm the infant boy. 96   V. Nikiprowetzky, La troisième Sibylle, Paris and La Haye 1970; cf. E. Suarez de la Torre, “Tradizione profetica, composizione poetica e identità nazionale: Asia e Europa negli Oracoli Sibillini giudaici”, in Tra Oriente e Occidente. Indigeni, Greci e Romani in Asia Minore. Atti del Convegno Internat., Cividale del Friuli 2006, ed. G. Urso, Pisa 2007, 61-78; G. Sfameni Gasparro, Oracoli, profeti, sibille. Rome 2002. 97   Oracula Sibyllina 3.744-751 (ed. Geffken), transl. Collins (in The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha.I. Apocalyptic Literature and Testaments, ed. J.Ch. Charlesworth), Garden City and New York 1983, 317-472. 95

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Mithras and the Golden Age καὶ γλάγος ἀμβρόσιον ῥεύσει πάντεσσι δικαίοις. But the holy land of the pious alone will bear all these things: a honey-sweet stream from rock and spring, and heavenly milk will flow for all the righteous.98 In the VII book, vv. 146–149: οὐκέτι τις κόψει βαθὺν αὔλακα γυρῷ ἀρότρῳ· οὐ βόες ἰθυντῆρα κάτω βάψουσι σίδηρον· κλήματα δ’ οὐκ ἔσται οὐδὲ στάχυς· ἀλλ’ ἅμα πάντες μάννην τὴν δροσερὴν λευκοῖσιν ὀδοῦσι φάγονται. No longer will anyone cut a deep furrow with a crooked plow; no oxen will plunge down the guiding iron. There will be no vine branches or ear of corn, but all, at once, will eat the dewy manna with white teeth. And in book 8.211–212: πηγὰς δὲ γλυκεροῦ οἴνου λευκοῦ τε γάλακτος καὶ μέλιτος δώσει… It will give fountains of sweet wine and white milk and honey… 2.7. nec nautica pinus mutabit merces After speaking of honey oozing down from oaks, Virgil mentions ships and wars: pauca tamen suberunt priscae uestigia fraudis, quae temptare Thetim ratibus, quae cingere muris oppida, quae iubeant telluri infindere sulcos. alter erit tum Tiphys et altera quae uehat Argo delectos heroas; erunt etiam altera bella atque iterum ad Troiam magnus mittetur Achilles. hinc, ubi iam firmata uirum te fecerit aetas, cedet et ipse mari uector, nec nautica pinus mutabit merces; omnis feret omnia tellus. (vv. 31–39)

However, some small traces of ancient error will lurk, that will urge men to risk on the sea in ships, encircle towns with walls, plough the earth with furrows. A second Tiphys and another Argo will carry chosen heroes: there will be new wars, and great Achilles will be sent once more to Troy. Then when the strength of age has made you a man, the captain himself will quit the sea, nor will the pine ship trade wares: every land will produce everything.

We see that the absence of trade and sailing on the sea is a recurring theme in the descriptions of the Golden Age.99 The ship was the missing piece of the puzzle, dovetailing in the upper predellas of Mithraism. A bull, or an ox, or a cow in a barge is an absurdity, per se. A bovine cannot sail. Moreover, the barge is placed after the rock or the tree oozing down honey, above the stable for animals and the altars of gods, and before the pasturing sheep and other bred animals. Therefore, the barge is among scenes located on earth. We can ask how could a ship be represented which does not navigate for trade: nec nautica pinus mutabit merces? The question is similar to the one we asked before: how to represent an ox that does not plough? Probably the ship should be represented stranded, placed on the ground, and the bull should be represented resting. On a fragmentary relief from Turda (Roman Potaissa, in Dacia)100 a man wearing a Persian hat is touching the stern of the barge. This detail encourages us to suppose that this barge was on the ground and not sailing on the sea. The paradoxical bovine on the barge will receive a meaning if we suppose that the barge was lying on the ground and the bovine entered it, freed from ploughing. A barge or a ship alone cannot depict the absence of seaborne trade, but a ship with a bovine upon it, close to a stable, was a better means of representing the end of sailing for trade. It is impossible to ascertain whether the image was an iconographic means of representing a part of the prophecy or it depended on a slightly different account from Virgil. The Mithraic prophecy was not the fourth Eclogue, but a text ascribed to a Persian prophet,   Oracula Sibyllina 5.281-283 transl. Collins.  In Oracula Sibyllina 2.32-33 the description of the Golden Age includes “free harbours” for all men. In Oracula Sibyllina 8.458 the absence of seaborne commerce is included in a description of apocalyptic disasters. 100   CIMRM 1926. 98 99

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The Mithraic Prophecy possibly Zoroaster himself, a text sharing many details with the Virgilian prophecy. Horses freed from their bit, mentioned by Tibullus, are absent from Virgil, but we can see two horses in a panel of the relief from Dieburg101 and a horse lying on a meadow in an unpublished fresco from a Mithraeum from Aquincum (kept in the Aquincum Antiquarium). However, horses are absent from the Mithraic depictions of the Golden Age, as far as we know, and there was a reason for this. The simplest solution is that horses rarely appear in reliefs depicting beatitude, paradise, or the Golden Age. 2.8. convexo nutantem pondere mundum, terrasque tractusque maris caelumque profundum The Mithraic prophecy probably spoke of the power of Mithras over the earth because it spoke of his relationship with the Sun, the coronation of the Sun by Mithras, and Mithras’ final apotheose, similar to an imperial apotheose. The possible depiction of Mithras’ power is relatively rare, and we will describe it. In the fresco of the Barberini Mithraeum (fig. 2.15, on the right, the second last panel below), in a panel from the relief of the Mithraeum II of Poetovio,102 (fig. 2.16) probably in the relief from Mauls,103 and in that from the Val di Non,104 Mithras appears alone, in the same attitude as in the Tauroctony, with a plied knee, stretching his right arm, touching a vault, which probably represents the sky, with his right hand and touching the soil with his left hand. aspice convexo nutantem pondere mundum, terrasque tractusque maris caelumque profundum; aspice, venturo laetentur ut omnia saeclo! 105 See the world, wavering under the burden of the dome, the earth and the wide sea and the deep heavens; See how everything delights in the forthcoming age! Virgil refers to Augustus this promise of a universal rule over a delighted world. He writes, in the famous promise of Jupiter to Venus at the beginning of his Aeneid: sic placitum. veniet lustris labentibus aetas cum domus Assaraci Pthiam clarasque Mycenas servitio premet ac victis dominabitur Argis. nascetur pulchra Troianus origine Caesar, imperium Oceano, famam qui terminet astris, Iulius, a magno demissum nomen Iulo. hunc tu olim caelo spoliis Orientis onustum accipies secura; vocabitur hic quoque votis. aspera tum positis mitescent saecula bellis. This I have decreed. A time will come when Assaracus’ house will conquer Argos and will enslave Mycenae and Phthia. From their line will arise a Trojan Caesar, Julius, named from mighty Julus; his rule will be limited by the sea alone, and his fame only by the stars. The time will come when you will be anxious no longer; you will welcome him, laden with spoils from the east, to the heavens. Mortals will summon him in their prayers. War will be set aside, and the hard race of mortals will soften.106 In this case, the scene could refer to Augustus’ universal fame and his worldwide victories. According to Svetonius,107 Atia, Octavian’s mother, had a dream: eadem Atia, prius quam pareret, somniavit intestina sua ferri ad sidera explicarique per omnem terrarum et caeli ambitum.

  CIMRM 1247.   CIMRM 1510.3. 103   CIMRM 1400. 104   CIMRM 723. 105   Verg, Ecl. 4.50-52. 106   Verg., Aen. 1.284-291; transl. Johnston. 107  Suet., Aug. 94. 101 102

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Mithras and the Golden Age

Fig. 2.15. Fresco from the Barberini Mithraeum

Fig. 2.16. Mithras touching the vault of the sky and the earth. From the Mithraeum II of Poetovio. With the kind permission of the Regional Museum Ptuj – Ormož 

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The Mithraic Prophecy Atia, before giving birth to him, deamed of her entrails which were taken to the stars and all around the earth and the sky. Therefore, the power of Augustus, and probably also that of the first born in the Golden Age (in the fourth Eclogue), encompassed the whole earth and the sky. The Mithraic scene of Mithras extending his hands to the sky and the earth could depict a part of the prophecy promising the universal power of the god during his earthly adventure. This scene is unrelated to the series of images depicting the Golden Age, and this fact prevents us from supposing, in all probability, a strict correspondence between the Virgilian prophecy and the Mithraic scenes. The Virgilian verse: iam tuus regnat Apollo has no specific depiction in the Mithraic cultic reliefs. However, Mithras himself was identified with Apollo and the whole cult of this god was a cult of Apollo in Persian guise. The reign of Apollo was probably one of the reasons why the mysteries of Mithras were conceived. Ultima Cumaei venit iam carminis aetas

ferrea primum desinet ac toto surget gens

redeunt Saturnia regna

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Mithras and the Golden Age tu modo nascenti puero

nova progenies caelo demittitur alto… toto surget gens aurea mundo

tuus iam regnat Apollo

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The Mithraic Prophecy At tibi prima, puer, nullo munuscula cultu errantis hederas passim cum baccare tellus mixtaque ridenti colocasia fundet acantho. … incultisque rubens pendebit sentibus uva

omnis feret omnia tellus

molli paulatim flavescet campus arista

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Mithras and the Golden Age durae quercus sudabunt roscida mella

cedet et ipse mari vector, nec nautica pinus mutabit merces; omnis feret omnia tellus. non rastros patietur humus, non vinea falcem; robustus quoque iam tauris iuga solvet arator.

ipsae lacte domum referent distenta capellae ubera… ipse sed in pratis aries iam suave rubenti murice, iam croceo mutabit vellera luto; sponte sua sandyx pascentis vestiet agnos.

aspice convexo nutantem pondere mundum, terrasque tractusque maris caelumque profundum

ille deum vitam accipiet divisque videbit permixtos heroas et ipse videbitur illis

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The Mithraic Prophecy 2.9. The Sacrifice of the Bull I give here an abstract of what I have said in The Mysteries of Mithras concerning the sacrifice of the bull, the most important Mithraic scene, by adding some details. This was an act that produced salvation because a painted text on the wall of the Santa Prisca Mithraeum (ca 200 AD)108 in Rome says: et nos servasti (?) ... sanguine fuso (“and you have saved us ... thanks to the shed blood”).109 This blood is probably that of the bull killed by Mithras, which is visible on some statues and reliefs. Many researchers interpreted the salus and the salvatio, implicit in the verb servasti, as the salvation of the soul, which was allowed to reach a happy, Mithraic afterlife. The Christian model suggests such an interpretation,110 which was encouraged by ancient Christian authors who argued against Mithraism as an imitation of Christianity, and also the happy afterlife for initiates in the Frogs by Aristophanes encouraged a connection with the afterlife. The hope of a better afterlife is indeed probable,111 but it cannot be taken for granted that this is the meaning of nos servasti and the Tauroctony. In a recent book, this argument has been put forward: “We must be cautious once more not to assume a meaning that makes sense by extension to us, but which may have been lacking amongst worshippers of the god in the ancient past, particularly given the Christian understandings so prevalent in modern conceptions of religion.”112 I cannot but agree. Other scholars looked in the Persian tradition by hoping to find a solution, but they found no trace of such a sacrifice, let alone the salvation by means of it. Nor traces of this sacrifice as a symbol of creation can be found, except from the philosophical interpretation by Porphyry,113 which has been shared by some modern scholars. 1979 Ugo Bianchi and Marten Joseph Vermaseren organized a conference,114 whose aim was the definition of the soteriological meaning of Mithraism. They were in fact aware that Christian salvation would not be a good place to start in understanding Mithraism, even though many researchers used, and still use, the model of Christianity and Christian salvation to understand the achievement of Mithraic salvation. Many different contributions have been brought forward, then, to produce a better understanding of both the pagan concepts of salus / servare, σωτηρία / σώζειν, and the specific initiatory acts found within the Mithraism. According to Robert Turcan,115 Mithraic salvation had little to do with the destiny of individual souls in the afterlife but represented one man’s commitment in the Zoroastrian fight of the good creation against the cosmic forces of evil. Roger Beck116 underscored the view that the Mithraic salvation was experienced in the earthly life. We will see now that he was right. On the fresco of the Barberini Mithraeum (CIMRM 879) one can see the god Sol producing a sunbeam that runs straight through the sign of Capricorn, and through the flame of Cautes’ torch, before reaching Mithras. Libra is placed above the head of the latter, as if the fresco aimed to represent the birth of Augustus, who was born under the sign of Libra, on 23 October 63 BC, and became the first Emperor under Capricorn, in January 27 BC.117 The scene is explained thanks to the famous Gemma Augustea, a cameo in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna (figs. 2.16 and 2.17). This magnificent carving shows the Capricorn presiding over the scene of Oikoumene, i.e., the personification of the inhabited world, crowning Augustus with the ‘civic’ crown.118 The scene is explained thanks to a passage from Pliny the Elder.119 He says   Vermaseren and van Essen, Santa Prisca, 476-498 = CIMRM 485.   S. Panciera, “Il materiale epigrafico dallo scavo del mitreo di S. Stefano Rotondo”, in Mysteria Mithrae. Atti del Seminario Internazionale Roma and Ostia 28-31 Marzo 1978, ed. U. Bianchi, EPRO 80, Leiden 1979, 87-127, part. 103, casts some doubts on the reading by the first editor, A. Ferrua, who read: et nos servasti eternali sanguine fuso, because eternali has almost disappeared, and servasti is also hardly visible. Every archaeologist and every restorer know that ancient frescoes are visible just after the excavation and the cleaning, better if they are wet, but frescoes undergo a rapid deterioration if not treated duly by specialists. Therefore, no wonder if the inscription is less readable than during the excavation. 110   Some quotations in The Mysteries of Mithras, chap. I, § 10. 111   See R. Gordon, “‘Den Jungstier auf den goldenen Schultern tragen’: Mythos, Ritual und Jenseitsvorstellungen im Mithraskult”, in Burial Rituals, Ideas of Afterlife, and the Individual in the Hellenistic World and the Roman Empire, eds. K. Waldner, R. Gordon, and W. Spickermann, PawB 57, Stuttgart 2016, 207-229. 112   Ph. Adrych, R. Bracey, D. Dalglish, S. Lenk, R. Wood, Images of Mithra, Oxford 2017, 34. 113  Porphyr., de antro 24 who asserts that Mithras was the promoter of generation because he was placed over the bull and the sign of Taurus is the zodiacal “house” of Venus, goddess of generation. See Commodianus, Instructiones 1.13. Among the modern scholars see for ex. A. Loisy, Les mystères païens et le mystère chrétien, Paris 1914, 194. 114   La soteriologia dei culti orientali nell’Impero Romano, eds. U. Bianchi and M. J. Vermaseren, EPRO 92, Leiden 1982. See especially M. Leglay, “Remarques sur la notion de Salus dans la religion romaine”, in La soteriologia, 427-444. 115   R. Turcan, “Salut Mithriaque et soteriologie neoplatonicienne”, in La soteriologia dei culti orientali, 103-105 = Recherches mithriaques, 85-108. 116   R. Beck, Planetary Gods and Planetary Orders in the Mysteries of Mithras, EPRO 109, Leiden 1988, 78. 117   Manil. II.509: “Capricorn gazed at him”. On January 13th (or 16th), 27 BC, under the sign of Capricorn, he became the Emperor by receiving the imperial powers from the Senate and the surname of Augustus. 118   See for ex. K. Galinsky, Augustan Culture, Princeton 1996, 120-121; R. Neudecker, “La Gemma Augustea”, in Apoteosi. Da uomini a dei. Exhibition Rome 2014, eds. L. Abbondanza, F. Coarelli, and E. Lo Sardo, Rome 2014, 170-173. 119  Plin., N.h. 16.10: coronam … civicam a genere humano accepit ipse. On this crown of Augustus see Ovid., Trist. 3.1.47-48; Val. Max. 2.8.7; Cass. Dio 53.16.4, and several coin issues in 27 and 23 BC: A. Alföldi, Der Vater des Vaterlandes im römischen Denken, Darmstadt 1971, 106; E. Todisco, 108 109

40

Mithras and the Golden Age

Fig. 2.17. The Barberini Mithraeum and Mithras under Libra, illuminated by a sunbeam passing through Capricorn. Detail of the Gemma Augustea depicting Augustus receiving the corona civica under Capricorn

Fig. 2.18. The Gemma Augustea. Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. From Furtwängler, Die antiken Gemmen, I, Leipzig and Berlin 1900

41

The Mithraic Prophecy that heroes who rescued one citizen or many citizens received a corona civica, a crown of oak leaves, from the hands of their general, but Augustus received the corona civica from the whole of humanity. Pliny adds that Augustus rescued the people of Rome at the end of the savage Civil Wars and thereby deserved this ‘civic’ crown. The crown was decreed by the Senate when Augustus saved the world and received the imperial powers. We compare the two scenes.

Fig. 2.19. Mithras killing the bull and Victory killing the bull (from the arch of Trajan in Beneventum)

And another comparison helps understand the meaning of the Tauroctony as “Victory”. As I have already said, from the time of Augustus onward images of Victory killing the bull were exceedingly popular (fig. 2.20), and occurred even on lamps and many terracotta slabs (“lastre Campana”) which decorated the roofs of porticos and other temple-annexes of the Augustan Age. Under Trajan, images of Victory killing the bull were again popular, as one can see on the Trajan arc at Benevento (fig. 2.19)120 and on the reliefs from the Trajanic Forum, now in the Glyptothek at Munich. That could only mean that most people were able to recognize what the Tauroctony stood for. On both Imperial triumphs and Mithraic tauroctonies, the bull is often decorated with a sacrificial ribbon, and this is proof that Mithras was not sacrificing a divine animal, at the origin of the world, but was celebrating the victory of a Roman Emperor. In Augustan ideology the bull had a precise meaning: it represented the enemy of the Romans. In fact, in the Roman iconography, the head of a bull was a symbol of evil, possibly trampled by the feet of Salus, the goddess of good health. A statue of Hygieia-Salus from Cologne represents the goddess with her foot on a bull’s head.121 Several images of Hercules also show him holding his club, which similarly rests on a bull’s head.122 Nemesis is sometimes represented with a bull’s head under her foot.123 Moreover, Christopher Faraone124 has shown that the attacking animals were enemies of the bull and harmed it in a manner similar to that of the animals and daggers attacking the Evil Eye in images recurring in the Imperial Age. On the other hand, the bull’s blood was supposedly, and notoriously venomous125. We can add that ravens, too, were supposedly enemies of bulls, at whose eyes these birds took careful aim and conceivably pecked them out.126 The blood, shed by Mithras and drunk by the animals depicted in the scene, was a source of salvation, salus in Latin, σωτηρία in Greek. The salvation alluded to in the inscription did not occur during the initiations into the Mithraic mysteries but during the sacrifice of the bull. The salvation depended on the victory of the god and on what occurred under Capricorn. We saw that Augustus received this name under Capricorn along with the oak crown, which celebrated salvation. “La res publica restituta e i Fasti Praenestini”, in Epigrafia e territorio. Politica e società, VIII, Bari 2007, 342-358. 120   See A.B. Griffith, “Mithras, Death, and Redemption in Statius, ‘Thebaid’ I, 719-720”, Latomus 60, 2001, 108-123, part. 122. 121   H. Schoppa, Römische Götterdenkmäler in Köln, Cologne 1959, 67-68, pl. 80; F. Fremersdorf, Urkunden zur Kölner Stadtgeschichte aus römischer Zeit, 2nd ed., Cologne 1963, 65, pl. 131. 122   J. Boardman, “Herakles”, LIMC IV (1988), 728-838, part. 752-3, nos. 439 and 466; 765, no. 735; L. Todisco, “Un frammento di statua al museo di Lecce e i tipi di Eracle e Melpomene con testa taurina sotto la clava”, Archeologia Classica 31, 1979, 141-157; and the gem in the Cabinet des Médailles: A. Mastrocinque, Les intailles magiques du département des Monnaies, Médailles et Antiques de la Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris 2014, no. 405. On an Etruscan Hellenistic ossuary from Volterra, Theseus is depicted placing his foot on a bull’s head: J. Bažant, “Minos”, LIMC VI (1992), no. 28, and F. Jurgeit, “Ariadne/Ariatha”, LIMC III (1986), no. 5. 123   See P. Karanastassi, “Nemesis”, LIMC VI, no. 183. 124   Ch.A. Faraone, “The Amuletic Design of the Mithraic Bull­Wounding Scene”, JRS 103, 2013, 1­21. 125   See, in particular, Strabo I.3.21 = 61. Verg., Georg. 4.285 speaks of iuvencum insincerus cruor. 126  Aristot., Hist. an. 609 b 5-7.

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Mithras and the Golden Age

Fig. 2.20. Augustus and the celebration of his victory over Armenia (from internet acsearch.info. Numismatica Ars Classica auctions)

We read the following words in the Res gestae divi Augusti 34: rem publicam 
ex mea potestate in senatus populique Romani arbitrium transtuli. 
Quo pro merito meo senatu[s consulto Augustus appe]llatus sum et laureis 
postes aedium mearum v[estiti] publ[ice coro]naque civica super 
ianuam meam fixa est. I transferred the Republic from my own control to the will of the Senate and the Roman people. For this service on my part I was given the title of Augustus by decree of the senate, and the doorposts of my house were covered with laurels by public act, and a civic crown was fixed above my door. And in the Fasti Praenestini: corona querc[ea uti super ianuam domus Imp(eratoris) Caesaris] / Augusti poner[etur senatus decrevit quod rem publicam] / p(opulo) R(omano) rest[it]u[it] (Inscr.It. XIII.2, 17). the Senate decreed that a crown of oak leaves be placed above the door of the Emperor Caesar Augustus because he gave back to the Roman people the control of the Republic. This crown is often depicted on coins of Augustus and other subsequent emperors. The reason for the crown is enclosed within it with the words ob civis servatos or ob cives servatos, also abbreviated as OBCS: “because of the safety he warranted to the citizens” (figs. 2.20 and 2.21). Augustus, in fact, vanquished all his enemies but did not become a tyrant, and thus people enjoyed peace and prosperity. This was the kind of salvation that Mithras could provide for the Roman people, as well. According to Propertius,127 Apollo himself styled Octavian mundi servator: “saviour of the world”. The inhabitants of Zacynthos called him “saviour”128 and the same was also done by all those who set sail or who came into harbour. 129 This was the salus which the inscription on the Mithraeum of Santa Prisca alluded to with the words et nos servasti, because there was only one salus that was provided to humanity under Capricorn. What could have been the salus that a Roman expected from his worship of Mithras? It could not have been very different from the salus that Augustus provided the Roman Empire with. We are wont to identify salvation with the salvation guaranteed by our religion, salvation of the soul after death, this is the only religious salvation we can conceive, but the Romans thought differently. Also, in Persia the divine saviour rescued the better part of humankind from evil and the demons, as we will see in the third chapter. An inscription from Priene reports a letter of the Roman governor concerning the beginning of the year which should be moved to the birthday of Augustus130, because “he changed the image of the whole cosmos”, because “his birth was the beginning of life and existence”.   Prop. 4.6.37.   Nicolaus Dam., FHG III, fr. 99. Early in 40 BC, after the peace of Brundisium, Octavian and Antony were extolled by the people who offered to them “sacrifices as if they were saviour gods”: App., Bell. Civ. 5.74: αὐτοῖς οἷα σωτῆρσιν ἐγίγνοντο θυσίαι. Subsequent emperors were also hailed as “saviours”: see for ex. IG V.2, 128; A. Rehm. Didyma, II. Die Inschriften, Berlin 1958, no. 119; Tituli Asiae Minoris, II, Vienna 1920-1944, nos. 1187; 1192; 1195 (Hadrian); IG IV.2, 132 (Antoninus Pius). See D. Erkelenz, “Keine Konkurrent zum Kaiser - Zur Verleihung der Titel Κτίστες und Σωτήρ in der römischen Kaiserzeit”, Studia Classica Israelica 21, 2002, 61-77. 129  Philo, Legatio ad Gaium 151. 130   OGIS 458; SEG IV, 490; F. Hiller von Gaertringen, Inschriften von Priene, Berlin 1906, no. 105; R.K. Sherk, Roman Documents from the Greek East, Baltimore 1969, no. 65a. 127 128

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The Mithraic Prophecy

Fig. 2.21. Denarius of Augustus depicting the corona civica with the inscription Ob civis servatos. (From internet acsearch.info. Roma Numismatics auctions)

Fig. 2.22. Aureus of Claudius depicting the corona civica with the inscription Ob C(ives) S(ervatos). (From internet acsearch. info. Roma Numismatics auctions)

In Asia Minor, every worshipper of Mithras recognized that the festival of Augustus for his birthday recurred at the same time as that for Mithras, at the autumnal equinox. The temple of Apollo close to the theatre of Marcellus, also known as the temple of Apollo Sosianus, was dedicated on 23 September, on the very day of Augustus’ birth.131 That is sufficient to show how important the key dates of the princeps’ life were: his birth and his elevation to the imperial power, under Lyra and Capricorn, respectively. In a cult that has been conceived in the 1st century AD, the mysteries of Mithras, the emphasis on those two zodiacal signs associated with the god’s victory could not be unrelated to an awareness that these were pivots in the Augustan ideology and cult. 2.10. The Final Episodes on Mithraic Panels Scenes preceding the sacrifice show how Mithras took hold of the bull. In the scene labelled Transitus Mithras is shown dragging the bull by its hind legs (fig. 2.23). As Patricia Johnston132 and Luciano Albanese recently underscored,133 this attitude alludes to the Homeric myth of Hermes stealing Apollo’s cattle. Hermes made the bull imprint footprints going in the opposite direction, in order to deceive Apollo in his pursuit. Porphyry (de antro 18) labels Mithras “stealer of oxen”: βουκλόπος θεός, and Firmicus Maternus also confirms this when he says: Μύστα βοοκλοπίης (“O initiate of the theft of cattle”). Commodianus (3rd–4th cent. AD) devoted a poem to this theft.134 Mercury is depicted in some Mithraea and several dedications call him deus Mercurius Mithra,135 or deus Invictus Mithra Mercurius.136 In the late 1st century BC, in the inscription from the Nemrug Dagh, Mithras is called “Apollo Mithras Helios Hermes”137 Mercury was, on the other hand, a reference god in the Augustan ideology. The second Ode of Horace’s first book includes prayers to many gods requesting peace after the Civil Wars and ends with the divine Augustus being envisioned as an earthly manifestation of Mercury. His verses are the following:

  Fasti Arvalium, CIL I2, p. 215 ad 23 October (cut on a previously written date).   M.J. Edwards, “Porphyry and the ‘Cattle-Stealing God’”, Hermes 121, 1993, 122-125; P. Johnston, “The Importance of Cattle in the Myths of Hercules and Mithras”, in Animals in Greek and Roman Religion and Myth. Proceedings of the Symposium. Grumento Nova 2013, eds. P.A. Johnston, A. Mastrocinque, and S. Papaioannou, New Castle upon Tyne 2016, 281-298, part. 283. 133   L. Albanese, “Porphyry, the Cave of the Nymphs, and the Mysteries of Mithras”, Acta Antiqua 58, 2018, 681-691. 134  Commodianus, Instructiones I.13. 135   E. Espérandieu, Inscriptions latines de Gaule (Narbonnaise), Paris 1929, no. 161 = V.J. Walters, The Cult of Mithras in the Provinces of Gaul, EPRO 41, Leiden 1974, no. 46. 136   CIMRM 1211; cf. 1046; 1267, 1351. 137   CIMRM 32, l. 55. 131 132

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Mithras and the Golden Age

Fig. 2.23. Mithraic sculpture from Poetovio depicting the “Transitus”. With the kind permission of the Ptuj, Ormož Regional Museum

45

The Mithraic Prophecy sive mutata iuvenem figura ales in terris imitaris almae filius Maiae patiens vocari Caesaris ultor, serus in caelum redeas diuque laetus intersis populo Quirini … Or you, the winged son of nurturing Maia, who allows himself to be called the avenger of Caesar; you represent upon earth this young man, having changed your own shape. Late may you return to heaven and long may you joyfully be present with the people of Quirinus…138 The Commagenian Mithras, on the other hand, was identified with both Apollo-Helios and Hermes, and this helps explain why Mithras imitated Hermes in stealing a bull. The final act of the Homeric hymn to Hermes was the gift of the lyre to Apollo, and the Augustan ideology supposed that Apollo, after the Civil Wars, abandoned his bow and devoted his attention to playing the lyre as the lord of culture and arts. After describing the battle of Actium, Propertius writes: bella satis cecini: citharam iam poscit Apollo victor et ad placidos exuit arma choros. I have sung of war enough: Apollo the victor now demands the lyre, and sheds his weapons for the dance of peace.139 Mercury and the lyre were depicted in both Mithraea and Augustan coins. In the following series of panels, which are often placed right, we see Mithras receiving the submission of Sol, who is kneeling; then Sol receives his crown by the hands of Mithras; Sol shakes hands with Mithras; Mithras ascends the chariot of Sol, and has a final banquet with him. I repeat here the interpretation I gave in The Mysteries of Mithras. The strange image of Mithras threatening Sol (perhaps even beating him) with a club or a cap or something else also must have historical meaning in the Mithraic prophecy, if we see it from the perspective of the Tiberian succession. Tiberius, in 6 BC, left Rome, perhaps because Augustus had adopted his grandsons Gaius and Lucius as potential successors. Later on, Tiberius begged to be allowed to return to Rome, but Augustus refused.140 In the subsequent year, charges were brought against him for having plotted against Gaius, but he was subsequently acquitted after enduring many setbacks.141 In 2 AD Gaius gave his consent and Tiberius came back to Rome as a private citizen.142 After the death of Lucius and Gaius, in 2 AD and 4 AD, respectively, Tiberius was adopted by Augustus and became the heir to the Roman Empire on 26 June, 4 AD.143 After many victories, Tiberius could celebrate his deserved triumph in Rome, in 12 AD. Upon his triumphal arrival in the city, he assumed the same posture as that of Sol before Mithras, as on Mithraic predellas, by kneeling before his adoptive father, Augustus, as Suetonius reports: A Germania in urbem post biennium regressus triumphum, quem distulerat, egit prosequentibus etiam legatis, quibus triumphalia ornamenta impetrarat. Ac prius quam in Capitolium flecteret, descendit e curru seque praesidenti patri ad genua summisit.

 Hor., Carm. 1.2.41-46. On a temple to Mercury rebuilt by Augustus in Rome, in 10 BC, see M.A. Andrews and H.I. Flower, “Mercury on the Esquiline: A Reconsideration of a Local Shrine restored by Augustus”, AJA 119, 2015, 47-67. 139   Prop. 4.6.69-70; transl. Kline. 140  Suet., Tib. 11. 141  Suet., Tib. 12; Cass. Dio 55.10.19; Vell. Pat. 2.101.1. 142  Suet., Tib. 13; Cass. Dio 55.10a.10. 143  Suet., Aug. 65; Tib. 15; Cal. 1; Cass. Dio 55.13.2; Vell. Pat. 2.103; see, for ex. R. Seager, Tiberius, London 1972, 33-37. 138

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Mithras and the Golden Age After two years he returned to the city from Germany and celebrated the triumph which he had postponed, accompanied also by his generals, for whom he had obtained the triumphal regalia. And before turning to enter the Capitol, he dismounted from his chariot and fell at the knees of his father, who was presiding over the ceremonies.144 On 19 August, 14 AD Augustus died and in September, Tiberius let the Senate approve the apotheosis of Augustus and the related ceremony. Augustus thus ascended to heaven, where he received honours as an Apollonian and solar god. The Mithraic interpretation of this ‘story’ of the Roman Empire could not exclude Tiberius’ recognized succession as Augustus’ adoptive heir. On the right predellas, Sol begs Mithras to be merciful and does not wear any crown; Sol kneels in front of Mithras. But subsequently, they shake hands and celebrate their accord, close to an altar. Sol takes Mithras to the heavens and they share a symposiac meal together. This is the story of the foundation of the Roman Empire. We summarize the identified sources and the historical meaning of these scenes: Sources Virgil Hesiod & Virgil

men from the trees

Plato

birth of Mithras

Theogony

Mithras harvesting

Mithras’ archery, honey oozing

The gods

ox in a boat, animals in a cattle shed

cattle, sheep, goats and shepherds

Transitus Sol’s submission

Saturn’s dream

Sol’s coronation

Gigantomachy

Mithras’ flight on chariot

Cautopates MITHRAS Cautes Victory

Saturn gives thunders to Jupiter

Homeric Hymn to Hermes

Roman history

Dinner

The most important Virgilian references molli paulatim flavescet campus arista

quercus sudabunt roscida mella

ille deum vitam accipiet divisque videbit

nec nautica pinus mutabit merces… tauris iuga solvet arator

ipsae lacte domum referent distenta capellae ubera

nova progenies caelo demittitur

men from the trees

tu modo nascenti puero

birth of Mithras

Sol’s submission

redeunt Saturnia regna

Saturn’s dream

Sol’s coronation

progenies ferrea desinet

Gigantomachy

Mithras harvesting

Mithras’ archery, honey oozing

The gods

ox in a boat, animals in a cattle shed

Cautopates MITHRAS Cautes

Saturn gives thunders to Jupiter

cattle, sheep, goats, and shepherds

Transitus

Mithras’ flight on chariot dinner

 Suet., Tib. 20; transl. Rolfe. The Gemma Augustea, in Vienna, probably depicts the scene of Tiberius’ triumph (on the left one can see a young man getting off from the cart) : R. Neudecker, “La Gemma Augustea”, in Apoteosi. Da uomini a dei. Exhibition Rome 2014, eds. L. Abbondanza, F. Coarelli, and E. Lo Sardo, Rome 2014, 170-173. 144

47

The Mithraic Prophecy Meaning The Golden Age under Octavian Birth of a new generation

Men from trees

Augustus’ birth

Birth of Mithras Saturn’s dream

Civil Wars Republic

Mithras harvesting

Capricorn

Mithras archer, honey oozing

the gods

ox in a boat, animals in a cattle shed

Libra

Gigantomachy Cautopates MITHRAS Cautes Emperor’s Victory and Triumph Saturn gives thunders to Jupiter

cattle, sheep, goats and shepherds

Transitus

Apollo stops fighting and plays lyre

Sol’s submission

Tiberius’ submission

Sol’s coronation

Tiberius’ adoption

Mithras’ flight on chariot

Augustus’ apotheosis

Dinner

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3 The Origin of the Virgilian Prophecy 3.1. Virgil and Isaiah Theoretically, scholars should be scandalized because the Virgilian prophecy in the fourth Eclogue was interpreted as a prophecy of the coming of Jesus Christ. We have seen that the child, leader of the new age in the Eclogue, was not Octavian but, in the Aeneid, Virgil speaks of many prophecies predicting the coming of Octavian. This Virgilian prophecy, like many others, could be interpreted as referring to different heroes and divine persons (such as Jesus), according to different circumstances. Actually, nobody wonders in reading that many Christians took the Virgilian prophecy as a prediction of the coming of Jesus. Many Christian authors interpreted it in this way, and Constantine even translated this Virgilian poetry into Greek by removing the pagan flavour and making more explicit the Christian content, but everybody wonders by reading that a prophecy similar to that in Virgil was used to predict the coming of Mithras in the guise of Augustus. Nobody would believe that the Old Testament forecasted the coming of a Roman emperor. But actually, a Pharisee such as Flavius Josephus interpreted some passages of the Bible as prophecies concerning the empire of Vespasian, and he told him that he and his son Titus were to become emperors.1 Therefore it is not impossible that a pro-Roman intellectual, acquainted with Mithras and Persian religion, recognized some passages in the Persian sacred texts which could be referred to Augustus and conceived a prophecy by using the fourth Eclogue of Virgil and possibly other apocalyptic prophecies. Every scholar who believes to be wise, cannot admit a Virgilian influence on Mithraism, cannot accept that the Mithraic prophecy was similar to that of the Virgilian Sibyl, even though fourteen details of the Virgilian prophecy recur, with little changes, also in the Mithraic iconography. We believe, instead, that the Mithraic iconography depends on such a prophecy. As the series of parallel details is impressive and convincing, we go forth by studying what kind of prophecy was that of the Virgilian Sibyl. A dependence on Isaiah’s prophecies has been hypothesized, but we will see that important connections can be identified in olden Italic traditions, as well, and possibly in some Iranian prophecies. Virgil was not the sole author to conceive such a series of events in a prophecy. Some scholars pointed to the oriental origins of the Virgilian prophecy. In particular, Edouard Norden pointed to Egypt2 and Robert George Nisbet, Nicholas Horsfall, and Jan Bremmer to Judaea3. Similarities between Virgil’s description of the Golden Age and a prophecy of Isaiah are striking: Virgil (Kline version)

Isaiah 11.1–9 (King James version)

Only favour the child who’s born, pure Lucina, under whom the first race of iron shall end, and a golden race rise up throughout the world … And for you, boy, the uncultivated earth will pour out her first little gifts, straggling ivy and cyclamen everywhere and the bean flower with the smiling acanthus.

And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots. 11:2  And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord. 11:3  And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears.

  Ios., B.I. 3, 8.9.400-402; 4, 10.7.626; Suet., Vesp. 5.   E. Norden, Die Geburt des Kindes, Leipzig and Berlin 1924. 3   R.G.M. Nisbet, “Virgil’s fourth Eclogue: Easterners and Westerners”, BICS 25, 1978, 59-78; N. Horsfall, “Vergil and the Jews” Vergilius 58, 2012, 67-80; Id., “Vergil and Jewish Scholars”, Verglius 60, 2014, 191-92; J.N. Bremmer, “The Golden Bough: Orphic Eleusinian and Hellenistic-Jewish Sources of Vergil’s Underworld in Aeneid VI”, Kernos 22, 2009, 183-208; Id., “Vergil and Jewish Literature”, Vergilius 59, 2013, 157-64. Cf. F. Marx, “Virgils vierte Ekloge”, Neue Jahrbücher für das klassische Altertum 1, 1898, 105-128, part. 121-124; L.H. Feldman, “Asinius Pollio and his Jewish Interests”, TAPhA 84, 1953, 73-80. 1 2

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The Mithraic Prophecy The goats will come home themselves, their udders swollen with milk, and the cattle will have no fear of fierce lions: Your cradle itself will pour out delightful flowers: And the snakes will die, and deceitful poisonous herbs will wither: Assyrian spice plants will spring up everywhere.

11:4  But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth: with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. 11:5  And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins. 11:6  The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. 11:7  And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. 11:8  And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’ den. 11:9  They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord , as the waters cover the sea.

Moreover, Julia Dyson Hejduk4 singled out the acrostic ISAIA AIT (“Isaiah says”) in Virgil, Georg. 4.458–465. An interview between Asinius Pollio and Herod,5 in 40 BC, when Pollio was consul, has been supposed to have been an opportune moment for such a cultural transfer. The 1st book of Enoch6 and the collection of Jewish and Christian oracles known as Oracula Sibyllina encouraged such a hypothesis because of its numerous predictions of the final era of the world and the dependence on Isaiah in the description of the Golden Age:7 Orac. Sibyll. 3.788–793

transl. Collins

ἠδὲ λύκοι τε καὶ ἄρνες ἐν οὔρεσιν ἄμμιγ’ ἔδονται χόρτον, παρδάλιές τ’ ἐρίφοις ἅμα βοσκήσονται· ἄρκτοι σὺν μόσχοις νομάδες αὐλισθήσονται· σαρκοβόρος τε λέων φάγεται ἄχυρον παρὰ φάτνῃ ὡς βοῦς· καὶ παῖδες μάλα νήπιοι ἐν δεσμοῖσιν ἄξουσιν· πηρὸν γὰρ ἐπὶ χθονὶ θῆρα ποιήσει.

Wolves and lambs will eat grass together in the mountains. Leopards will feed together with kids. Roving bears will spend the night with calves. The flesh-eating lion will eat husks at the manger like an ox, and mere infant children will lead them with ropes. For he will make the beasts on earth harmless. Serpents and asps will sleep with babies and will not harm them, for the hand of God will be upon them.

Virgil 22–25 (Kline version)

Isaiah 11.1–9 (King James version)

the cattle will have no fear of fierce lions: Your cradle itself will pour out delightful flowers: And the snakes will die, and deceitful poisonous herbs will wither

11:6  The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. 11:7  And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. 11:8  And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’ den.

It is evident that the apocalyptic context is similar in these authors, but the Oracula are more similar to Isaiah than to Virgil, who depended on a slightly different tradition. In addition to these possible biblical influences on Virgil, an important detail – the goats coming home spontaneously – allows us to explain Virgil by means of another model. Livy describes a prodigy occurring to animals living close to the temple of Hera/Juno in Croton: sex milia aberat in [urbe nobili] templum, ipsa urbe [erat] nobilius, Laciniae Iunonis, sanctum omnibus circa populis; lucus ibi frequenti silua et proceris abietis arboribus saeptus laeta in medio pascua habuit, ubi omnis generis sacrum deae pecus pascebatur sine ullo pastore, separatimque greges sui cuiusque generis nocte remeabant ad stabula, nunquam insidiis ferarum, non fraude uiolati hominum. Six miles from the famous city was a temple more famous than the city itself, that of Lacinian Juno, revered by all the surrounding peoples. There a sacred grove, which was enclosed by dense woods and tall fir-trees, had in its centre   J. Dyson Hejduk, “Was Vergil reading the Bible? Original Sin and an astonishing Acrostic in the Orpheus and Eurydice”, Vergilius 64, 2018, 71-102.  Ioseph. A.I. 14.388; 15.343. 6   See the quoted articles by Horsfall and Bremmer. 7   Orac. Sibyll. 3.788-793. The Christian redaction of the original Jewish collection of oracles can be dated after 70 AD: A. Yarbro Collins, Cosmology and Escatology in Jewish and Christian Apocalypticism, Journal for the Study of Judaism Suppl. 50, Leiden, New York, and Cologne 1996, 117. 4 5

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The Origin of the Virgilian Prophecy luxuriant pastures, where cattle of all kinds, being sacred to the goddess, used to pasture without any herder. And at night the flocks of each kind would return separately to their stalls, never being harmed by wild beasts lying in wait, or by the dishonesty of men.8 Some sacred precincts in the Greek and Italic world were supposed to offer shelter to animals and men, and they were at the origin of the ancient asylum right.9 Animals lived close to some temples in different areas of the Mediterranean area and the Near East, and were supposed to be tame, healthier, more beautiful, and bigger than the normal animals,10 never harmed by predators and hunters. A peaceful and happy life was supposed to be offered within those sacred precincts and the gods and goddesses patronizing them were often deities of wildlife, such as Artemis and Diana. The sacred precinct of Diana on the Aventine hill also gave protection to slaves from their pursuing masters and they were dealt with as if they were stags (servi = cervi).11 Freedom of slaves was another feature of the Saturn’s/Kronos’ reign and the festival of Saturnalia was characterized by their freedom. The Roman festival was recurring between 17 and 23 December, a period when agricultural works were suspended and people could have rest and leisure for playing, taking pleasure from gifts and dinners. The mythical era of Saturn/Kronos was that of the world before Jupiter/Zeus’ kingship when the social rules and hierarchy were established.12 We infer that the description of the Golden Age in Virgil depended, at least partially, on Italian and/or Greek traditions. Another connection with Jewish prophecies and, in case, Jewish apocalyptic traditions, resides in the Virgilian verses: nec varios discet mentiri lana colores ipse sed in pratis aries iam suave rubenti murice, iam croceo mutabit vellera luto; sponte sua sandyx pascentis vestiet agnos. (vv. 42–45) Nor shall the wool learn to counterfeit various colours; But the ram himself in the meadows shall change his fleece, Now for a sweetly blushing purple, now for saffron dye; Scarlet of its own accord shall cover the lambs as they feed. Important comparisons can be found in the VIII book of Henoch, a non-canonic, Hellenistic book of the Bible where the so-called Apocalypse of Henoch is reported. In this context, the dyeing of cloths is included in the teaching by wicked angels who became demons when they came down to earth. They allegedly taught women about magical arts, corruption of mankind, among whom the dyeing of cloths (τὰ βαφικά) is mentioned.13 Based on Henoch are several statements of Christian authors, such as Cyprian (3rd cent.), De habitu virginum 14: Neque enim Deus coccineas aut purpureas oves fecit aut herbarum sucis at conchyliis tingere et colorare lanas docuit… quae omnia peccatores et apostatae angeli suis artibus docuerunt. In fact, God did not make the sheep red or purple and did not teach how to dye wool with vegetal saps and purple shellfishes… the sinner and apostate angels taught all these things with their (maleficent) arts. Commodianus (3rd cent.), Instructiones 1.3.9–10 says: Ab ipsis (scil. a Gigantibus, angelorum filiis) in terra artis prolatae fuerunt et tingere lanas docuerunt. By them (the Giants, sons of angels) the arts were made known in the earth, and they taught the dyeing of wool. (transl. Cleveland Coxe) This bias against dyeing did not affect the traditional use of purple (in Rome, children and senators wore togas with a red stripe below), but the Hellenistic art of dyeing, which was a part of alchemy in its early stages. Bolos of Mende, in the 2nd or 1st century BC, was probably the first researcher who studied the secret properties of substances and the art of   Liv. 24.3.4 f.; transl. Gardner Moore. This parallel is more important than that with Theocr., Id. 11.12.  A. Mastrocinque, “Sacred Precinct: Cattle, Hunted Animals, Slaves, Women”, in Antike Mythen. Medien, Transformationen und Konstruktionen. Festschrift Fritz Graf, eds. U. Dill and Chr. Walde, Leipzig 2009, 339-355. 10   Paus. 10.35.7. 11   Fest., p. 460 L; cf. Plut. Quaest. Rom. 100 = 287 E-F. 12   Saturn was somehow similar to the Vedic god Varuna: see D. Briquel, “Jupiter, Saturn et le Capitol. Essai de comparaison indoeuropéenne”, RHR 1982 1981, 131-162. 13   Henoch 8.1.4. 8 9

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The Mithraic Prophecy dyeing and published some works under the pseudonym of Democritus, the famous atomist and legendary pupil of the magus Ostanes. In the same vein, the Pythagorean Anaxilaos of Larissa studied the dyeing and was exiled from Rome by Augustus as a magus.14 The same fate occurred with Nigidius Figulus (see the following chapter) under Caesar. Studies of secret properties of many substances were a research field also for the authors of treatises ascribed to Zoroaster. Virgil did not share the prejudice against coloured clothes but simply considered the concern of dying a difficult task that was spared to men in the new Golden Age because animal pelts were ready with the desired colours. Crops were at disposal of men without labour, fruits were to harvest without any effort, and so coloured clothes were easy to make, without dyeing. The Christian judgment was different and considered the use of dye as a form of corruption, a diabolic deception. Before supposing that Virgil borrowed from Enoch, we only notice that Virgil knew a tradition speaking of the origin of human civilization and the previous, original age. We conclude that the tradition followed by Virgil was similar to some Jewish traditions, but with some meaningful differences which suggest that similar themes in apocalyptic prophecies recurred in many cultural environments, both in Orient and in Occident. 3.2. The Testimony of Nigidius Figulus During the Social War, some Etruscan landowners spread a prophecy allegedly uttered by the Nymph Vegoia, forecasting the chaos and the end of the Etruscan world to whom Jupiter allotted eight saecula.15 A few years later, during the war between Marius and Sulla, Etruscan prophecies forecasted again the end of the final epoch of Etruria, as we can read in Plutarch’s Life of Sulla 7: But most important of all, out of a cloudless and clear air there rang out the voice of a trumpet, prolonging a shrill and dismal note, so that all were amazed and terrified at its loudness. The Tuscan wise men declared that the prodigy foretokened a change of conditions and the advent of a new age. For according to them there are eight ages in all, differing from one another in the lives and customs of men, and to each of these God has appointed a definite number of times and seasons, which is completed by the circuit of a great year.16 Virgil celebrated the reign of Apollo, who was the god of the Golden Age.17 In his commentary of the Virgilian verses, Servius18 quotes a passage from Nigidius Figulus speaking of this Apollonian reign. The famous Pythagorean and Cicero’s friend Nigidius Figulus, styled by Suetonius Pythagoricus et magus,19 was condemned by Caesar and died in exile in 45 BC. He is supposed to have foretold the greatness of Octavian on the very day of his birth.20 Nigidius also discussed the historical theory, according to which the history of our world was divided into four eras, each one ruled by a specific god: Nigidius de diis lib. IV. “quidam deos et eorum genera temporibus et aetatibus , inter quos et Orpheus primum regnum Saturni, deinde Iovis, tum Neptuni, inde Plutonis; nonnulli etiam, ut magi, aiunt, Apollinis fore regnum: in quo videndum est, ne ardorem, sive illa ecpyrosis appellanda est, dicant”. Nigidius, in the 4th book of his work on the gods, says: “Some authors distinguish the gods and their kind according to times and periods. Among these authors Orpheus said that the first reign was that of Saturn, then that of Jupiter, and  Euseb., Chron. (Hier.), II, p.141 Schoene; on these researchers see M. Wellmann, Die ΦΥΣΙΚΑ des Bolos und der Magier Anaxilaos aus Larissa, I, Abh.Preuss.Akad., Berlin 1928, VII. 15   Gromatici veteres, I, 350 Lachmann; see J. Heurgon, “The Date of Vegoia’s Prophecy”, JRS 49, 1959, 41-45; M. Sordi, “L’idea di crisi e di rinnovamento nella concezione etrusco-romana della storia”, in ANRW, I.2, 1972, 781-793, part. 783; A. Valvo, La «profezia di Vegoia», proprietà fondiaria e aruspicina in Etruria nel I sec. a. C., Rome 1988; D. Briquel, “Millenarismo e secoli etruschi”, Minerva 15, 2001, 263-278; A. Mastrocinque, “L’incendio del Campidoglio e la fine del saeculum etrusco, Gerión 23, 2005, 137-142. 16  Plut., Sulla 7; transl. Perrin. 17   L. Kronenberg, “The Tenth of Age of Apollo and a New Acrostic in Eclogue 4”, Philologus 161, 2017, 337-339, singled out a syllabic “gammaacrostic” in Verg., Ecl. 4.9-11 where one can recognize the word decate, “the tenth”, in Greek. As the acrostic begins with the verse desinet ac toto surget gens aurea mundo, it is possible that Virgil knew of a ten-ages theory. 18  Serv., in Ecl. 4.10. 19   Suet., fr. 85 Reifferscheid. 20  Suet., Aug. 94; Cass. Dio, Excerpta Salmasiana, p. 763 Boissevain. 14

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The Origin of the Virgilian Prophecy subsequently those of Neptunus, and Pluto. Several other authors, among whom were the Magi, say that the reign of Apollo was forthcoming. In this account one should recognize that they did not speak of combustion or the so-called ekpyrosis (universal conflagration)”.21 Nigidius was told to have performed a mantic seance employing an enchanted boy.22 This was probably one of the rituals of hydromancy, known thanks to many recipes in the magical papyri and, according to Varro, typical of Persian rituals.23 Strabo24 recalls that Magi, necromancers, lekanomantes, and hydromantes practised their arts among the Persians. The prophecy “of the Magi” shared with Virgil the idea of great historical cycles and the reign of Apollo during the final era.25 These are not the sole similarities between the Virgilian and the Persian prophecies and we will see that it is useful to look at Iranian traditions to find other comparisons. But, before dealing with these traditions, we should acknowledge that only a minimal part of apocalyptic prophecies is preserved and there are two main reasons for this: in the Roman Empire oracular inquiries concerning the emperor or the Roman Empire were forbidden, and an enormous amount of prophecies has been burned, starting from the reign of Augustus. Suetonius writes that, in 12 BC, the prince: Postquam vero pontificatum maximum, quem numquam vivo Lepido auferre sustinuerat, mortuo denuo demum suscepit, quidquid fatidicorum librorum Gaeci Latinique generis nullis vel parum idoneis auctoribus vulgo ferebatur, supra duo milia contracta undique cremavit ac solos retinuit Sybillinos, hos quoque dilectu habito; condiditque duobus forulis auratis sub Palatini Apollinis basi. After he finally had assumed the office of pontifex maximus on the death of Lepidus (for he could not make up his mind to deprive him of the honour while he lived) he collected whatever prophetic writings of Greek or Latin origin were in circulation anonymously or under the names of authors of little repute, and burned more than two thousand of them, retaining only the Sibylline books and making a choice even among those; and he deposited them in two gilded cases under the pedestal of the Palatine Apollo.26 The second reason resides in the oral transmission of such prophecies in Iran. The absence or scarcity of Persian apocalyptic texts between the Avesta and the medieval apocalypses does not imply that the Persians ignored or forgot the idea of the final age of the world but is due to the scarcity of written tradition. Moreover, during the expansion of the Parthian kingdom and, even more, during the period of the Sasanid kings, there was no reason to spread the idea of wicked kings, of the triumph of evil, of degradation of nature and humankind, and of the coming of a new ruler who was to change the trend of the political system. In the Roman Empire, apocalypses were often conceived by Christians oppressed by persecutions, or during periods of military crises, plagues, and natural catastrophes. 3.3. The Apocalypse of Hystaspes One of the most problematic texts among the allegedly Iranian prophecies is ascribed to the ancient Persian prince Hystaspes, a patron of Zoroaster or, according to Ammianus Marcellinus,27 the father of king Darius. This apocalyptic text is ascribed to him, but the most important fragments from it – reported by Lactantius – are included in a larger account merging quotations or imitations of Jewish prophecies, Christian apocalypses, and other prophetic texts. This prophecy is extremely important because Lactantius chose Virgil’s fourth Eclogue as the most famous pagan text describing the final Golden Age as the conclusion of the apocalyptic period. The early quotations of Hystaspes’ prophecy can be read in Justin’s first Apology (mid 2nd century AD) and Clement’s Stromata (ca. 198–203 AD): Iustin., I Apol. 20 Καὶ Σίβυλλα δὲ καὶ Ὑστάσπης γενήσεσθαι τῶν φθαρτῶν ἀνάλωσιν διὰ πυρὸς ἔφασαν. And the Sibyl and Hystaspes said that there should be a dissolution of corruptible things by fire.   Nigidius Figulus, fr. LXVII Swoboda = Serv., in Ecl. IV.10. N. D’Anna, Publio Nigidio Figulo. Un pitagorico a Roma nel I secolo a.C., Milan 2008, 39-42; cf. Id., “La dottrine astrali di Publio Nigidio Figulo”, Latomus 69, 2010, 685-601, focussed on the Figulus’ diplomatic mission in 52 (Cic., Tim. I.1 = fr. 9 Swoboda) as a meaningful episode for contacts between this author and the culture of Anatolian Magi. 22   Apul., De magia 42, after Varro; cf. Augustin., de civ. Dei 7.31.31; cf. P. Boyancé, Sur la théologie de Varron, in Études sur la religion romaine, Rome 1972, 265-7. 23  Varro, apud Augustin., de civ. Dei 7.31.31; see recently P.J. Kosmin, Time and its Adversaries in the Seleucid Empire, Cambridge Mass. 2018, 180. 24   Strab. 16.2.39, 25   The meaning of Nigidius Figulus in the Virgilian conception of the ages of the world has been investigated by N. D’Anna, Mistero e profezia. La IV Ecloga di Virgilio e il rinnovamento del mondo, Cosenza 2007, part. 87. 26   Suet., Aug. 31; transl. Rolfe. 27   Amm. Marc. 23.6.32. 21

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The Mithraic Prophecy Iustin., I Apol. 44 κατ’ ἐνέργειαν δὲ τῶν φαύλων δαιμόνων θάνατος ὡρίσθη κατὰ τῶν τὰς Ὑστάσπου ἢ Σιβύλλης ἢ τῶν προφητῶν βίβλους ἀναγινωσκόντων, ὅπως διὰ τοῦ φόβου ἀποστρέψωσιν ἐντυγχάνοντας τοὺς ἀνθρώπους τῶν καλῶν γνῶσιν λαβεῖν, αὐτοῖς δὲ δουλεύοντας κατέχωσιν· ὅπερ εἰς τέλος οὐκ ἴσχυσαν πρᾶξαι. But by the agency of bad devils death has been decreed against those who read the books of Hystaspes, or of the Sibyl, or of the prophets, that through fear they may prevent men having found them from receiving the knowledge of the good, and may retain them in slavery to themselves; but they could not succeed in this. Clem., Strom. 6.5.43 ἐπεί, ὅτι καθάπερ Ἰουδαίους σῴζεσθαι ἠβούλετο ὁ θεὸς τοὺς προφήτας διδούς, οὕτως καὶ Ἑλλήνων τοὺς δοκιμωτάτους οἰκείους αὐτῶν τῇ διαλέκτῳ προφήτας ἀναστήσας, ὡς οἷοί τε ἦσαν δέχεσθαι τὴν παρὰ τοῦ θεοῦ εὐεργεσίαν, τῶν χυδαίων ἀνθρώπων διέκρινεν, δηλώσει πρὸς τῷ Πέτρου Κηρύγματι ὁ ἀπόστολος λέγων Παῦλος· “λάβετε καὶ τὰς Ἑλληνικὰς βίβλους. ἐπίγνωτε Σίβυλλαν, ὡς δηλοῖ ἕνα θεὸν καὶ τὰ μέλλοντα ἔσεσθαι, καὶ τὸν Ὑστάσπην λαβόντες ἀνάγνωτε, καὶ εὑρήσετε πολλῷ τηλαυγέστερον καὶ σαφέστερον γεγραμμένον τὸν υἱὸν τοῦ θεοῦ, καὶ καθὼς παράταξιν ποιήσουσι τῷ Χριστῷ πολλοὶ βασιλεῖς, μισοῦντες αὐτὸν καὶ τοὺς φοροῦντας τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ καὶ τοὺς πιστοὺς αὐτοῦ, καὶ τὴν ὑπομονὴν καὶ τὴν παρουσίαν αὐτοῦ”. For that, as God wished to save the Jews by giving to them prophets, so also by raising up prophets of their own in their own tongue, as they were able to receive God’s beneficence, He distinguished the most excellent of the Greeks from the common herd, in addition to Peter’s Preaching, the Apostle Paul will show, saying: “Take also the Hellenic books, read the Sibyl, how it is shown that God is one, and how the future is indicated. And taking Hystaspes, read, and you will find much more luminously and distinctly the Son of God described, and how many kings shall draw up their forces against Christ, hating Him and those that bear His name, and His faithful ones, and His patience, and His coming.” (transl. Roberts-Donaldson, from Early Christian Fathers) The work by St Paul is otherwise unknown, maybe is apocryphal, and pertains to the early phase of the reappraisal of Zoroastrian traditions by Christians, based on Matthew’s Gospel and the famous account of the three Magi worshipping Jesus.28 Before putting Virgil and Hystaspes in comparison we should clarify the aims and the ideas that induced Lactantius to report the prophecies, and then we should single out (as far as we can) what is Jewish, what Christian, what Persian, and what Roman in this text. Lactantius merged more prophecies because they shared one fundamental scheme. The leading idea of Lactantius, in his Institutiones, was that some pagans, in particular pagan poets, had a share in the truth which was finally unveiled by Jesus Christ.29 They had only foggy notions of the truth because they were not yet enlightened by the Christian doctrine. A Christian was able to recognize the verities hidden among some words and some verses of the best pagan authors. For example, Orpheus, Homer, Hesiod, Virgil, and Ovid caught a glimpse of God’s unicity.30 The myth of Kronos/Saturn and the four ages and four metals, as in Hesiod, was re-interpreted and actualized: his reign was one of piety and equality, which was followed by Zeus/Jupiter’s age when the new ruler introduced the cults of false gods, hatred, envy, deception, wars, social inequality. Lactantius was writing shortly after the persecution by Diocletian, who especially worshipped Jupiter. The final Golden Age was still to come but the Christians anticipated it by practising aequitas and pietas. Several manuscripts of the Divinae institutiones report a final part of the work which is interpreted as an addition due to late second thoughts of the author,31 who was supposing that Constantine was inaugurating the age of justice and piety, that he was the saviour who brought light to the Empire and humankind. Shortly after Lactantius, Eusebius, in his Chronicum, published in 325 AD, did not preview any imminent final period of the world.32

  Cf., among the numerous works, G. Messina, “Una presunta profezia di Zoroastro sulla venuta del Messia”, Biblica 14, 1933, 170-198.   On the leading ideas of Lactantius cf. a recent article by M. Zambon, “«Dio ha inviato un messaggero, perché facesse tornare quell’epoca antica» (Div. inst. V 7, 1): Lattanzio interprete del mito dell’età dell’oro”, in L’età dell’oro. Mito, filosofia, immaginario, ed. C. Chiurco, Venice 2018, 104-120. 30   Lact., Inst. 1.5. 31   Cf. the edition by S. Brandt in Corpus scriptorum ecclesiasticorum Latinorum, 19. See E. Heck, Die dualistischen Zusätze und die Kaiseranreden bei Lactantius. Untersuchungen zur Textgeschichte der Divinae institutiones und der Schrift De opificio dei, Heidelberg 1972. Lactance, L’ouvrage du Dieu créateur, ed. by M. Perrin, I, Paris 1974, 86-94; B. Bakhouche, “Pour en finir avec les «additions dualistes» chez Lactance?”, in Actes du colloque sur «Entre littérature et médecine»: Le De opificio de Lactance, Montpellier 23-24 Nov. 2005 eds. B. Bakhouche and S. Luciani, Saint-Étienne 2007, 105-129; Zambon, 117-120. 32   See G. Zecchini, “Fine dell’impero romano ed escatologia”, Erga-Logoi 2.2, 2014, 7-19 (https://www.ledonline.it/index.php/Erga-Logoi/article/ view/564/582). 28 29

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The Origin of the Virgilian Prophecy In this context, the pagan prophecies forecasting the final era of justice and piety were extremely important to Lactantius because they were proof that the Christian beliefs were supported and confirmed by Jewish, Christian, and even pagan prophecies. In the seventh book of his Institutiones, Lactantius reports many passages of the prophecy, which is not a unique text but an assemblage of prophecies, mostly by the Sibyl and Hystaspes, describing the final times of the human history, staging dramatic catastrophes, impiety, and unique pains for the righteous, who prayed to their god. This latter sent a saviour king who won the wicked people and inaugurated the Golden Age. At this point, Lactantius does not quote either the Sibyl or Hystaspes, but “the poets”, who turn out to be Virgil and his fourth Eclogue. Lactantius presents thus a compound of Sibyl, Hystaspes, Hermes Trismegistus, and Virgil, creating a unique prophecy, evidently because these texts were reporting similar accounts. We report here the most relevant parts of the account from Lactantius’ Divinae Institutiones: Lactantius, Div. Inst. 7.14 ff. (CSEL 19) 14 Septenarius numerus legitimus ac plenus est: nam et dies septem sunt, quibus per vicem revolutis orbes conficiuntur annorum, et septem stellae quae non occidunt et septem sidera quae vocantur errantia, quorum dispares cursus et inaequabiles motus rerum et temporum varietates efficere creduntur... per saecula sex, id est annorum sex milia, manere in hoc statu mundum necesse est. Dies enim magnus dei mille annorum circulo terminatur... religio et veritas in his sex millibus annorum laboret necesse est, malitia praevalente atque dominante; et rursus ... necesse est ut in fine sexti millesimi anni malitia omnis aboleatur e terra et regnet per annos mille iustitia …

the number seven is legitimate and complete. For there are seven days, by the revolutions of which in order the circles of years are made up; and there are seven stars which do not set, and seven stars which are called planets, whose differing and unequal movements are believed to cause the varieties of circumstances and times… Therefore, since all the works of God were completed in six days, the world must continue in its present state through six ages, that is, six thousand years. For the great day of God is limited by a circle of a thousand years… His religion and truth must labour during these six thousand years, while wickedness prevails and bears rule. And again… at the end of the six thousandth year all wickedness must be abolished from the earth, and righteousness reign for a thousand years…

15 Here Lactantius summarizes the story of the Jews in Egypt, their exodus, and the massacre of Egyptians, where the author recognizes: praesignificatio et figura maioris rei fuit, quem deus idem in extrema temporum consummatione facturus est… Propinquante igitur huius saeculi termino humanarum rerum statum commutari necesse est et in deterius nequitia invalescente prolabi, ut iam nostra haec tempora, quibus iniquitas et malitia usque ad summum gradum crevit, in illius tamen insanabilis mali conspiratione felicia et prope aurea possint iudicari…

a foreshadowing and figure of a greater deed, which the same God was about to perform at the last consummation of the times… Therefore, as the end of this world approaches, the condition of human affairs must undergo a change, and through the prevalence of wickedness become worse; so that now these times of ours, in which iniquity and impiety have increased even to the highest degree, may be judged happy and almost golden in comparison of that incurable evil…

Cuius vastitatis et confusionis haec erit causa, quod Romanum nomen, quo nunc regitur orbis - horret animus dicere, sed dicam, quia futurum est - tolletur e terra et imperium in Asia revertetur ac rursus oriens dominabitur atque occidens serviet.

the cause of this desolation and confusion will be this; because the Roman name, by which the world is now ruled, will be taken away from the earth, and the government return to Asia; and the East will again bear rule, and the West be reduced to servitude.

Then Lactantius mentions the series of the major empires: those of Egyptians, Greeks, Assyrians, and Romans and alludes to Seneca’s theory of the old age of Rome,33 due to the Civil Wars and the end of freedom:

For it is related that the Egyptians, and Persians, and Greeks, and Assyrians had the government of the world; and after the destruction of them all, the chief power came to the Romans also… Seneca therefore not unskilfully divided the times of the Roman city by ages…

amissa enim libertate, quam Bruto duce et auctore defenderat, ita consenuit, tamquam sustentare se ipsa non valeret, nisi adminiculo regentium niteretur. Quodsi haec ita sunt, quid restat nisi ut sequatur interitus senectutem? Et id futurum brevi contiones prophetarum denuntiant sub ambage aliorum nominum, ne facile quis intellegat. Sibyllae tamen aperte inerituram esse Romam locuntur

For, having lost the liberty which it had defended under the guidance and authority of Brutus, it so grew old, as though it had no strength to support itself, unless it depended on the aid of its rulers. But if these things are so, what remains, except that death follow old age? And that it will so come to pass, the predictions of the prophets briefly announce under the cover of other names, so that no one can easily understand them. Nevertheless the

  The theme of the old age of the Roman Empire occurs in a work dated to 252/3 AD: bishop Cyprian’s Ad Demetrianum 3-5.

33

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The Mithraic Prophecy et quidem iudicio dei, quod nomen eius habuerit invisum et inimica iustitiae alumnum veritatis populum trucidarit. Hystaspes quoque, qui fuit Medorum rex antiquissimus, a quo amnis nomen accepit qui nonc Hydaspes dicitur, admirabile somnium sub interpretatione vaticinantis pueri ad memoriam posteris tradidit: sublatuiri (i.e. sublatum iri) ex orbe imperium nomenque Romanum multo ante praefatus est quam illa Troiana gens conderetur.

Sibyls openly say that Rome is doomed to perish, and that indeed by the judgment of God, because it held His name in hatred; and being the enemy of righteousness, it destroyed the people who kept the truth. Hystaspes also, who was a very ancient king of the Medes, from whom also the river which is now called Hydaspes received its name, handed down to the memory of posterity a wonderful dream upon the interpretation of a boy who uttered divinations, announcing long before the founding of the Trojan nation, that the Roman empire and name would be taken away from the world.

16 Quomodo autem id futurum sit, ne quis incredibile arbitretur, ostendam. In primis moltiplicabitur regnum et summa rerum potestas per plurimos dissipata et concisa minuetur. Tum discordiae civiles in perpetuum serentur nec ulla requies bellis exitialis erit, donec reges decem pariter existant, qui orbem terrae non ad regendum, sed ad consumendum partiantur. Hi exercitibus in immensum auctis et agrorum cultibus destitutis, quod est principium eversionis et cladis, disperdent omnia et comminuent et vorabunt. Tum repente adversus eos hostis potentissimus ab extremis finibus plagae septentrionalis orietur, qui tribus ex eo numero deletis qui tunc Asiam obtinebunt, adsumetur in societatem a ceteris ac princeps omnium constituetur. Hic insustentabili dominatione vexabit orbem, divina et humana miscebit, infanda dictu et exsecrabilia molietur, nova consilia in pectore suo volutabit, ut proprium sibi constituat imperium, leges commutet et suas sanciat, contaminabit diripiet spoliabit occidet: denique inmutato nomine atque imperii sede translata confusio ac perturbatio humani generis consequetur. Tum vero detestabile atque abominandum tempus existet, quo nulli hominum sit vita iucunda. Eruentur funditus civitates atque interibunt non modo ferro atque igni, verum etiam terrae motibus adsiduis et eluvie aquarum et morbis frequentibus et fame crebra. Aer enim vitiabitur et corruptus ac pestilens fiet modo inportunis imbribus modo inutili siccitate, nunc frigoribus nunc aestibus nimiis, nec terra homini dabit fructum: non seges quicquam, non arbor, non vitis feret, sed cum in flore spem maximam dederint, in fruge decipient. Fontes quoque cum fluminibus arescent, ut ne potus quidem suppetat, et aquae in sanguinem aut amaritudinem mutabuntur. Propter haec deficient et in terra quadrupedes et in aere volucres et in mari pisces. Prodigia quoque in caelo mirabilia mentes hominum maximo terrore confundent, et crines cometarum et solis tenebrae et color lunae et cadentium siderum lapsus. Nec tamen haec usitato modo fient, sed existent subito ignota et invisa oculis astra. Sol in perpetuum fuscabitur, ut vix inter noctem diemque discernat, luna iam non tribus deficiet horis, sed perpetuo sanguine offusa meatus extraordinarios peraget, ut non sit homini promptum aut siderum cursus aut rationem temporum agnoscere: fiet enim vel aestas in hieme vel hiemps in aestate. Tunc annus breviabitur et mensis minuetur et dies in angustum coartabitur, stellae vero creberrimae cadent, ut caelum omne caecum sine ullis luminibus appareat. Montes quoque altissimi decident et planis aequabuntur, mare innavigabile constituentur. Ac ne quid malis hominum terraeque desit, audietur e caelo tuba, quod hoc modo Sibylla denuntiat (Orac. Sib. 8.239):

But, test any one should think this incredible, I will show how it will come to pass. First, the kingdom will be enlarged, and the chief power, dispersed among many and divided, will be diminished. Then civil discords will perpetually be sown; nor will there be any rest from deadly wars, until ten kings arise at the same time, who will divide the world, not to govern, but to consume it. These, having increased their armies to an immense extent, and having deserted the cultivation of the fields, which is the beginning of overthrow and disaster, will lay waste and break in pieces and consume all things. Then a most powerful enemy will suddenly arise against him from the extreme boundaries of the northern region, who, having destroyed three of that number who shall then be in possession of Asia, shall be admitted into alliance by the others, and shall be constituted prince of all. He shall harass the world with an intolerable rule; shall mingle things divine and human; shall contrive things impious to relate, and detestable; shall meditate new designs in his breast, that he may establish the government for himself: he will change the laws, and appoint his own; he will contaminate, plunder, spoil, and put to death. And at length, the name being changed and the seat of government being transferred, confusion and the disturbance of mankind will follow. Then, in truth, a detestable and abominable time shall come, in which life shall be pleasant to none of men. Cities shall be utterly overthrown, and shall perish; not only by fire and the sword, but also by continual earthquakes and overflowings of waters, and by frequent diseases and repeated famines. For the atmosphere will be tainted, and become corrupt and pestilential—at one time by unseasonable rains, at another by barren drought, now by colds, and now by excessive heats. Nor will the earth give its fruit to man: no field, or tree, or vine will produce anything; but after they have given the greatest hope in the blossom, they will fail in the fruit. Fountains also shall be dried up, together with the rivers; so that there shall not be a sufficient supply for drinking; and waters shall be changed into blood or bitterness. On account of these things, beasts shall fail on the land, and birds in the air, and fishes in the sea. Wonderful prodigies also in heaven shall confound the minds of men with the greatest terrors, and the trains of comets, and the darkness of the sun, and the colour of the moon, and the gliding of the falling stars. Nor, however, will these things take place in the accustomed manner; but there will suddenly appear stars unknown and unseen by the eyes; the sun will be perpetually darkened, so that there will be scarcely any distinction between the night and the day; the moon will now fail, not for three hours only, but overspread with perpetual blood, will go through extraordinary movements, so that it will not be easy for man to ascertain the courses of the heavenly bodies or the system of the times; for there will either be summer in the winter, or winter in the summer. Then the year will be shortened, and the month diminished, and the day contracted into a short space; and stars shall fall in great numbers, so that all the heaven will appear dark without any lights. The loftiest mountains also will fall, and be levelled with the plains; the sea will be rendered unnavigable. And that nothing may be wanting to the evils of men and the earth, the trumpet shall be heard from heaven, which the Sibyl foretells in this manner:

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The Origin of the Virgilian Prophecy σάλπιγξ οὐρανόθεν φωνὴν πολύθρηνον ἀφήσει.

“The trumpet from heaven shall utter its wailing voice.”

Itaque trepidabunt omnes et ad luctuosum illum sonitum contremescent. Tum vero per iram dei adversus homines qui iustitiam non agnoverint, saeviet ferrum ignis fames morbus, et super omnia metus semper inpendens. Tunc orabunt deum et non exaudiet, optabitur mors et non veniet. Ne nos quidem requiem timori dabit nec ad oculos somnus accedet, sed animas hominum sollicitudo ac vigilia macerabit, plorabunt et gement et dentibus strident, gratulabuntur mortuis et vivos plangent. His et aliis pluribus malis solitudo fiet in terra et erit deformatus orbis atque desertus: quod in carminibus Sibyllinis ita dicitur (Orac. Sib. 7.123): ἔσται κόσμος ἄκοσμος ἀπολλυμένων ἀνθρώπων… Ita enim conficietur humanum genus, ut vix decima pars hominum relinquatur, et unde mille processerant, vix prodient centum. De cultoribus etiam dei duae partes interibunt et tertia quae fuerit probata remanebit.

And then all shall tremble and quake at that mournful sound. But then, through the anger of God against the men who have not known righteousness, the sword and fire, famine and disease, shall reign; and, above all things, fear always overhanging. Then they shall call upon God, but He will not hear them; death shall be desired, but it will not come; not even shall night give rest to their fear, nor shall sleep approach to their eyes, but anxiety and watchfulness shall consume the souls of men; they shall deplore and lament, and gnash their teeth; they shall congratulate the dead, and bewail the living. Through these and many other evils there shall be desolation on the earth, and the world shall be disfigured and deserted, which is thus expressed in the verses of the Sibyl: “The world shall be despoiled of beauty, through the destruction of men.” For the human race will be so consumed, that scarcely the tenth part of men will be left; and from whence a thousand had gone forth, scarcely a hundred will go forth. Of the worshippers of God also, two parts will perish; and the third part, which shall have been proved, will remain.

17. Sed planius quomodo id eveniat exponam. Imminente iam temporum conclusione propheta magnus mittetur a Deo, qui convertat homines ad Dei agnitionem, et accipiet potestatem mirabilia faciendi. Ubicumque homines non audierint eum, claudet caelum et abstinebit imbres, aquam convertet in sanguinem et cruciabit illos siti ac fame, et quicumque conabitur eum laedere, procedet ignis de ore eius atque conburet illum. His prodigiis ac virtutibus convertet multos ad dei cultum. Peractisque operibus ipsius alter rex orietur e Syria malo spiritu genitus, eversor ac perditor generis humani, qui reliquias illius prioris mali cum ipso simul deleat. Hic pugnabit adversus prophetam dei et vincet et interficiet eum et insepultum iacere patietur, sed post diem tertium reviviscet atque inspectantibus et mirantibus cunctis rapietur in caelum. Rex vero ille taeterrimus erit quidem et ipse, sed mendaciorum propheta, et se ipsum constituet ac vocabit deum, se coli iubebit ut dei filium. Et dabitur ei potestas, ut faciat signa et prodigia, quibus visis inretiat homines, ut adorent eum. Iubebit ignem descendere a caelo et solem a suis cursoribus stare et imaginem loqui, et fient haec sub verbo eius: quibus miraculis etiam sapientium plurimi adlicientur ab eo. Tunc eruere templum dei conabitur et iustum populum persequetur et erit pressura et contritio qualis numquam fuit a principio mundi. Quicumque crediderint atque accesserint ei, signabuntur ab eo tamquam pecudes, qui autem recusaverint notas eius, aut in montes fugient aut conprehensi exquisitis cruciatibus necabuntur. Idem iustos homines obvolvet libris prophetarum atque ita cremabit. Et dabitur ei desolare orbem terrae mensibus quadraginta duobus. Id erit tempus quo iustitia proicietur et innocentia odio erit, quo mali bonos hostiliter praedabuntur. Non lex aut ordo aut militiae disciplina servabitur, non canos quisquam reverebitur, non officium pietatis adgnoscet, non sexus aut infantiae miserebitur: confundentur omnia et miscebuntur contra fas, contra iura naturae. Ita quasi uno commune latrocinio terra universa vastabitur. Cum haec facta erunt, tum iusti et sectatores veritatis segregabunt se a malis et fugient in solitudines. Quo audito inpius inflammatus ira veniet cum exercitu magno et admotis omnibus copiis circumdabit montem in quo iusti morabuntur, ut eos conprehendat. Ille vero ubi se clausos undique atque obsessos viderint, exclamabunt, et exaudiet eos deus et mittet regem magnum de caelo, qui eos eripiat ac liberet omnesque inpios ferro ignique disperdat.

But I will more plainly set forth the manner in which this happens. When the close of the times is about to come, a great prophet shall be sent from God to turn men to the knowledge of God, and he shall receive the power of doing wonderful things. Wherever men shall not hear him, he will shut up the heaven, and cause it to withhold its rains; he will turn water into blood, and torment them with thirst and hunger; and if any one shall endeavour to injure him, fire shall come forth out of his mouth, and shall burn that man. By these prodigies and powers he shall turn many to the worship of God; and when his works shall be accomplished, another king shall arise out of Syria, born from an evil spirit, the overthrower and destroyer of the human race, who shall destroy that which is left by the former evil, together with himself. He shall fight against the prophet of God, and shall overcome, and slay him, and shall suffer him to lie unburied; but after the third day he shall come to life again; and while all look on and wonder, he shall be caught up into heaven. But that king will not only be most disgraceful in himself, but he will also be a prophet of lies; and he will constitute and call himself God, and will order himself to be worshipped as the Son of God; and power will be given him to do signs and wonders, by the sight of which he may entice men to adore him. He will command fire to come down from heaven, and the sun to stand and leave his course, and an image to speak; and these things shall be done at his word, – by which miracles many even of the wise shall be enticed by him. Then he will attempt to destroy the temple of God, and persecute the righteous people; and there will be distress and tribulation, such as there never has been from the beginning of the world. As many as shall believe him and unite themselves to him, shall be marked by him as sheep; but they who shall refuse his mark will either flee to the mountains, or, being seized, will be slain with studied tortures. He will also enwrap righteous men with the books of the prophets, and thus burn them; and power will be given him to desolate the whole earth for forty-two months. That will be the time in which righteousness shall be cast out, and innocence be hated; in which the wicked shall prey upon the good as enemies; neither law, nor order, nor military discipline shall be preserved; no one shall reverence hoary locks, nor recognise the duty of piety, nor pity sex or infancy; all things shall be confounded and mixed together against right, and against the laws of nature. Thus the earth shall be laid waste, as though by one common robbery. When these things shall so happen, then the righteous and the followers of truth shall separate themselves from the wicked, and flee into solitudes. And when he hears of this, the impious king, inflamed with anger, will come with a great army, and bringing up all his forces, will surround all the mountain in which the righteous shall be situated, that he may

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The Mithraic Prophecy seize them. But they, when they shall see themselves to be shut in on all sides and besieged, will call upon God with a loud voice, and implore the aid of heaven; and God shall hear them, and send from heaven a great king to rescue and free them, and destroy all the wicked with fire and sword. 18. Haec ita futura esse cum prophetae omnes ex dei spiritu tum etiam vates ex instinctu daemonum cecinerunt. Hystaspes enim, quem superius nominavi, descripta iniquitate saeculi huius extremi pios et fideles a nocentibus segregatos ait cum fletu et gemitu extenturos esse ad caelum manus et inploraturos fidem Iovis: Iovem respecturum ad terram, et auditurum voces hominum, atque impios extincturum. Quae omnia vera sunt praeter unum, quod Iovem dixit illa facturum quae deus faciet. Sed et illut non sine daemonum fraude subtractum, missuiri a patre tunc filium dei, qui deletis omnibus malis pios liberet. Quod Hermes tamen non dissimulavit. In eo enim libro qui λόγος τέλειος inscribitur, post enumerationem malorum de quibus diximus subiecit haec (Corpus Herm., Asclepius 26): ἐπὰν δὴ ταῦτα γένηται, ὦ Ἀσκληπιέ, τότε ὁ κύριος καὶ πατὴρ καὶ τοῦ πρώτου καὶ ἑνὸς θεοῦ δημιουργὸς ἐπιβλέψας τοῖς γενομένοις καὶ τὴν ἑαυτοῦ βούλησιν τοῦτ’ἔστιν τὸ ἀγαθὸν ἀντερείσας τᾖ ἀταξίᾳ καὶ ἀνακαλεσάμενος τὴν πλάνην καὶ τὴν κακίαν ἐκκαθάρας πὴ μὲν ὕδατι πολλῷ κατακλύσας, πὴ δὲ πυρὶ ὀξυτάτῳ διακαὺσας, ἐνίοτε δἒ πολέμοις καὶ λοιμοῖς ἐκπαίσας ἤγαγεν ἐπὶ τὸ ἀρχαῖον καὶ ἀποκατέστησεν τὸν ἑαυτοῦ κόσμον. Sibyllae quoque non aliter fore ostendunt quam ut dei filius a summo patre mittatur, qui et iustos liberet de manibus inpiorum et iniustos cum tyrannis saevientibus deleat. E quibus una sic tradit (Orac. Sib. V.107–110): ἥξει καὶ μακάρων ἐθέλων πόλιν ἐξαλαπάξαι. καί κέν τις θεόθεν βασιλεὺς πεμφθεὶς ἐπὶ τοῦτον πάντας ὀλεῖ βασιλεῖς μεγάλους καὶ φῶτας ἀρίστους. εἶθ’ οὕτως κρίσις ἔσται ὑπ’ ἀφθίτου ἀνθρώποισιν. Item alia (Orac. Sib. 3.652 f.): καὶ τότ’ ἀπ’ ἠελίοιο θεὸς πέμψει βασιλῆα, ὃς πᾶσαν γαῖαν παύσει πολέμοιο κακοῖο Et rursus alia (Or. Sib. 8.326–8): ὃς ῥά κε πραῢς ἥξει, ἵνα τὸ ζυγὸν ἡμῶν δοῦλον δυσβάστακτον ἐπ’ αὐχένι κείμενον ἄρῃ καὶ θεσμοὺς ἀθέους λύσῃ δεσμούς τε βιαίους.

That these things will thus take place, all the prophets have announced from the inspiration of God, and also the soothsayers at the instigation of the demons. For Hystaspes, whom I have named above, having described the iniquity of this last time, says that the pious and faithful, being separated from the wicked, will stretch forth their hands to heaven with weeping and mourning, and will implore the protection of Jupiter: that Jupiter will look to the earth, and hear the voices of men, and will destroy the wicked. All which things are true except one, that he attributed to Jupiter those things which God will do. But that also was withdrawn from the account, not without fraud on the part of the demons, viz., that the Son of God would then be sent, who, having destroyed all the wicked, would set at liberty the pious. Which, however, Hermes did not conceal. For in that book which is entitled the Complete Treatise, after an enumeration of the evils concerning which we have spoken, he added these things: “But when these things thus come to pass, then He who is Lord, and Father, and God, and the Creator of the first and one God, looking upon what is done, and opposing to the disorder His own will, that is, goodness, and recalling the wandering and cleansing wickedness, partly inundating it with much water, and partly burning it with most rapid fire, and sometimes pressing it with wars and pestilences, He brought His world to its ancient state and restored it.” The Sibyls also show that it would not be otherwise than that the Son of God should be sent by His supreme Father, to set free the righteous from the hands of the wicked, and to destroy the unrighteous, together with their cruel tyrants. One of whom thus wrote: “He shall come also, wishing to destroy the city of the blest; and a king sent against him from the gods shall slay all the great kings and chief men: then judgment shall thus come from the Immortal to men.” Also another Sibyl: “And then God shall send a king from the sun, who shall cause all the earth to cease from disastrous war.” And again another: – “He will take away the intolerable yoke of slavery which is placed on our neck, and he will do away with impious laws and violent chains.”

19 Opresso igitur orbe terrae cum ad destruendam inmensarum virium tyrannidem humanae opes defecerint, siquidem capto mundo cum magnis latronum exercitibus incubabit, divino auxilio tanta illa calamitas indigebit. Commotus igitur deus et periculo ancipiti et miseranda conploratione iustorum mittet protinus liberatorem. Tum aperietur caelum medium intempesta et tenebrosa nocte, ut in orbe toto lumen descendentis dei tamquam fulgur appareat; quod Sibylla his versibus elocuta est (cf. Orac. Sib., fr. 3.43 Geffken):

The world therefore being oppressed, since the resources of men shall be insufficient for the overthrow of a tyranny of immense strength, inasmuch as it will press upon the captive world with great armies of robbers, that calamity so great will stand in need of divine assistance. Therefore God, being aroused both by the doubtful danger and by the wretched lamentation of the righteous, will immediately send a deliverer. Then the middle of the heaven shall be laid open in the dead and darkness of the night, that the light of the descending God may be manifest in all the world as lightning: of which the Sibyl spoke in these words: –

ὁππόταν ἔλθῃ, πῦρ ἔσται ψολόεντι μέσῃ ἐνὶ νυκτὶ μελαίνῃ.

“When He shall come, there will be fire and darkness in the midst of the black night.”

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The Origin of the Virgilian Prophecy Haec est nox quae a nobis propter adventum regis ac dei nostri pervigilio celebratur: cuius noctis duplex ratio est, quod in ea et vitam tum recepit, cum passus est, et postea regnum orbis terrae recepturus est. Hic est enim liberator et iudex et ultor et rex et deus, quem nos Christum vocamus, qui priusquam descendat, hoc signum dabit. Cadet repente gladius e caelo, ut sciant iusti ducem sanctae militiae descensurum, et descendet comitantibus angelis in medium terrae et antecedet eum flamma inextinguibilis et virtus angelorum tradet in manus iustorum multitudinem illam quae montem circumsederit et concidetur ab hora tertia usque in vesperum et fluet sanguis more torrentis: deletisque omnibus copiis inpius solus effigiet et peribit ab eo virtus sua. Hic est autem qui appellatur Antichristus, sed se ipse Christum mentietur et contra verum dimicabit et victus effugiet et bellum saepe renovabit et saepe vincetur, donec tandem scelerum suorum luat poenas. Sed et ceteri principes et tyranni, qui contriverunt orbem, simul cum eo vincti adducentur ad regem, et increpabit eos et coarguet et exprobrabit iis facinora ipsorum et damnabit eos ac meritis cruciatibus tradet. Sic extincta malitia et inpietate conpressa requiscet orbis, qui per tot saecula subiectus errori ac sceleri nefandam pertulit servitutem. Non colentur ulterius dii manu facti, sed a templis ac pulvinaribus suis deturbata simulacra igni dabuntur et cum donis suis mirabilibus ardebunt: quod etiam Sibylla cum prophetis congruens futurum esse praedixit (Eusebius, Constantini imperatoris oratio ad coetum sanctorum 18.2 = Orac. Sib. 8.217 ff.): Ρίψωσίν τ’ εἴδωλα βροτοὶ καὶ πλοῦτον ἅπαντα Erythraea quoque idem spopondit: ἔργα δέ χειροποίητα θεῶν κατακαυθήσονται.34

This is the night which is celebrated by us in watchfulness on account of the coming of our King and God: of which night there is a twofold meaning; because in it He then received life when He suffered, and hereafter He is about to receive the kingdom of the world. For He is the Deliverer, and Judge, and Avenger, and King, and God, whom we call Christ, who before He descends will give this sign: There shall suddenly fall from heaven a sword, that the righteous may know that the leader of the sacred warfare is about to descend; and He shall descend with a company of angels to the middle of the earth, and there shall go before Him an unquenchable fire, and the power of the angels shall deliver into the hands of the just that multitude which has surrounded the mountain, and they shall be slain from the third hour until the evening, and blood shall flow like a torrent; and all his forces being destroyed, the wicked one shall alone escape, and his power shall perish from him. Now this is he who is called Antichrist; but he shall falsely call himself Christ, and shall fight against the truth, and being overcome shall flee; and shall often renew the war, and often be conquered, until in the fourth battle, all the wicked being slain, subdued, and captured, he shall at length pay the penalty of his crimes. But other princes also and tyrants who have harassed the world, together with him, shall be led in chains to the king; and he shall rebuke them, and reprove them, and upbraid them with their crimes, and condemn them, and consign them to deserved tortures. Thus, wickedness being extinguished and impiety suppressed, the world will be at rest, which having been subject to error and wickedness for so many ages, endured dreadful slavery. No longer shall gods made by the hands be worshipped; but the images being thrust out from their temples and couches, shall be given to the fire, and shall be burnt, together with their wonderful gifts: which also the Sibyl, in accordance with the prophets, announced as about to take place: “But mortals shall break in pieces the images and all the wealth.” The Erythræan Sibyl also made the same promise: “And the works made by the hand of the gods shall be burnt up.”

20. Post haec aperientur inferi et surgent mortui, de quibus iudicium magnum idem ipse rex ac deus faciet cui summus pater et iudicandi et regnandi dabit maximam potestatem. De quo iudicio et regno aput Erythraeam Sibyllam sic invenitur (Orac. Sib. 3.741–3):

After these things the lower regions shall be opened, and the dead shall rise again, on whom the same King and God shall pass judgment, to whom the supreme Father shall give the great power both of judging and of reigning. And respecting this judgment and reign, it is thus found in the Erythræan Sibyl:

ὁππότε δὴ καὶ τοῦτο λάβῃ τέλος αἴσιμον ἦμαρ, εἰς δὲ βροτοὺς ἥξει κρίσις ἀθανάτοιο θεοῖο, ἥξει ἐπ’ ἀνθρώπους μεγάλη κρίσις ἠδὲ καὶ ἀρχή.

“When this shall receive its fated accomplishment, and the judgment of the immortal God shall now come to mortals, the great judgment shall come upon men, and the beginning.”

Et deinde aput aliam (Eusebius, Constantini imperatoris oratio ad coetum sanctorum 18.2.37–8):

Then in another:

Ταρταρόεν δὲ χάος δείξει τότε γαῖα χανοῦσα, Ηξουσιν δ’ ἐπὶ βῆμα θεοῦ βασιλῆος ἅπαντες. et alio loco aput eandem (Orac. Sib. 8.413–16): οὐρανὸν εἱλίξω, γαίης κευθμῶνας ἀνοίξω, καὶ τότ’ ἀναστήσω νεκροὺς μοῖραν ἀναλύσας καὶ θανάτου κέντρον, καὶ ὕστερον εἰς κρίσιν ἥξω κρίνων εὐσεβέων καὶ δυσσεβέων βίον ἀνδρῶν. Nec tamen universi tunc a dea iudicabuntur, sed ii tantum qui sunt in dei religione versati. Nam qui deum non adgnoverunt, quoniam sententia de his in absolutionem ferri non potest, iam iudicati damnatique sunt, sanctis litteris contestantibus non resurrecturos esse inpios in iudicium.

“And then the gaping earth shall show a Tartarean chaos; and all kings shall come to the judgment-seat of God.” And in another place in the same: “Rolling along the heavens, I will open the caverns of the earth; and then I will raise the dead, loosing fate and the sting of death; and afterwards I will call them into judgment, judging the life of pious and impious men.” Not all men, however, shall then be judged by God, but those only who have been exercised in the religion of God. For they who have not known God, since sentence cannot be passed upon them for their acquittal, are already judged and condemned, since the Holy Scriptures testify that the wicked shall not arise to judgment.

Here Lactantius speaks of the last judgment.

  Isaiah 1.31: κατακαυθήσονται οἱ ἄνομοι καὶ οἱ ἁμαρτωλοὶ

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The Mithraic Prophecy 24 Nunc reliqua subnectam. Veniet igitur summi et maximi dei filius, ut vivos ac mortuos iudicet, Sibylla testante atque dicente (Orac. Sib. 8.81–83):

Now I will subjoin the rest. Therefore the Son of the most high and mighty God shall come to judge the quick and the dead, as the Sibyl testifies and says:

πάσης γὰρ γαίης θνητῶν τότε σύγχυσις ἔσται, αὐτὸς ὁ παντοκράτωρ ὅταν ἐλθὼν βήματι κρίνῃ ζώντων καὶ νεκύων ψυχὰς καὶ κόσμον ἅπαντα.

“For then there shall be confusion of mortals throughout the whole earth, when the Almighty Himself shall come on His judgment-seat to judge the souls of the quick and dead, and all the world.”

Verum ille cum deleverit iniustitiam iudiciumque maximum fecerit ac iustos qui a principio fuerunt ad vitam instauraverit. Mille annos inter homines versabitur eosque iustissimo imperio reget. Quod alia Sibylla vaticinans furensque proclamat: κλῦτε δέ μου, μέροπες, βασιλεὺς αἰώνιος ἄρχει. tum qui erunt in corporibus vivi, non morientur, sed per eosdem mille annos infinitam multitudinem generabunt et erit suboles eorum sancta et deo cara: qui autem ab inferis suscitabuntur, hi praeerunt viventibus velut iudices. Gentes vero non extinguentur omnino, sed quaedam relinquentur in victoriam dei, ut triumphentur a iustis ac subiugentur perpetuae servituti. Sub idem tempus etiam princeps daemonum, qui est machinator omnium malorum, catenis vincietur et erit in custodia mille annis caelestis imperii, quo iustitia in orbe regnabit, ne quod malum adversus populum dei moliatur. Post cuius adventum congregabuntur iusti ex omni terra peractoque iudicio civitas sancta constituetur in medio terrae, in qua ipse conditor deus cum iustis dominantibus commoretur. Quam civitatem Sibylla designat, cum dicit (Orac. Sib. 5.420–135): καὶ πόλιν, ἣν ἐπόθησε θεός, ταύτην ἐποίησεν λαμπροτέραν ἄστρων ἠδ’ ἡλίου ἠδὲ σελήνης Tunc auferentut a mundo tenebrae illae quibus obfundetur atque occaecabitur caelum, et luna claritudinem solis accipiet nec minuetur ulterius, sol autem septies tanto quam nunc est clarior fiet. Terra vero aperiet fecunditatem suam et uberrimas fruges sua sponte generabit, rupes montium melle sudabunt, per rivos vina decurrent et flumina lacte inundabunt: mundus denique ipse gaudebit et omnis rerum natura laetabitur erepta et liberata dominio mali et impietatis et sceleris et erroris. Non bestiae per hoc tempus sanguine alentur, non aves praeda, sed quieta et placida erunt omnia. Leones et vituli ad praesepe simul stabunt, lupus ovem. non rapiet, canis non venabitur, accipitres et aquilae non nocebunt, infans cum serpentibus ludet. Denique tum fient illa quae poetae aureis temporibus facta esse iam Saturno regnante dixerunt. Quorum error hinc ortus est, quod prophetaefuturorum pleraque sic proferunt et enuntiant quasi iam peracta. Visiones enim divino spiritu offerebantur oculis eorum et videbant illa in conspectu suo quasi fieri ac terminari. Quae vaticinia eorum cum paulatim fama vulgasset, quoniam profani a sacramento ignorabant quatenus dicerentur, conpleta esse iam veteribus saeculis illa omnia putaverunt, quae utique fieri conplerique non

But He, when He shall have destroyed unrighteousness, and executed His great judgment, and shall have recalled to life the righteous, who have lived from the beginning, will be engaged among men a thousand years, and will rule them with most just command. Which the Sibyl proclaims in another place, as she utters her inspired predictions: “Hear me, ye mortals; an everlasting King reigns.” Then they who shall be alive in their bodies shall not die, but during those thousand years shall produce an infinite multitude, and their offspring shall be holy, and beloved by God; but they who shall be raised from the dead shall preside over the living as judges. But the nations shall not be entirely extinguished, but some shall be left as a victory for God, that they may be the occasion of triumph to the righteous, and may be subjected to perpetual slavery. About the same time also the prince of the devils, who is the contriver of all evils, shall be bound with chains, and shall be imprisoned during the thousand years of the heavenly rule in which righteousness shall reign in the world, so that he may contrive no evil against the people of God. After His coming the righteous shall be collected from all the earth, and the judgment being completed, the sacred city shall be planted in the middle of the earth, in which God Himself the builder may dwell together with the righteous, bearing rule in it. And the Sibyl marks out this city when she says: “And the city which God made, this He made more brilliant than the stars, and sun, and moon.” Then that darkness will be taken away from the world with which the heaven will be overspread and darkened, and the moon will receive the brightness of the sun, nor will it be further diminished: but the sun will become seven times brighter than it now is; and the earth will open its fruitfulness, and bring forth most abundant fruits of its own accord; the rocky mountains shall drop with honey; streams of wine shall run down, and rivers flow with milk: in short, the world itself shall rejoice, and all nature exult, being rescued and set free from the dominion of evil and impiety, and guilt and error. Throughout this time beasts shall not be nourished by blood, nor birds by prey; but all things shall be peaceful and tranquil. Lions and calves shall stand together at the manger, the wolf shall not carry off the sheep, the hound shall not hunt for prey; hawks and eagles shall not injure; the infant shall play with serpents. In short, those things shall then come to pass which the poets spoke of as being done in the reign of Saturnus. Whose error arose from this source, – that the prophets bring forward and speak of many future events as already accomplished.

  καὶ πόλιν, ἣν ἐπόθησε θεός, ταύτην ἐποίησεν φαιδροτέραν ἄστρων τε καὶ ἡλίου ἠδὲ σελήνης 35

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The Origin of the Virgilian Prophecy poterant homine regnante. Cum vero deletis religionibus impiis et scelere compresso subiecta erit deo terra (Virg., Ecl. 4.38–41), cedet et ipse mari uector, nec nautica pinus mutabit merces; omnis feret omnia tellus. non rastros patietur humus, non uinea falcem; robustus quoque iam tauris iuga soluet arator. tunc et (Virg., Ecl. 4.28–30; 42–45; 21–22) molli paulatim flauescet campus arista incultisque rubens pendebit sentibus uua et durae quercus sudabunt roscida mella. nec uarios discet mentiri lana colores, ipse sed in pratis aries iam suaue rubenti murice, iam croceo mutabit uellera luto; sponte sua sandyx pascentis uestiet agnos. ipsae lacte domum referent distenta capellae ubera, nec magnos metuent armenta leones. Quae poeta secundum Cymaeae Sibyllae carmina prolocutus est. Erythraea vero sic ait (Orac. Sib. 3.788–94): ἠδὲ λύκοι τε καὶ ἄρνες ἐν οὔρεσιν ἄμμιγ’ ἔδονται χόρτον, παρδάλιές τ’ ἐρίφοις ἅμα βοσκήσονται· ἄρκτοι σὺν μόσχοις νομάδες αὐλισθήσονται· σαρκοβόρος τε λέων φάγεται ἄχυρον παρὰ φάτνῃ ὡς βοῦς· καὶ παῖδες μάλα νήπιοι ἐν δεσμοῖσιν ἄξουσιν· πηρὸν γὰρ ἐπὶ χθονὶ θῆρα ποιήσει. σὺν βρέφεσίν τε δράκοντες ἅμ’ ἀσπίσι κοιμήσονται. Et alio loco de ubertate rerum (Orac. Sib. 3.619–23 and, with a difference, in v. 620): καὶ τότε δὴ χάρμην μεγάλην θεὸς ἀνδράσι δώσει· καὶ γὰρ γῆ καὶ δένδρα καὶ ἄσπετα θρέμματα γαίης δώσουσιν καρπὸν τὸν ἀληθινὸν ἀνθρώποισιν οἴνου καὶ μέλιτος γλυκεροῦ λευκοῦ τε γάλακτος καὶ σίτου, ὅπερ ἐστὶ βροτοῖς κάλλιστον ἁπάντων. Et alia eodem modo (Orac. Sib. 5.281–3, with little variations36): εὐσεβέων δὲ μόνων ἁγία χθὼν πάντα τάδ’ οἴσει, νᾶμα μελισταγέης ἀπὸ πέτρης ἠδ’ ἀπὸ πηγῆς καὶ γλάγος ἀμβροσίης ῥεύσει πάντεσσι δικαίοις· Vivent itaque homines tranquillissimam et copiosissimam vitam et regnabunt cum deo pariter, reges gentium venient a finibus terrae cum donis ac muneribus, ut adorent et honorificent regem magnum, cuius nomen erit praeclarum ac venerabile universis nationibus quae sub caelo erunt et regibus qui dominabuntur in terra. 25 Etiam res ipsa declarat lapsum ruinamque rerum brevi fore, nisi quod incolumi urbe Roma nihil istius videtur esse metuendum. At vero cum caput illut orbis occiderit et ῥύμη esse coeperit, quod Sibyllae (Orac. Sib. 3.364; 8.165; Oracula Tiburtina, 105 ed. Alexander) fore aiunt, quis dubitet venisse iam finem rebus humanis orbique terrarum? …

For visions were brought before their eyes by the divine Spirit, and they saw these things, as it were, done and completed in their own sight. And when fame had gradually spread abroad their predictions, since those who were uninstructed in the mysteries of religion did not know why they were spoken, they thought that all those things were already fulfilled in the ancient ages, which evidently could not be accomplished and fulfilled under the reign of a man. But when, after the destruction of impious religions and the suppression of guilt, the earth shall be subject to God, “The sailor himself also shall renounce the sea, nor shall the naval pine barter merchandise; all lands shall produce all things. The ground shall not endure the harrow, nor the vineyard the pruning hook; the sturdy ploughman also shall loose the bulls from the yoke. The plain shall by degrees grow yellow with soft ears of corn, the blushing grape shall hang on the uncultivated brambles, and hard oaks shall distil the dewy honey. Nor shall the wool learn to counterfeit various colours; but the ram himself in the meadows shall change his fleece, now for a sweetly blushing purple, now for saffron dye; scarlet of its own accord shall cover the lambs as they feed. The goats of themselves shall bring back home their udders distended with milk; nor shall the herds dread huge lions.” Which things the poet foretold according to the verses of the Cumæan Sibyl. But the Erythræan thus speaks: “But wolves shall not contend with lambs on the mountains, and lynxes shall eat grass with kids; boars shall feed with calves, and with all flocks; and the carnivorous lion shall eat chaff at the manger, and serpents shall sleep with infants deprived of their mothers.” And in another place, speaking of the fruitfulness of all things: “And then shall God give great joy to men; for the earth, and the trees, and the numberless flocks of the earth shall give to men the true fruit of the vine, and sweet honey, and white milk, and corn, which is the best of all things to mortals.” And another in the same manner: “The sacred land of the pious only will produce all these things, the stream of honey from the rock and from the fountain, and the milk of ambrosia will flow for all the just.” Therefore men will live a most tranquil life, abounding with resources, and will reign together with God; and the kings of the nations shall come from the ends of the earth with gifts and offerings, to adore and honour the great King, whose name shall be renowned and venerated by all the nations which shall be under heaven, and by the kings who shall rule on earth. The subject itself declares that the fall and ruin of the world will shortly take place; except that while the city of Rome remains it appears that nothing of this kind is to be feared. But when that capital of the world shall have fallen, and shall have begun to be a street, which the Sibyls say shall come to pass, who can doubt that the end has now arrived to the affairs of men and the whole world?

  εὐσεβέων δὲ μόνων ἁγία χθὼν πάντα τάδ’ οἴσει, νᾶμα μελισταγέος ἀπὸ πέτρης ἠδ’ ἀπὸ πηγῆς καὶ γλάγος ἀμβρόσιον ῥεύσει πάντεσσι δικαίοις. 36

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The Mithraic Prophecy 26 Diximus paulo ante in principio regni sancti fore ut a deo princeps daemonum vinciatur. Sed idem, cum mille anni regni hc est septem milia coeperint terminari, solvetur denuo et custodia emissus exibit atque omnes gentes quae tunc erunt sub dicione iustorum concitabit, ut inferant bellum sanctae civitati. Et colligetur ex omni orbe terrae innumerabilis populus nationum et obsidebit et circumdabit civitatem. Tum veniet novissima ira dei super gentes, et debellabit eas usque ad unum. Ac primum concutiet terram quam validissime et a motu eius scindentur montes Syriae et subsident valles in abruptum et muri omnium civitatum concident. Et statuet deus solem triduo ne occidat et inflammabit eum, et descendet aestus nimius et adustio magna super perduelles et impios populos et imbres sulphuris et grandines lapidum et guttae ignis… Sed et genus omne impiorum radicitus interibit nec erit in hoc mundo ulla iam natio amplius praeter solam gentem dei. Tum per annos septem perpetes intactae erunt silvae nec excidetur de montibs lignum, sed arma gentium comburentur, et iam non erit bellum, sed pax ac requies sempiterna. Cum vero completi fuerint mille anni, renovabitur mundus a deo et caelum complicabitur et terra mutabitur. Et transformabit deus homines in similitudinem angelorum…

We have said, a little before, that it will come to pass at the commencement of the sacred reign, that the prince of the devils will be bound by God. But he also, when the thousand years of the kingdom, that is, seven thousand of the world, shall begin to be ended, will be loosed afresh, and being sent forth from prison, will go forth and assemble all the nations, which shall then be under the dominion of the righteous, that they may make war against the holy city; and there shall be collected together from all the world an innumerable company of the nations, and shall besiege and surround the city. Then the last anger of God shall come upon the nations, and shall utterly destroy them; and first He shall shake the earth most violently, and by its motion the mountains of Syria shall be rent, and the hills shall sink down precipitously, and the walls of all cities shall fall, and God shall cause the sun to stand, so that he set not for three days, and shall set it on fire; and excessive heat and great burning shall descend upon the hostile and impious people, and showers of brimstone, and hailstones, and drops of fire … But the whole race of the wicked shall utterly perish; and there shall no longer be any nation in this world, but the nation of God alone. Then for seven continuous years the woods shall be untouched, nor shall timber be cut from the mountains, but the arms of the nations shall be burnt; and now there shall be no war, but peace and everlasting rest. But when the thousand years shall be completed, the world shall be renewed by God, and the heavens shall be folded together, and the earth shall be changed, and God shall transform men into the similitude of angels, and they shall be white as snow

3.4. Lactantius and Commodianus The major mistake of many – not to say all – scholars who dealt with Hystaspes has been the ascription of Lactantius’ chapter 17 to his prophecy. Many reasons prevent us from making this: 1) Lactantius, just after chapter 17, writes: Haec ita futura esse cum prophetae omnes ex dei spiritu tum etiam vates ex instinctu daemonum cecinerunt. Hystaspes enim … ait… The account in chapter 17 was inspired by the Christian God and therefore was not a Persian prophecy. Lactantius adds indeed that pagan vates were inspired by demons, i.e., by pagan gods, even though their prophecies were in agreement with those of Christian or Jewish prophets, and he proves this by quoting Hystaspes. Hystaspes was quoted here, at the beginning of chapter 18, whereas a Christian (or, in case, Jewish) author was quoted in chapter 17. 2) Lactantius says that Hystaspes spoke of Jupiter, and not of Deus, i.e. of the Jewish and Christian God. When Lactantius quotes from Hystaspes he speaks of Jupiter, because he quotes directly from his text. Moreover, Lactantius says that the pagan gods, mentioned as daemones, prevented Hystaspes from reporting the coming of the son of God. Maybe he spoke of a saviour who destroyed the wicked people, but he did not say that this saviour was the son of God, and he possibly said that the forthcoming ruler was the son of Jupiter: Quae omnia vera sunt praeter unum, quod Iovem dixit illa facturum quae deus faciet. Sed et illut non sine daemonum fraude subtractum, missuiri a patre tunc filium dei, qui deletis omnibus malis pios liberet. 3) In Lactantius’ chap. 17 we read: “(the wicked king) will order himself to be worshipped as the Son of God”. On the other hand, Clement says: “taking Hystaspes, read, and you will find much more luminously and distinctly the Son of God described, and how many kings shall draw up their forces against Christ”. According to Clement, in Hystaspes the Son of God is the saviour whereas the passage of Lactantius identifies the pretended Son of God with the wicked king himself. The relationship between the saviour and the supreme god is crucial to recognize the origin of this kind of prophecies: a passage from the third book of the Oracula Sibyllina that appears to be rooted in Judaism forecasts the coming of a providential king “from the sun”: ἀπ’ ἠελίοιο θεὸς πέμψει βασιλῆα.37 According to Clement and other Christians, the king to come was Jesus, the Son of God, whereas according to Hystaspes the king was a son of Jupiter.   Orac. Sibyll. 3.652.

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The Origin of the Virgilian Prophecy At the end of chapter 17 Lactantius presented two similar, but slightly different traditions, one after the other, forecasting that only the tenth part and/or one-third of humans will survive. These are two Christian traditions. John’s Revelation speaks of a third of humankind38 and the third book of the Oracula Sibyllina39 repeats the same thing. We can recognize in Commodianus the source from which Lactantius borrowed his chapter 17 where he updated the account of this Christian apocalyptic poet. Commodianus, Carmen apologeticum

Lactantius

a prophet (Asturius?) and Valerian’s persecution. Shapur defeats Valerian. 823 Exsurgit interea sub isto tempore Cyrus, (Shapur) qui terreat hostes et liberet inde senatum. Ex infero redit, qui fuerat regno praeceptus et diu servatus cum pristino corpore notus. Dicimus hunc autem Neronem esse vetustum, qui Petrum et Paulum prius punivit in urbe. … 832 qui cum apparverit, quasi deum esse putabunt. Sed priusque ille veniat, prophetabit Helias … 835 Conpleto spatio succedit ille nafandus, quem et Iudaei simul tunc cum Romanis adorant. Quanquam erit alius, quem expectant ab oriente, in nostra caede tamen saevient cum rege Nerone.

17 Imminente iam temporum conclusione propheta magnus mittetur a deo, qui convertat homines ad dei agnitionem, et accipiet potestatem mirabilia faciendi. Ubicumque homines non audierint eum, claudet caelum et abstinebit imbres, aquam convertet in sanguinem et cruciabit illos siti ac fame, et quicumque conabitur eum laedere, procedet ignis de ore eius atque conburet illum. His prodigiis ac virtutibus convertet multos ad dei cultum. Peractisque operibus ipsius alter rex orietur e Syria malo spiritu genitus, eversor ac perditor generis humani, qui reliquias illius prioris mali cum ipso simul deleat. Hic pugnabit adversus prophetam dei et vincet et interficiet eum et insepultum iacere patietur, sed post diem tertium reviviscet atque inspectantibus et mirantibus cunctis rapietur in caelum.

839. Ergo cum Helias in Iudaea terra prophetat, et signat populum in nomine Christi; de quibus quam multi quoniam illi credere nolunt, supplicat iratus Altissimum, ne pluat inde: clausum erit caelum ex eo nec rore madescet, flumina quoque iratus in sanguine vertit. Fit sterilis terra nec sudat fontibus aquae, ut famis invadat; erit tunc et lues in orbe. Ista quia faciat, cruciati nempe Iudaei multa adversus eum conflant in crimina falsa, incenduntque prius senatum consurgere in ira et dicunt Heliam inimicum esse Romanis. Tunc inde confertim motus senatus ab illis exorant Neronem precibus et donis iniquis: tolle inimicos populi de rebus humanis, per quos et di nostri conculcantur neque coluntur. At ille suppletus furia precibusque senatus vehiculo publico rapit ab oriente prophetas. Qui satis ut faciat illis vel certe Iudaeis, immolat hos primum et sic ad ecclesias exit. Sub quorum martyrio decima pars conruit urbis

When the close of the times is about to come, a great prophet shall be sent from God to turn men to the knowledge of God, and he shall receive the power of doing wonderful things. Wherever men shall not hear him, he will shut up the heaven, and cause it to withhold its rains; he will turn water into blood, and torment them with thirst and hunger; and if any one shall endeavour to injure him, fire shall come forth out of his mouth, and shall burn that man. By these prodigies and powers he shall turn many to the worship of God; and when his works shall be accomplished, another king shall arise out of Syria, born from an evil spirit, the overthrower and destroyer of the human race, who shall destroy that which is left by the former evil, together with himself. He shall fight against the prophet of God, and shall overcome, and slay him, and shall suffer him to lie unburied; but after the third day he shall come to life again; and while all look on and wonder, he shall be caught up into heaven.

823 Meanwhile, Cyrus shall arise. It shall be his will to terrorize his enemies and liberate the nobility. He who had been put in command of the kingdom, and was known for a long time to have been preserved in his body for many years, shall return from the dead. It has already been revealed to us that this is Nero, who had flogged Peter and Paul in the city. 832 for when he appears they will think that he is almost like a god. But he shall come before, Elijah prophesied. 835 And when Nero has completed his time, the Unspeakable One shall succeed him. Him shall both the Jews and Romans worship. But there shall be another coming from the East whom they await. 

  Iohannes, Apoc. 9.18.   Orac. Sibyll. 3.544; 5.104.

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The Mithraic Prophecy 839. Thus when Elijah prophesies in Judea, and baptizes the populace in the name of Christ; concerning whom (Elijah) in outrage shall pray against their receiving rain, inasmuch as so many of them shall choose not to believe; then the heavens shall be closed, nor shall they moisten the earth with their dew. And in a rage shall (the prophet) turn the rivers into blood. The land shall become sterile, it shall not be moistened with spring waters, and famine shall come about. There shall be, moreover, a plague over all the world. Because Elijah shall do these things, the tormented Judeans shall contrive many false charges against him after they have provoked the nobility to rise in wrath against him by calling him the enemy of the Romans. Then the nobility, taking note of these things, will hasten to beseech Nero with prayers and iniquitous gifts: “Take this enemy of the people, by whom our gods are condemned rather than worshiped, away from the affairs of men.” And Nero, entirely possessed by madness induced by the prayers of the nobility, shall seize the Eastern prophets in a public vehicle. And when he is satisfied that they are Jews, he shall burn them first. Thereafter he shall turn to the churches, in whose martyrdom a tenth part of the city shall perish. (transl. Klein)

Franz Cumont40 emphasized the similarities between the apocalypse of Hystaspes and the doctrines of Mithraism; he also noticed a strong similarity between the description of sterility, drought, and diseases in Hystaspes and the Persian Bahman Yasht.41 The “new Elijah” is also mentioned in the Coptic Apocalypse of Elijah, a work conceived in Egypt, in the second half of the 3rd century, as a reaction to the persecutions by Traianus Decius42 and Valerian.43 Many features of this prophetic text depend on the same tradition as that of Commodianus. This author, in his Instructiones, speaks of the coming of an Antichrist and writes: Dixit Esaias: Hic homo, qui commovet orbem Et reges totidem, sub quo fiet terra deserta. Audite, quoniam propheta de illo praedixit; Nil ego conposite dixi, sed lege legendo. Tum scilicet mundus finitur, cum ille parebit Et tres imperantes ipse devicerit orbe. Cum fuerit autem Nero de inferno levatus, Helias veniet prius signare dilectos… Isaiah said: This is the man who moves the world and so many kings, and under whom the land shall become desert. Hear how the prophet foretold concerning him. I have said nothing elaborately, but borrowing from the Law. Then, doubtless, the world shall be finished when he shall appear. He himself shall divide the globe into three ruling powers, when, moreover, Nero shall be raised up from hell, Elijah shall first come to seal the beloved ones.44 According to the Apocalypse of Elijah, a great ruler will appear, who is a false prophet; Elijah and Enoch will come back on earth to fight him, but the ruler will kill them. “They will spend three and a half days dead in the market while all the people look upon them. But on the fourth day, they will rise again…”45 Then the author describes persecutions of Christians.46 This apocalyptic text speaks of the seals which Christians bear on their body.47 Lactantius’ chapter 16, instead, is different from Commodianus’ apocalyptic vision and only a vague similarity can be   F. Cumont, “La fin du monde selon les mages occidentaux”, RHR 103, 1931, 29-96, part. 64-93.   Bahman Yasht 2.41; Cumont, “La fin du monde selon les Mages”, 77. 42   The enemy of Christians has two sons, like Traianus Decius, who had two sons being Caesares: Apoc. of Elijah 2.18, p.307 Frankfurter. 43   See D. Frankfurter, Elijah in Upper Egypt. The Apocalypse of Elijah and Early Egyptian Christianity, Minneapolis 1993; on the historical background of the prophecy: 141-2, 152, 154, 230, 261-2, 277. See, as well, The Apocalypse of Elijah based on P. Chester Beatty 2018, by A. Pietersma, S. Turner Comstock, and H.W. Attridge, Ann Arbor 1981. 44  Commodian., Instr. 41; transl. Wallis (with the exception of lege legendo), from https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0411.htm. 45   Apoc. of Elijah 4.7-15, pp. 317-8 Frankfurter. 46   Apoc. of Elijah 4.20-23, p. 319-320 Frankfurter. 47   Apoc. of Elijah 1.9, p. 303; “among those who are mine, says the Lord, I will write my name upon their foreheads and seal their right hands”; 5.4 p. 322 “those upon whose forehead is inscribed the name of the Christ, upon whose right hand is the seal – from little to great – they (scil. the angels) will lift them up on their wings”. 40 41

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The Origin of the Virgilian Prophecy recognized between the king from the North and the king of Goths (who was Cniva who invaded the Danubian provinces), but their behaviour is different: 16 Tum discordiae civiles in perpetuum serentur nec ulla requies bellis exitialis erit, donec reges decem pariter existant, qui orbem terrae non ad regendum, sed ad consumendum partiantur… Tum repente adversus eos hostis potentissimus ab extremis finibus plagae septentrionalis orietur, qui tribus ex eo numero deletis qui tunc Asiam obtinebunt, adsumetur in societatem a ceteris ac princeps omnium constituetur... denique inmutato nomine atque imperii sede translata confusio ac perturbatio humani generis consequetur. Then civil discords will perpetually be sown; nor will there be any rest from deadly wars, until ten kings arise at the same time, who will divide the world, not to govern, but to consume it… Then a most powerful enemy will suddenly arise against him from the extreme boundaries of the northern region, who, having destroyed three of that number who shall then be in possession of Asia, shall be admitted into alliance by the others, and shall be constituted prince of all… And at length, the name being changed and the seat of government being transferred, confusion and the disturbance of mankind will follow.

808 sed erit initium septima persecutio nostra. Cniva invades the Danubian provinces Ecce ianua pulsat et cingitur ense, qui cito traiecit Gothis inrumpentibus amne. Rex Apollyon (Ioh., Apoc. 9.11) erit cum ipsis, nomine dirus, qui persecutionem dissipet sanctorum in armis. Pergit ad Romam cum multa milia gentis decretoque Dei captivat ex parte subactos. Multi senatorum tunc enim captivi deflebunt et Deum caelorum blasphemant a barbaro victi. Hi tamen gentiles pascunt Christianos ubique, quos magis ut fratres requirunt gaudio pleni. Nam luxuriosos et idola vana colentes persecuntur enim et senatum sub iugo mittunt. Haec mala percipiunt, qui sunt persecuti dilectos: mensibus in quinque (Ioh., Apoc. 9.10) trucidantur isto sub hoste. Already it knocks at the gate: the sword of the Goths will presently cross the river, and they shall break in. King Apollyon, he of the dire name, shall be with them. He shall use his armies the spread the persecution of the holy ones. He shall proceed to Rome with many thousands of tribes; and by the decree of God will he take captive a portion of those subdued by him. And many of the nobility, having been led captive, shall weep. When they see that they have been vanquished by the barbarian, they shall blaspheme the God of the Heavens. Still, the nations that are shall continue to nurture the Christians. Filled with joy, they shall seek them as brothers, desisting from worshipping vain idols and luxuries. They shall persecute and enslave the nobility. Those who persecuted the beloved ones shall perpetrate these evils: and within five months, those under the rule of the enemy shall be slain. (Transl. Klein)

Commodianus did not borrow from Hystaspes but was influenced by John’s Revelation because he uses metonyms in the style of John, such as Apollyon instead of Cniva, Helias instead of a Christian prophet and saint (possibly Asturius), Nero instead of Valerianus. Commodianus was inspired by a violent antijudaism, which has some similarities with the second book of the Oracula Sibyllina, whereas Hystaspes is by no means biased against the Jews. If we remove what depends on the Sibyls, Hermes Trismegistos, and Commodianus, we can single out the fragments from Hystaspes, which are the following ones (translations in § 3.3): Iustin., I Apol. 20 Καὶ Σίβυλλα δὲ καὶ Ὑστάσπης γενήσεσθαι τῶν φθαρτῶν ἀνάλωσιν διὰ πυρὸς ἔφασαν. Clem., Strom. VI.5.43 καὶ τὸν Ὑστάσπην λαβόντες ἀνάγνωτε, καὶ εὑρήσετε πολλῷ τηλαυγέστερον καὶ σαφέστερον γεγραμμένον τὸν υἱὸν τοῦ θεοῦ, καὶ καθὼς παράταξιν ποιήσουσι τῷ Χριστῷ πολλοὶ βασιλεῖς, μισοῦντες αὐτὸν καὶ τοὺς φοροῦντας τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ καὶ τοὺς πιστοὺς αὐτοῦ, καὶ τὴν ὑπομονὴν καὶ τὴν παρουσίαν αὐτοῦ. Lactant., Div. Inst. 15 Hystaspes quoque, qui fuit Medorum rex antiquissimus, a quo amnis nomen accepit qui nonc Hydaspes dicitur, admirabile somnium sub interpretatione vaticinantis pueri ad memoriam posteris tradidit: sublatuiri (i.e. sublatum iri) ex orbe imperium nomenque Romanum multo ante praefatus est quam illa Troiana gens conderetur. 16 Quomodo autem id futurum sit, ne quis incredibile arbitretur, ostendam. In primis moltiplicabitur regnum et summa rerum potestas per plurimos dissipata et concisa minuetur. Tum discordiae civiles in perpetuum serentur nec ulla requies bellis exitialis erit, donec reges decem pariter existant, qui orbem terrae non ad regendum, sed ad consumendum partiantur. Hi exercitibus in immensum auctis et agrorum cultibus destitutis, quod est principium eversionis et cladis, disperdent omnia et comminuent et vorabunt. Tum repente adversus eos hostis potentissimus ab 65

The Mithraic Prophecy extremis finibus plagae septentrionalis orietur, qui tribus ex eo numero deletis qui tunc Asiam obtinebunt, adsumetur in societatem a ceteris ac princeps omnium constituetur. Hic insustentabili dominatione vexabit orbem, divina et humana miscebit, infanda dictu et exsecrabilia molietur, nova consilia in pectore suo volutabit, ut proprium sibi constituat imperium, leges commutet et suas sanciat, contaminabit diripiet spoliabit occidet: denique inmutato nomine atque imperii sede translata confusio ac perturbatio humani generis consequetur. Tum vero detestabile atque abominandum tempus existet, quo nulli hominum sit vita iucunda. Eruentur funditus civitates atque interibunt non modo ferro atque igni, verum etiam terrae motibus adsiduis et eluvie aquarum et morbis frequentibus et fame crebra. Aer enim vitiabitur et corruptus ac pestilens fiet modo inportunis imbribus modo inutili siccitate, nunc frigoribus nunc aestibus nimiis, nec terra homini dabit fructum: non seges quicquam, non arbor, non vitis feret, sed cum in flore spem maximam dederint, in fruge decipient. Fontes quoque cum fluminibus arescent, ut ne potus quidem suppetat, et aquae in sanguinem aut amaritudinem mutabuntur. Propter haec deficient et in terra quadrupedes et in aere volucres et in mari pisces. Prodigia quoque in caelo mirabilia mentes hominum maximo terrore confundent, et crines cometarum et solis tenebrae et color lunae et cadentium siderum lapsus. Nec tamen haec usitato modo fient, sed existent subito ignota et invisa oculis astra. Sol in perpetuum fuscabitur, ut vix inter noctem diemque discernat, luna iam non tribus deficiet horis, sed perpetuo sanguine offusa meatus extraordinarios peraget, ut non sit homini promptum aut siderum cursus aut rationem temporum agnoscere: fiet enim vel aestas in hieme vel hiemps in aestate. Tunc annus breviabitur et mensis minuetur et dies in angustum coartabitur, stellae vero creberrimae cadent, ut caelum omne caecum sine ullis luminibus appareat. Montes quoque altissimi decident et planis aequabuntur, mare innavigabile constituentur. 18 Hystaspes enim, quem superius nominavi, descripta iniquitate saeculi huius extremi pios et fideles a nocentibus segregatos ait cum fletu et gemitu extenturos esse ad caelum manus et inploraturos fidem Iovis: Iovem respecturum ad terram, et auditurum voces hominum, atque impios extincturum. Quae omnia vera sunt praeter unum, quod Iovem dixit illa facturum quae deus faciet. Sed et illut non sine daemonum fraude subtractum, missuiri a patre tunc filium dei, qui deletis omnibus malis pios liberet. It is evident from Lactantius that Hyspaspes was not a Christian nor a Jew because he spoke of Jupiter as the supreme god. The alleged prophecy of the son of God should depend on an interpretation by Clement because Lactantius says that Hyspaspes spoke of Jupiter, and not of “God”.48 The scheme of Hystaspes’ account is the following one: 1. 2. 3. 4.

the final era of the world has come the Roman Empire has come to an end. Civil Wars are breaking out. A powerful king from the north conquers three kings, is supported by others and becomes the universal ruler. The seat of the Empire is moved (from Rome) to another place. 5. Every kind of disaster afflicts nature and mankind. 6. The pious and faithful men pray to Jupiter, Jupiter destroys the wicked people, and sends his son to save the humans. This cannot have been the end of the story and the final account of Lactantius should have been similar to that of Hystaspes. He quotes poets, and in particular Virgil, to describe the end of the story, i.e. the Golden Age inaugurated by the divine saviour. Probably in Hystaspes, as well, the son of Jupiter should have rescued the better part of humankind and created a new age of happiness and respect for the gods. 3.5. Hystaspes and Persia We have seen that the Jewish and Christian features in Lactantius’ account do not affect Hystaspes, whose prophecy includes some details revealing a possible Persian origin. Bruce Lincoln49 noticed that the theme of flattened mountains also recurs in the Greater Bundahishn (34.33), a medieval Persian text: This also is said [in the Avesta]: the earth becomes flat, without a crown and without a seat. There are no mountain peaks nor hollows, nor are ‘up’ and ‘down’ preserved. This doctrine also recurs in a passage of Plutarch where this author speaks of the struggle between Zeus Oromasdes and Areimanios, i.e. Ahura Mazda and Ahriman:   Cumont, “La fin du monde selon les Mages”, 68.   B. Lincoln, “‘The Earth Becomes Flat’ – A Study of Apocalyptic Imagery”, Comparative Studies in Society and History, 25. 1, 1983), 136-153; and now A. Panaino, The “River of Fire” and the “River of Molten Metal”, Sitzungsberichte der philosoph.-hist. Klasse der Österr. Akad. der Wiss. 911, Vienna 2021, 45-50. 48 49

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The Origin of the Virgilian Prophecy …a time is destined in which Areimanios, leading in plague and famine, must of necessity be wholly destroyed and made to disappear by these [gods]. And when the earth has come to be flat and level, one life and one government come into being for all men – who are blesses and speak the same tongue.50 There is another important text such as the Jamasp Nama, chap. 3.14: this earth shall be without the filth and (full) of plains without any declivities. Even the mountain of Chakât, which holds aloft the Chinvad (bridge), shall be levelled down. However, the problem becomes more intricate if we recall that Isaiah (first half of the 7th century) wrote: “Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain”.51 Franz Grenet52 recalls the Pehlevi commentaries of the lost Avestic work Wištāsp sāst,53 where Wištāsp, i.e. Hystaspes, had a dream and was taken to the other world where he knew the future, including the immortality of his son Pishōtan, a character which recurs in medieval Iranian apocalyptic texts. Moreover, Grenet recalls that the medium boy who interpreted the dream also recurs in the 3rd century AD Persian inscriptions celebrating the high priest Kerdīr.54 We should add that Nigidius Figulus is an important testimony of a doctrine of the Magi describing the story of the world as a sequence of four great periods governed by different gods, among whom Apollo was the last. The prophecy known to Nigidius did not include the ekpyrosis, the final conflagration, whereas Hystaspes spoke of fire which destroyed the wicked humankind, as Justin states. The simple fact that Nigidius felt the opportunity of such a clarification suggests that this author knew other versions. Other apocalyptical visions included ekpyrosis, maybe from texts of stoic philosophers or the vision of Hystaspes himself. Berossus knew a Babylonian tradition according to which the world has a long but limited time at its disposal, arranged into long periods, whose end consists in a conflagration or a deluge.55 These Magi known to Nigidius were all but monotheists and also the author of the prophecy of Hystaspes was not a strict monotheist because his supreme god, Jupiter, had a divine son who became the saviour of the noblest part of mankind. The great inscription of Nemrud Dagh,56 speaks of the local priests dressed in Persian attire and mentions the little pantheon worshipped in this sacred place: Zeus (H)oromasdes, Apollo-Mithras-Helios-Hermes, Heracles-Ares-Artagnes, the Commagene, and the deified king Antiochus. These gods are also represented in the famous gigantic statues. Here Zeus (H)oromasdes is accompanied by two gods who, according to Greek mythology, were his sons: Apollo-Mithras and Heracles. Another possible candidate to be this son of Jupiter was Perseus, the alleged ancestor of Persians. Therefore, it is probable that the cultural milieu which produced the oracle of Hystaspes was that of the Anatolian Magi, also called Magusaei, that of the local Persian heritage among kingdoms and cities of Anatolia, where it survived in local pantheons such as that of Commagene. Moreover, we cannot forget that Greeks and Macedonians were still many in the Arsacid kingdom, for example, the citizens of colonies such as Seleucia on the Tigris, Seleucia on the Eulaios, Laodicea (Nehavend), and Antioch in Persis, where other candidates for the authorship of the prophecies could be sought. Two hypotheses have been put forward to explain the anti-Roman bias of Hystaspes’prophecy: it was issued in a cultural environment under the rule of Antiochus III, during his war against Rome, or it was issued under Mithridates VI Eupator, an archenemy of Rome. The prophecy of Hystaspes can possibly be dated either to the 1st century BC57 or between ca 230 and 190 BC.58   Plut., de Iside et Os. 47.   Isaiah 40.3-4 (King James version). 52   Fr. Grenet, “Y a-t-il une composante iranienne dans l’apocalyptique judéo-chrétienne? Retour sur un vieux problème”, in Aux origins des messianismes Juifs. Actes du colloque internat. Paris 2010, ed. D. Hamidović, Vetus Testamentum Suppl 158, Leiden and Boston 2013, 121-144, part. 133. 53   M. Molé, La legende de Zoroastre selon les textes pehlevi, Paris 1967, 58-59; 120-121. 54   See a recent work by A. Panaino, “The Ritual Drama of the High Priest Kirdēr”, in Afarin Nameh. Essays on the Archaeology of Iran in Honour of Mehdi Rahbar, ed. Y. Moradi, Teheran 2019, 179-189. 55   Berossus in Sen., Nat. quaest. 3.29. 56   ILS 1; see H. Waldmann, Der kommagenische Mazdaismus, MDAI(I) Beiheft 37, Tübingen 1991. 57   See H. Windisch, Die Orakel des Hystaspes, Amsterdam 1929; Cumont, “La fin du monde selon les Mages”, 84; J. Bidez and F. Cumont, Les mages hellénisés, I, Paris 938, 215-222. 58   On Antiochus: S.K. Eddy, The King is dead, Lincoln 1961, 34; see A. Mastrocinque, Manipolazione della storia in epoca ellenistica. I Seleucidi e Roma, Rome 1983, 166-168; R. Kotansky, “The Star of the Magi: Lore and Science in Ancient Zoroastrianism, the Greek Magical Papyri, and St. Matthew’s Gospel,” in Ancient Christianity and “Magic” / Il Cristianesimo Antico e la “Mageia”, eds. T. Nicklas and T.J. Kraus, Annali di storia dell’esegesi 24.2, Bologna 2007, 379-421, part. 389-402; for a connection with Mithridates VI, king of Pontus: J.J. Collins, “Jewish Apocalyptic against its Hellenistic near Eastern Environment”, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 220, 1975, 27-76; J.-D. Gauger, Sibyllinische Weissagungen griechisch-deutsch, Düsseldorf and Zürich 1999, 416-18; M. Mazza, Il vero e l’immaginato, Rome 1999, 68-71; A.-M. Buelens, “A Matter of Names: King Mithridates VI and the Oracle of Hystaspes”, in Interconnectivity in the Mediterranean and Pontic World during the Hellenistic and Roman Periods, eds. V. Cojocaru, A. Coşkun, and M. Dana, Cluj-Napoca 2014, 397-411. On the Iranian background of the prophecy: M. Boyce and 50 51

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The Mithraic Prophecy The Persian elements in Hystaspes induce us to label his prophecy as a Persian apocryphal work, or, better said, a prophecy “in Persian style”. According to Ammianus Marcellinus,59 this prophetic Hystaspes was the father of king Darius, but the modern scholarship supposed that this was a mistake of the ancient historian because a more famous Hystaspes was the royal patron of Zoroaster, also celebrated in an Avestic poem. However, the father of Darius has more chances to be the prophet than one could suppose. Hans Windisch60 cautioned against a hasty ascription to a Jewish author because a famous dream of Cyrus concerning Hyspaspes’ son, is reported by Herodotus.61 This son is Darius and the dream forecasted his rule because Cyrus saw him with wings shadowing both Asia and Europe. This dream concerned the transfer of the empire from the Persian dynasty of Cyrus to the Achaemenids of Darius. The oracle of Hystaspes was probably written in the tradition and after the model of this dynastic dream, largely known thanks to Herodotus. The dreams of Hystaspes were probably at the origin of a beautiful legend concerning his brother Zariadres: Chares of Mytilene, in his stories of Alexander the Great, reported that Hystaspes saw in a dream the most beautiful woman in the world, Odatis, and she saw him at the same time, and both fell in love of each other without having even met the other. Hystaspes was the lord of Media and his brother lord of the lands above the Caspian Gates, as far as the Tanais river, and both were sons of Aphrodite and Adonis.62 Chares was a member of Alexander’s royal court and probably was informed in Persia about these legends. The oracle cannot have a Jewish origin because the reasons for such an ascription are based on passages of Lactantius deriving from a Sibyl or another prophet, but not from Hystaspes. Moreover, the prediction of the son of Jupiter coming onto earth does not fit for a Jewish prophecy. The prediction was, instead, interesting for Christians looking for authoritative prophecies of the coming of Christ. “Paul”, Justin, Clement, and Lactantius quoted Hystaspes because of the similarity with prophecies concerning Jesus. In the 1st century BC Alexander Polyhistor63 identified Zoroaster with Ezekiel, and later on, Zoroaster was identified with Seth, Nemrod, Baruch; he was labelled a “second Balaam” and supposed to have been a disciple of Elijah.64 Christians were more eager than Jews to recognize Zoroaster as a prophet. Bogus texts made up by Christian authors are known and consist in developments of existing traditions: possibly the prophecy of Hyspaspes itself and other Persian texts concerning the coming of a Saviour. These prophecies were combined with the Gospel of Matthew and the episode of the Magi visiting Jesus65 in order to enhance the belief in divine inspiration of the Magi.66 The Opus imperfectum in Matthaeum67 is a work which was known from at least the 9th century AD but was more ancient. This work asserts that the Magi waited for centuries for the coming of the Messiah by gazing at the stars, and eventually recognized the fatal star which led them to Jesus and were baptized by St. Thomas. In the Melissai by Salomon of Bassora, a 13th-century work,68 Zarathustra himself forecasted the coming of Christ. Was the prophecy of Hystaspes a Christian work in the same vein? This prophecy was possibly manipulated by Christians in order to make it fit for their purpose, but two reasons show that it was not conceived by Christian authors. 1) a Christian would never ascribe such a prophecy to a boy because this was a typical feature of pagan magical inquiries,69 whereas Christian true prophets were similar to John the Baptist and the biblical prophets; 2) that of Hystaspes was a dynastic prophecy, speaking of empires and the end of the Roman power, whereas a Christian prophecy would have been centred on the birth of the son of God. In prophecies such as those in the fifth book of the Sibylline Oracles, the destruction of F. Grenet, A History of Zoroastrianism, III. Zoroastrianism under Macedonian and Roman Rule, Handbuch der Orientalistik, I. Abt. 8.2, Leiden, New York, Copenhagen, and Cologne 1991, 378-380; on a Jewish origin or a Jewish influence: E. Schürer, Geschichte des jüdischen Volkes im Zeitalter Jesu Christi, III, 4th ed., Leipzig 1909, 592-95; A. Peretti, “Sulla duplice stesura del libro d’Istaspe”, Wiener Studien 69, 1956, 350-362; A. von Harnack, Geschichte der altchristlichen Literatur, I, 2, 2nd ed., Leipzig 1958, 86. 59   Amm. Marc. 23.6.32. 60  Windisch, Die Orakel des Hystaspes, 46. 61   Her. 1.29-20. 62   Athen. 13.35. 63   In Clem. Alex., Strom. 1.15.70 = Müller, FHG III, fr. 138a. 64   W. Bousset, Hauptprobleme der Gnosis, Göttingen 1907, 378-80. 65   Matthew 2.1-12. 66   E. Kuhn, “Eine zoroastrische Prophezeiung in christlichem Gewande”, in Festgruss an Rudolf von Roth, Stuttgart 1893, 217-221; G. Messina, “Una presunta profezia di Zoroastro sulla venuta del Messia”, Biblica 14, 1933, 170-198. 67   Iohannes Chrysostomus, PG 56, p. 638. This was probably the work of about 385 AD written by an arian anomean Christian, possibly the arian bishop Maximinus, a Goth against whom St Ambrose and St Augustin argued: G. Rauschen-Wittig, Grundriß der Patrologie mit besonderer Berücksichtigung des Lehrgehalts der Väterschriften, Freiburg 1921, p. 185; Th. Zahn, “Der Exeget Ammonius und andere Ammonii”, Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte 38, 1920, 1-22; 311-36, part. 323; Messina, “Una presunta profezia”, 178. 68   Anecdota Oxoniensia, Semitic Series, I.2, ed. A. Wallis Budge, chap. 37-39, pp. 81-86. 69   Even though the boy of Hystaspes was not possessed by a ghost as happened in many magical inquiries, or, in other cases, the boy was supposed to let his soul fly to the world of the gods and obtain there the answers to bring back on earth. See L. Costantini, “Apuleius on Divination: Platonic Daimonology and Child-divination’, in Divination and Knowledge in Greco-Roman Antiquity, ed. C. Addey, Abingdon, Oxon, and New York 2021, 248-269.

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The Origin of the Virgilian Prophecy Rome was a pivotal idea within a Jewish apocalyptic scenario associated with the Bar Kochba revolt. Christian authors forecasted the end of the world and, of necessity, also of Rome70 but they often asserted that their prayers provided Rome with a delay of its end.71 3.6. Persian Apocalypses In a famous article72 Franz Cumont put forward the idea that the Apocalypse of Hystaspes was contemporary to the birth of the mysteries of Mithras; they represented different traditions but were related and shed light on each other. The comparison between Hystaspes and Mithraism involved the Pehlevi medieval apocalypses such as the Bahman Yasht. We have dealt with Hystaspes and will deal now with later Persian apocalypses with caution, after decades of arguments about the Persian origin of Hystaspes, the antiquity of Persian apocalyptic literature, and the possible Jewish origin of some apocalyptic themes in these Pehlevi texts. We will see that this literature was ancient and recurring in various forms among many peoples: Jews (and Christians), Persians, Etruscans, Romans, and others. These prophecies were often interethnic; for example, Christians used pagan prophets to forecast the coming of Jesus. In such a long-lasting tradition of apocalyptic texts, a prophecy in Persian style concerning the coming of Mithras-Apollo onto this earth is conceivable. The “Persian” prophet of Mithras was known to Firmicus Maternus. In the first half of the 4th century BC, the Greek historian Theopompus73 knew of doctrines of the Magi about the struggle between Horomazes and Areimanios (called Hades), either ruling for 3000 years in turn, then fighting one another for another 3000 years, before the final defeat of this latter and the consequent happiness of mankind. During the times of Caesar, Nigidius Figulus knew the theory of the Magi dividing history into four periods that preceded the final reign of Apollo. We know, indeed, a Zoroastrian version of this prophecy, a prophecy that, although preserved only in late Pehlevi works of the medieval age, was probably derived from more ancient traditions.74 One can read this prophecy in the Bahman Yasht (7th cent. AD or later because the text mentions, among the enemies of Persia, the Arabs, who vanquished the Persians, and the Turks, who were ruled by the Seljuq dynasty from the 11th cent.),75 a work which borrowed from a more ancient Zand ī Wahman yasn, as it is declared in chapter 3.1. This Zand ī Wahman yasn is supposed to be the Middle Persian translation of an Avestan text, but this hypothesis is not shared by the entire scholarship.76 The composition date of the Bahman Yasht is difficult to establish but was probably more ancient than the written version we have at our disposal. Some scholars suppose that it was a work conceived during the Hellenistic Age, when Persians were in trouble under the Macedonian dominion.77 In the Bahman Yasht Zoroaster (called Zarduxšt, i.e. Zarathustra) says: “he saw the trunk of a tree on which were four branches, one of gold, one of silver, one of steel, and one on iron had been mixed. Then he that he had seen it in a dream. Once woken from sleep, Zarduxšt said: ‘O Lord of spiritual and material beings, it seems that I have seen the trunk of a tree on which were four branches’.   Ohrmazd said to Spitâmân Zarduxšt: ‘The tree trunk that you have seen, . Those four branches are the four epochs that will come. The one of gold is that during which I and you converse, and king Wištâsp accepts the religion and breaks the bodies of the dêws and , take to flight and hiding. And the one of silver is the reign Ardaxšîr the Kayanid king. And the one of steel is the reign Husraw of immortal soul, son of Lawâd. And the one on which iron had been

  Cf. Cumont, “La fin du monde selon les Mages”, 71-72.   See an important book by R. Turcan, Ouranopolis: la vocation universaliste de Rome: contributions aux séminaires internationaux ‘Da Roma alla Terza Roma’, Rome and Paris 2011. 72   Cumont, “La fin du monde selon les Mages”, 64-93. 73  Theopompus, FGH 115, F 65, in Plut., De Is. et Os. 47. 74   After the research by Geo Widengren (G. Widengren, Iranische Geisteswelt. Von den Anfängen bis zum Islam, Baden-Baden 1961, 182-3, 197-8; “Leitende Ideen und Quellen der Iranischen Apocalyptik”, in Apocalypticism in the Mediterranean World and the Near East, ed. D. Hellholm, Tübingen 1983, 77-162), this text has been considered as a commentary on a lost Avestan hymn (Yasht) to Vohuman/Bahman (i.e. the Good Mind): M. Boyce, “On the Antiquity of Zoroastrian Apocalyptic”, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 47, 1984, 57-75; Ead., in Boyce, Grenet, A History of Zoroastrianism, III, 382-7; A. Hultgård, “Bahman Yasht: A Persian Apocalypse”, in Mysteries and Revelations: Apocalyptic Studies since the Uppsala Colloquium, eds. J.J. Collins, J.H. Charlesworth, Sheffield 1991, 114-34; Id., “Mythe et histoire dans l’Iran ancien. Étude de quelques thèmes dans le Bahman Yašt”, in Apocalyptique iranienne et dualisme qumrânien, eds. G. Widengren, A. Hultgård, and M. Philonenko, Paris 1995, 63-162. On the contrary, Ph. Gignoux, “Sur l’inexistence d’un Bahman Yasht avestique”, Journal of Asian and African Studies 32, 1986, 53-64, dates the work to the Islamic period. On the chronological question: C.G. Cereti, The Zand î Wahman Yasn. A Zoroastrian Apocalypse, Serie Orientale Roma 75, Rome 1995, 15-27. 75   See Kotansky, “The Star of the Magi”, 398-401. On the chronological question: Cereti, The Zand î Wahman Yasn, 15-27. 76   See Gignoux, “Sur l’inexistence d’un Bahman Yasht avestique”. 77   See M. Boyce, “On the Antiquity of Zoroastrian Apocalyptic”, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 47, 1984, 57-75, part. 68; S. K. Eddy, The King is Dead, Lincoln 1961, 343-349. 70 71

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The Mithraic Prophecy mixed is the evil rule the parted hair dêws of the seed of Xêšm, when it will be the end of your tenth century, o Spitâmân Zarduxšt.” 78 In the third chapter, a tree with seven branches is also described, of gold, silver, copper, bronze, tin, and a mixture of iron. Then calamities are described which will harass Persia at the end of the tenth millennium when many foreign people will invade it, while religion, law and the nature itself will be defiled and decay. The events of the eleventh millennium follow, in chapters 7 and 8, during which the warrior Wahrām Warzāwand and the priest Pišyōtan, Wištāsp’s (i.e. Hystaspes’) son, join their forces against the enemies, and also Mihr (i.e. Mithras) supports Pišyōtan and fights the demons who took control of Persia. Mihr/Mithras finally conquers the demon Xešm and the enemies’ hordes are forced to go back to hell. The source of the Bahman Yasht could have modified and expanded the oracle of Hystaspes, as Mary Boyce79 supposed, or depended on another source forecasting the future in a similar way. We know only a little number of texts of this kind especially because Augustus and other Roman emperors and governors destroyed a large number of them, in particular the anti-Roman ones. We know from Nigidius Figulus that this kind of Persian, or allegedly Persian prophecies were already spread in the late republican times. Nigidius knew the theory of the Magi, according to which the story of humankind was divided into periods, characterized by specific gods. A more precise link to Nigidius is to be recognized in the Denkart (9th cent. AD), which speaks of four historical periods: The seventh fargard (i.e. chapter), Te-ve-urvata, is about the exhibition to Zartosht (Zarathustra) of the nature of the four periods in the millennium of Zartosht. First, the golden, that in which Ohrmazd displayed the religion to Zartosht. Second, the silver, that in which Vishtasp received the religion from Zartosht. Third, the steel, the period within which the organizer of righteousness, Adarbad Mahraspandan, was born. Fourth, the period mingled with iron is this, in which is much propagation of the authority of the apostate and other villains, as regards the destruction of the reign of religion, the weakening of every kind of goodness and virtue, and the disappearance of honour and wisdom from the countries of Iran. In the same period is an account of the many perplexities and torments of the period for that desire of the life of the good which subsists in seemliness.80 Jamasp Nama (the “book of Jamasp”) is a title given to the apocalyptic chapter 16 of the Ayādgār ī Jāmāspīg “Memorial of Jāmāsp,” a work written in Middle Persian.81 It was one among the most popular Persian prophetic texts during the Middle Ages, when the Zoroastrian communities in Iran expressed their anger because of the Muslim rule over Persia and this text was a source of inspiration also for Muslim prophetic texts in Iran, from the 16th to the 18th centuries. Jāmāsp was a prophet who knew everything; Wištāsp (Hystaspes) inquired him and received information about the cosmology, the ancient kings of Iran from Gayōmard to Wištāsp himself and about the forthcoming ones, down to the Sasanian kings, to Yazdegerd III, and the Arab conquest. Chapter 16 speaks of the coming of Pišyōtan and Ušēdar, son of Zarathustra, who were to inaugurate an era of peace, and of the appearance of Sošāns, the saviour, and the final destruction of Ahrimen/ Ahriman, the evil god. Chapter 17 includes materials which appear to be unique,82 and especially the millennium of Ušēdar and Ušēdarmāh, and the last days. The Jamasp Nama presents some myths which also recur in the mysteries of Mithras. In chapter 3 the early story of the world includes these details: “from the seed of Gayômard, men came forth from the earth in the body of the plant rovâs”. In the following chapter the end of the early righteous ruler of a happy age of the origins, Gayômard, is preceded by the description of his creation of the first men: “from him the seed passed to the tree. The tree accepted it, and it passed off to the earth. The earth accepted it. It remained in the earth for thirty years. Then in the form of the plant rovâs, it grew up from the earth. From them were first born a noble woman and a man.” In chap. 3.9 the Jamasp Nama offers an apparent parallel to the mysteries of Mithras: after enacting the resurrection of the dead, Sôshyôs, the saviour, sacrificed a cow, and the men who ate its meat became immortal. This account is shared by a 9th century AD Pahlavi text such as the Bundahishn, in whose 34th chapter we read:   Bahman Yasht 3; transl. Cereti, The Zand î Wahman Yasn.   Boyce, “On the Antiquity of Zoroastrian Apocalyptic”. 80   9.7; transl. E.W. West, Sacred Books of the East, Oxford 1897. This text depends on the Avestan Sudkar Nask. 81   See the edition by J.J. Modi, Jāmāspī, Pahlavi, Pazend and Persian Texts with . . . English and Gujarati Translation, Bombay 1903; G. Messina, Libro apocalittico persiano Ayātkār i Žāmāspīk, Rome 1939; D. Agostini, Ayãdgãr i Jāmāspīg: Un texte eschatologique zoroastrien, Biblica et Orientalia 50, Rome 2013. 82   E. Benveniste, “Une apocalypse pehlevie: le Žāmāsp-Nāmak,” RHR 106, 1932, pp. 337-80. 78 79

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The Origin of the Virgilian Prophecy The bones of Gayomard will be raised up, and then those of Mashys and Mashyanag, and then those of the other people. In fifty-seven years the Soshyant will raise up all the dead. And all mankind will arise, whether just or wicked… Then the assembly of Isadvastar will take place. In that assembly, everyone will behold his own good or bad deeds, and the just will stand out among the wicked like white sheep among black. Fire and the yazad Airyaman will melt the metal in the hills and mountains, and it will be upon the earth like a river. Then all men will be cause to pass through that molten metal… And for those who are just it will seem as if they are walking through warm milk; and for the wicked it will seem as if they are walking in the flesh through molten metal. And thereafter men will come together with the greatest affection, father and son and brother and friend. The Soshyant with his helpers will perform the yasna for restoring the dead. For the yasna they will slay the Hadayans bull; from the fat of that bull and the white haoma they will prepare ambrosia and give it to all mankind; and all men will become immortal, for ever and ever.83 3.7. The Meaning of Similarities between Iranian Apocalypses and Mithraism The birth of men out of trees did not impress the modern scholarship, which was, instead deeply interested in the parallel between the sacrifice of the Hadayans bull (associated with the rebirth of men) and the sacrifice of the Mithraic bull. Several scholars supposed a simple transfer of such a belief from Iran to Rome and interpreted the Tauroctony as if it had the same meaning as that in the Bundahishn. The major representative of this theory has been Franz Cumont84 and it is still strong among some researchers, especially because the inscription et nos servasti ... sanguine fuso, from Santa Prisca Mithraeum, gave new blood to the theory itself. The first reason for this interpretation resides in the supposed similarity between Mithraism and Christianity. The pivot of the theory is a famous passage of Tertullian: Sed quaeritur, a quo intellectus intervertatur eorum quae ad haereses faciant? A diabolo scilicet, cuius sunt partes intervertendi veritatem qui ipsas quoque res sacramentorum divinorum idolorum mysteriis aemulatur. Tingit et ipse quosdam utique credentes et fideles suos; expositionem delictorum de lavacro repromittit, et si adhuc memini Mithrae, signat illic in fontibus milites suos. Celebrat et panis oblationem et imaginem resurrectionis inducit et sub gladio redimit coronam. The question will arise: By whom is the sense of the passages which make for heresies to be interpreted? By the devil, of course, to whom pertain those wiles which pervert the truth, and who, by the mystic rites of his idols, vies even with the essential portions of the sacraments of God. He, too, baptizes some, that is, his own believers and faithful followers; he promises the putting away of sins by washing; and if my memory still serves me, Mithras there, (in the kingdom of Satan) sets his marks on his soldiers in the sources; celebrates also the oblation of bread, and introduces an image of a resurrection, and before a sword wreathes a crown.85 By combining the final chapter of the Bundahishn and this passage of Tertullian the “image of resurrection” was recognized in the Tauroctony. However, this was not what the Christian author meant. He was arguing against diabolic imitations of rituals, not against cultic images: quoque res sacramentorum divinorum idolorum mysteriis aemulatur. Possibly Mithraism

Christianity

quoque res sacramentorum divinorum idolorum mysteriis aemulatur

Sacraments

Tingit et ipse quosdam utique credentes et fideles suos

Baptism

expositionem delictorum de lavacro repromittit

Confession and penitence

  Translation from M. Boyce, Textual Sources for the Study of Zoroastrianism, Manchester 1984, 52.   Cumont, “La fin du monde selon les Mages”, 32; see also F. Cumont, Les mystères de Mithra, new ed. by N. Belayche and A. Mastrocinque, 134; see the introduction by Belayche, XXII). See recently J. Lahe, Mithras – Miθra – Mitra. Der römische Gott Mithras aus der Perspektive der vergleichenden Religionsgeschichte, Münster 2019, 58: “Die Stiertötung hat aber noch eine sehr wichtige Bedeutung gehabt, die unmittelbar aus den Reliefs her nicht fassbar ist, doch epigraphisch belegt ist. In einer Inschrift heißt es: et nos servasti /.../ sanguine fuso. Das bedeutet, Mithras habe seine Anhänger durch das Vergießen des Blutes des Stieres gerettet, da dieses Blut die „Wiedergeburt“ des Individuums ermöglichte”. 85  Tert., de praescriptione 40, based on the transl. by Holmes, with some changes. I prefer the reading fontibus (in the sources) instead of frontibus (on the foreheads); see L. Renaut, “Les initiés aux mystères de Mithra étaient-ils marqués au front? Pour une relecture de Tertullien, De praescr. 40, 4”, Mediterranea 4, 2007 (= Religioni in contatto nel mondo antico. Atti del 3° colloquio su “Le religioni orientali nel mondo greco e romano” Loveno di Menaggio (Como) 26-28 maggio 2006, eds. C. Bonnet, S. Ribichini, and D. Steuernagel), 171-190. On Christian authors and their need of distinguishing Christians from other religious groups: S. Roselaar, “The Cult of Mithras in Early Christian Literature – An Inventory and Interpretation”, Klio 96, 2014, 183-217. 83 84

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The Mithraic Prophecy Mithraism

Christianity

signat illic in fontibus milites suos

Baptism

Celebrat et panis oblationem

Eucharist

imaginem resurrectionis inducit

Martyrdom

sub gladio redimit coronam

It were an unexpected addition among sacraments that of an image, instead of a ritual. Therefore the ritual should have been that of one or more initiations, which provided the faithful with a new life, a higher status, and even a new name. Another noun for a “new initiate” was natus: “born”. The exact moment of this ‘natal’ was recorded by noting the consular date, the day of the month and the week, and the position of the moon, which always astrologically affected the ‘initiatory births’. An inscription from Santa Prisca, in Rome, says: Natus prima luce duobus Augg. co(n)s(ulibus) Severo et Anton[ino] XII k(alendas) Decem[bres] dies Saturni luna XVIII Born at dawn, under the consulate of the two Augusti Severus and Antoninus, on 20 November, on Saturday, three days after the full moon.86 All this has nothing to do with Christian and Persian ideas of rebirth and Judgement Day. As the fat of the bull used for preparing an ambrosia, according to the Bundahishn, has been a good starting point for a comparison with the Christian Eucharist, the supporters of the theory of a direct transfer of ideas from Iran to Rome enthusiastically used the Santa Prisca inscription et nos servasti … sanguine fuso to identify the blood gushing from the wound on Mithraic iconographies, the fat mentioned by the Bundahishn, and, in case, the blood of Jesus. All this is evidently false. In fact, we also recall a passage of Justin Martyr (2nd century AD) who deals with similar supposed diabolic imitations in the mysteries of Mithras: ὅπερ καὶ ἐν τοῖς τοῦ Μίθρα μυστηρίοις παρέδωκαν γίνεσθαι μιμησάμενοι οἱ πονηροὶ δαίμονες· ὅτι γὰρ ἄρτος καὶ ποτήριον ὕδατος τίθεται ἐν ταῖς τοῦ μυουμένου τελεταῖς μετ’ ἐπιλόγων τινῶν ἢ ἐπίστασθε ἢ μαθεῖν δύνασθε. the wicked devils have imitated (the Eucharist) in the mysteries of Mithras commanding the same thing to be done. You can either know or learn that bread and a cup of water are placed with certain spells in the rites of one who is being initiated. If someone supposes that salvation was granted in the mysteries of Mithras thanks to drinking either bull’s blood or wine, as a substitute for blood87, he finds his way blocked by these words of Justin, saying that Mithraists used a cup of water. Hypotheses of substitution of fat with blood, of blood with wine, or with water would transform serious research into a joke. The bull’s blood was actually drunk by snakes and dogs, instead of humans. How could this mean that humans were to be born again? If the miracle performed by the Iranian saviour was also performed in the Roman Mithraea, bulls had to be sacrificed and their meat and blood drunk. In the Roman iconography of Mithras, a bull was offered, but we do not know anything of a possible real sacrifice of bulls and eating of their meat by devotees: they rather ate pigs and poultry and rarely bovine meat. A graffito from the Dura Europos’ Mithraeum mentions bovine meat to be bought in a   CIMRM 498. Moon I was the new moon; moon VIII, the first quarter; moon XV, the full moon; moon XXII, the last quarter. On this text: S. Arcella, Il dio splendente. I Misteri romani di Mithra fra Oriente e Occidente, Roma 2019, 154-156. 87   See Cumont’s words, from Les mystères de Mithra, 100: “Alors se passa un prodige extraordinaire: du corps de la victime moribonde naquirent toutes les herbes et les plantes salutaires, qui couvrirent la terre de verdure. De sa moelle épinière germa le blé, qui donne le pain, et de son sang, la vigne, qui produit le breuvage sacré des mystères, floraison merveilleuse que les artistes ont rappelée discrètement en terminant la queue du taureau par un bouquet d’épis”. 86

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The Origin of the Virgilian Prophecy shop.88 Such theories would lead to paradoxical conclusions. We should maintain that the Romans accepted a Persian tradition – supposedly existing in the 1st cent. AD – and that they resorted to the iconographic scheme of Nike-Victory to symbolize “rebirth” or “immortality”. The resurrection of the dead was a matter of Jewish, Christian, and Iranian beliefs, not of Roman religion. In case, immortality among the stars can be supposed for persons who underwent initiations, because this is implied in Celsus’ account.89 The Romans never accepted foreign cults without adapting them to their religious mentality and tradition, and the case of the Magna Mater is a perfect example of this. However, the similarities between late Iranian texts and the mysteries of Mithras are meaningful. The birth of men from some trees, in particular, is a myth shared by Hesiod and the Jamasp Nama, and possibly the either one inspired the founder of Mithraism. The sacrifice of a bull was inspired by the image of Nike, by legendary victories over bulls by heroes (for ex. Heracles and Theseus) and kings (for ex. Seleucus I and the statue of Antiochus IV of Syria),90 and by the final act of the Roman triumphs. We do not know if the myth of the bull or of the caw sacrificed by the Saviour, according to the Bundahishn and the Jamasp Nama, was already known in the Hellenistic period, or earlier. If it did, it may have encouraged the founder of Mithraism in conceiving such a central act for a Roman scenario of the Persian god Mithras. The prophecy of Hystaspes, the Bahman Yasht, the Bundahishn, and the Jamasp Nama have many similarities which raised, among the scholarship, the reasonable suggestion that they were preceded by one or more Avestan works, but we know that this hypothesis has been questioned.91 Moreover the relationships between these apocalyptic prophecies and some Jewish and Egyptian prophetic texts92 make the topic even more complex. Fortunately, we do not need a precise date of each prophecy in its original conception, nor do we need an unquestionable reconstruction of the different and reciprocal influences. It is sufficient to have singled out the existence of apocalyptic prophecies issued in Persia or in the Near East and ascribed to famous Persian authorities. Recurring features of these prophecies were: • • • • • •

the approaching end of a cycle of human and cosmic live and the beginning of a new, possibly last cycle. wars, death, and other calamities characterize the end of the historical cycle. a new and better generation of men appears and is blessed by either God or the gods. God or the gods destroy the wicked men and the demons. a saviour king leads the better part of humankind to overcome and inaugurates the new era. the new era is a Golden Age, possibly similar to that of the earliest era of the cosmos and of humankind.

Some (not to say all) of these features were also shared by Greek, Jewish, and Etruscan apocalyptic prophecies starting from the last two centuries BC. These numerous apocalyptic texts not only had a recurring scheme, but they also show several important differences which allow us to classify them. They could be: 1. dynastic prophecies, speaking of leading empires, possibly characterized by the founders of dynasties. 1a. prophecies concerning the ruling continents: either Asia or Europe. 1b. prophecies forecasting the end of Roman rule. 2. millenarian prophecies. 2a. prophecies that periodize human history according to metals. 2b. prophecies that periodize human history according to ruling gods (possibly represented by metals). 3. prophecies forecasting the coming and the rule of a tribe of perfect worshippers of God.   F. Cumont and M.I. Rostovtzeff, The Excavations at Dura Europos: Preliminary Report of the Seventh and Eight Seasons of Work, 1933-34 and 1934-35, New Haven 1939, 125; see recently T. Gnoli, “The Mithraeum of Dura-Europos: New Perspectives”, in Religion, Society and Culture at DuraEuropos, ed. T. Kaizer, Yale Classical Studies 38, Cambridge 2016, 126-143; CIMRM 64, 65; Alvar, Romanising Oriental Gods, 352, who also adds: “there is no Mithraic iconography of the sacrificing Pater, sacerdos or whoever: this absence of course does not tell us that the cult was not sacrificial, simply that the ‘true’ sacrifice was held to be Mithras”. 89   Celsus, apud Orig., contra Celsum 6.22-30. 90   See Mastrocinque, The Mysteries of Mithras, chap. 2. 91   See for ex. J. Duchesne-Guillemin, “Apocalypse juive et apocalypse iranienne”, in La soteriologia dei culti orientali nell’Impero Romano, eds. U. Bianchi and M. J. Vermaseren, Leiden 1982, 753-761, part. 758-59; F. Gignoux, “Nouveaux regards sur l’apocalyptique iranienne”, CRAI 1986, 334-346. 92   Judaea: for. ex. J.J. Collins, Jewish Apocalyptic against its Hellenistic near Eastern Environment, 2nd ed., Grand Rapids and Cambridge 1984, part. 29-33; Egypt: L. Koenen, “Die Adaptation ägyptischer Königsideologie am Ptolemäerhof,” in Egypt and the Hellenistic World, eds. E. van’t Dack, P. van Dessel, and W. van Gucht, Louvain 1981, 143-190, part. 181-83. 88

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The Mithraic Prophecy The fourth Eclogue of Virgil is pertaining to the categories 2: 2a, and 2b. The Magi known to Nigidius wrote prophecies pertaining to the 2b category. Hystaspes pertains to categories 1b and 2. The Mithraic prophecy seems to pertain to the categories 2: 2b and probably 2a, like Virgil, whose fourth Eclogue appears to be the prophetic work more similar to the Mithraic prophecy, more than the Apocalypse of Hyspaspes. Virgil was an Etruscan from Mantua and there is no doubt that he knew the Etruscan prophecies and the Etruscan conception of human history. He also knew of the expected Age of Apollo, recurring in texts ascribed to Magi and possibly in other works, as well. In the fourth Eclogue, he declares that the prophecy was uttered by the Cuman Sibyl. We have realized that the Virgilian prophecy included features also recurring in Persian, or allegedly Persian prophecies. If we have been able to realize this by using only a little part of the tradition known to Virgil and other learned men of his epoch, it is evident that cultivated people in the Augustan Empire were also able to recognize similarities between the Virgilian prophecy and that of the Magi known to Nigidius and probably other similar texts. Three centuries later, Lactantius paired the Sibyl and Hystaspes as authors who transmitted similar prophecies, and added Virgil as the best testimony of their final part, dealing with the Golden Age. The similarity of Persian and Virgilian prophecies triggered the conception of the Mithraic prophecy. The prophet of Mithraism probably conceived of a sacred story similar to those of Virgil, of the Sibyls, of Hystaspes, and other authors. The coming of Apollo as leader of the new historical cycle was forecasted by both Virgil and the Magi, and the Mithraic prophet simply used the Persian name and the Persian clothes of Mithras to speak of Apollo and his earthly sovereignty, represented by Augustus.

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4 Mithras and Dawn Dolce color d’orïental zaffiro, che s’accoglieva nel sereno aspetto del mezzo, puro infino al primo giro, a li occhi miei ricominciò diletto, tosto ch’io usci’ fuor de l’aura morta che m’avea contristati li occhi e ‘l petto. Lo bel pianeto che d’amar conforta faceva tutto rider l’orïente, velando i Pesci ch’erano in sua scorta. (Dante Alighieri, Purgatorio, canto I 4.1. Mithras, Venus, Libra, and Dawn We have seen that Nigidius Figulus and, to a certain degree, the prophecy of Hystaspes prove that the Virgilian prophecy shared some features of Persian prophetic texts. Now we will see that Augustus himself shared some important features with Mithras. We have already said, so far, that the divine patron of Augustus was Apollo, and Mithras was currently identified with Apollo. Moreover, both Mithras and Apollo were solar gods whose concern was that of helping and supporting some rulers, as we read in the inscription from the Nemrud Dagh, in Commagene. These rulers were even physically similar to either Apollo or Mithras and sometimes it was difficult to understand if the god or the ruler was present.1 The most powerful and famous of all the rulers, Augustus, had a special relationship with Venus and with the star Venus. In this chapter, we will see that Mithras, on the other hand, was a god of dawn and the morning star. Both Mithras and Augustus were mediating between light and darkness. I know that such a comparison could appear awkward, but let us see first what the relationship between Mithras and dawn was. Mithras’s relationship with Venus is less known than the connections between the goddess and Augustus, whose gens, the Julii, descended from Venus. Therefore, we start with Mithras. In a passage of Herodotus we read: Θύουσι δὲ ἡλίῳ τε καὶ σελήνῃ καὶ γῇ καὶ πυρὶ καὶ ὕδατι καὶ ἀνέμοισι. Τούτοισι μὲν δὴ θύουσι μούνοισι ἀρχῆθεν, ἐπιμεμαθήκασι δὲ καὶ τῇ Οὐρανίῃ θύειν, παρά τε Ἀσσυρίων μαθόντες καὶ Ἀραβίων· καλέουσι δὲ Ἀσσύριοι τὴν Ἀφροδίτην Μύλιττα, Ἀράβιοι δὲ Ἀλιλάτ, Πέρσαι δὲ Μίτραν. The Persians sacrifice also to the sun and moon and earth and fire and water and winds. From the beginning, these are the only gods to whom they have ever sacrificed; they learned to sacrifice to the “heavenly” Aphrodite from the Assyrians and Arabians. She is called by the Assyrians Mylitta, by the Arabians Alilat, by the Persians Mitra.2 Here, the banal solution to the problem of the unprecedented female gender for Mithras is that of considering this a mistake, as if Herodotus was speaking of Anahita instead of Mithras.3 However, E.J. Edwards and G. von Simson4 proposed a better solution based on two passages of Persian works where Mithras appears as a god of the morning star and the dawn. J. Kellens5 recognized the relationship between Mithras and the dawn and von Simson identified the Indian  Mastrocinque, The Mysteries of Mithras, chap. 2.   Her. 1.131; transl. Godley. 3   See I. Gershevitch, The Avestan Hymn to Mithra, Cambridge 1959, 30. 4   E.J. Edwards, “Herodotus and Mithras: Histories I. 131”, AJPh 111, 1990, 1-4: G. von Simson, “Zum Ursprung der Götter Mitra and Varuna”, IndoIranian Journal 40, 1997, 1-35. Cf. G. Zoega, Li bassorilievi antichi di Roma, II, Rome 1808, 16-17; Id., Abhandlungen, transl. by F.G. Welcker, Göttingen 1817, 404. Contra: A. de Jong, Traditions of the Magi: Zoroastrianism in Greek and Latin Literature, Leiden, New York, and Cologne 1997, 109 (who quotes only the Hymn to Mithras). 5   J. Kellens, “Les bras de Miθra”, in Mysteria Mithrae, 703-716. 1 2

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The Mithraic Prophecy divine couple Mitra and Varuna with the star of Venus, i.e. with Phosphoros and Hesperus. The first passage to quote is one from the Avestan Hymn to Mithras, which needs an interpretation. The following is the translation by Ilias Gershevich: Grass-land magnate Mithra we worship……, the well-created, very great god who in the morning brings into evidence the many shapes, the creatures of the Incremental Spirit, as he lights up his body, being endowed with own light like the moon; whose face blazes like (that) of the star Sirius.6 As the commentary by Gershevich clarifies, the meaning of many words is difficult to understand, but the whole image of this god is clear enough in this passage. This luminous god of the morning is not the sun himself, but a god who radiates an autonomous light which, like that of the moon, befits a stellar light of the sky at dawn. This represents the bright blue sky of dawn when the morning star shines brilliantly. But the relationship between Mithras, the morning light, and the sun also appears in another passage of the same work: Grass-land magnate Mithra we worship……, who is the first supernatural god to approach across the Harā, in front of the immortal swift-horsed sun; who is the first to seize the beautiful gold-painted mountain tops; from there the most mighty surveys the whole land inhabited by Iranians.7 Therefore, Mithras shines first and the sun follows. The Hymn to Mithras also says of Mithras: Who goes along the whole width of the earth after the setting of the glow of the sun, sweeping across both edges of this wide, round earth whose limits are far apart.8 Being the mediator between light and darkness, Mithras necessarily is in the west at sunset and travels east by following the edges of the earth to reach the point where the sun will rise and where he will stage the appearing dawn. Another Avestan text, the Vidēvdāt (also called Vendidād, which means “The Law repudiating the Demons”, probably written in the Arsacid period) speaks of Mithras and his light. In chapter 19, § 27 the author of this work speaks of the judgment of the human souls, and then one can read, in the translation by Behramgore Anklesaria9 on the completion of (the) third night, (when) the bright dawn illumines, on the mountains having the bliss of holiness, (where) approaches Mithra of the good weapon, the sun (too) rises (by rising thither). The passage is similar to that in the Mithras Yasht and shows that Mithras and the sun came together but were distinguished one from another. Mithras appears at dawn and illuminates first the mountains, then the sun appears. Their relationship is similar to that between the Egyptian scarab Khepri and the divine Sun.10 In India, Mitra had the same nature, as we read in the 137th hymn, to Mitra-Varuna, in the Rig Veda: Come to us, Kings who reach to heaven, approach us, coming hitherward. These milky drops are yours, Mitra and Varuna, bright Soma juices blent with milk. Here are the droppings; come ye nigh the Soma-droppings blent with curd, juices expressed and blent with curd. Now for the wakening of your Dawn together with the Sun-God’s rays. (transl. Griffith) In the Yajur Veda 6.4.8, we read: This was not day or night, but undiscriminated; the gods said to Mitra and Varuna, ‘Make this to shine forth for us’; they replied, ‘Let us choose a boon; let one cup only be drawn before ours.’ Therefore the cup for Indra and Vayu is drawn before that for Mitra and Varuna, for the Upançu and the Antaryama (cups) are expiration and inspiration. Mitra produced the day, Varuna the night; then indeed did this shine forth; in that (a cup) is drawn for Mitra and Varuna, (it is) for shining forth. (transl. Berriedale Keith)   Mithras Yasht, 142-143.   Mithras Yasht, sect. 4, 12-13; transl. Gershevich, who writes (p. 31): “he is the light that appears earlier than the sun, he travels in front of the sun”, cf. F.B.J. Kuiper, “Remarks on “The Avestan Hymn to Mithra”, Indo-Iranian Journal 5, 1961, 36-60, part. 45-47. J. Hertel, Die Sonne und Mithra im Awesta, Indo-Iranische Quellen und Forschungen 9, Leipzig 1927, and M. Weiss, “Mithras, der Nachthimmel. Eine Dekodierung der römischen Mithras-Kultbilder mit Hilfe des Awesta”, Traditio 53, 1998, 1-36, suppose that Mithras was the nocturnal light in the starry sky. 8   Mithras Yasht, 95. 9   Pahlavi Vendidâd, ed. by B.T. Anklesaria, Bombay 1946. 10   See recently A. Mastrocinque, “Ialdabaoth’s Boat”, in Plutarco, entre dioses y astros. Homenaje al profesor Aurelio Pérez Jiménez de sus discípulos, colegas y amigos, eds. J.F. Martos Montiel, C. Marcías Villalobos, and R. Caballero Sánchez, Zaragoza 2019, 1289-1303. An identification of the Indian Mitra and Varuna with the sky at day and at night, respectively, is imprecise (see for ex. G. Dumézil, Mitra-Varuna. Essai sur deux representations indoeuropéennes de la souveraineté, 2nd ed. Paris 1948, 92). 6 7

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Mithras and Dawn

Fig. 4.1. Silver coin of Amastris, in Asia Minor (from internet, acsearch.info. G&M auctions)

Fig. 4.2. Queen Anzaze with Kamnaskires, king of Elymais, ca 82–75 BC (from internet acsearch.info. Classical Numismatic Group auctions)

Fig. 4.3. Musa, wife of king Phraatakes of Parthia, ca 2 BC–4 AD (from internet coinArchives. Classical Numismatic Group auctions)

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The Mithraic Prophecy

Fig. 4.4. The Persian satrap Tiribazos on an obol from Mallos, ca 386–380 BC (from internet, G&M auctions)

In Hindu religion the name of the planet of Venus is Shukra and therefore one could suppose that the morning light and the planet were distinguished. This is the reason why Herodotus said that the Persians sacrificed to Mithra(s) in the local form of Aphrodite: he just spoke of the star of Aphrodite, the planet Venus, which shines at dawn in the sky.11 This fact shows that Mithras appeared between night and day, between darkness and light. This is the concept expressed by Plutarch in a famous passage of his de Iside et Osiride, where he writes: The great majority and the wisest of men hold this opinion: they believe that there are two gods, rivals as it were, the one the Artificer of good and the other of evil. There are also those who call the better one a god and the other a daemon, as, for example, Zoroaster the sage, who, they record, lived five thousand years before the time of the Trojan War. He called the one Horomazes and the other Areimanius; and he further declared that among all the things perceptible to the senses, Horomazes may best be compared to light, and Areimanius, conversely, to darkness and ignorance, and midway between the two is Mithras: for this reason the Persians give to Mithras the name of “Mediator” (Μίθρην Πέρσαι τὸν μεσίτην ὀνομάζουσιν). Zoroaster has also taught that men should make votive offerings and thank-offerings to Horomazes, and averting and mourning offerings to Areimanius. They pound up in a mortar a certain plant called omomi at the same time invoking Hades and Darkness; then they mix it with the blood of a wolf that has been sacrificed, and carry it out and cast it into a place where the sun never shines. In fact, they believe that some of the plants belong to the good god and others to the evil daemon; so also of the animals they think that dogs, fowls, and hedgehogs, for example, belong to the good god, but that water-rats belong to the evil one; therefore the man who has killed the most of these they hold to be fortunate.   47 However, they also tell many fabulous stories about their gods, such, for example, as the following: Horomazes, born from the purest light, and Areimanius, born from the darkness, are constantly at war with each other; and Horomazes created six gods, the first of Good Thought, the second of Truth, the third of Order, and, of the rest, one of Wisdom, one of Wealth, and one the Artificer of Pleasure in what is Honourable. But Areimanius created rivals, as it were, equal to these in number. Then Ηοromazes enlarged himself to thrice his former size, and removed himself as far distant from the Sun as the Sun is distant from the Earth, and adorned the heavens with stars. One star he set there before all others as a guardian and watchman, the Dog-star. Twenty-four other gods he created and placed in an egg. But those created by Areimanius, who were equal in number to the others, pierced through the egg and made their way inside; hence evils are now combine with good. But a destined time shall come when it is decreed that Areimanius, engaged in bringing on pestilence and famine, shall by these be utterly annihilated and shall disappear; and then shall the earth become a level plain, and there shall be one manner of life and one form of government for a blessed people who shall all speak one tongue.12 This important passage is descriptive of Persian Zoroastrianism.13 Here we cannot resort to our traditional concept of light   An interesting coin from Amastris (fig. 4.1), in Paphlagonia, of the early 3rd century BC, shows Aphrodite on the reverse side and, on the other side, a personage wearing a Persian hat decorated with a star (fig. 24). He is identified with the Persian queen Amastris, the founder and ruler of the city, or Mithras, or the Anatolian lunar god Men; see F. de Callatay, “Le premier monnayage de la cité d’Amastris (Paphlagonie)”, Schweizerische Numismatische Rundschau 83, 2004, 57-80. However, the iconography of Persian queens (especially Anzaze, queen of Elymais/Elam, ca. 82-75 BC, and queen Musa of Parthia, 2 BC-4 AD; see figs. 4.2 and 4.3) is known and no one of them wears such a hat, which is also different from that of Hellenistic queens. This hat is that of a man: see, for ex., fig. 4.4. On these coins, the head has no symbol of the god Men, but, on several specimens, two symbols of Mithras, a bow and a quiver, appear behind the head. On the star as a symbol of Mithras: G.R. Cecchladze, “The cult of Mithras in ancient Colchis”, RHR 209, 1992, 115-124. 12   De Is. et Os. 46-47; transl. Cole Babbitt. 13   Cf. de Jong, Traditions of the Magi, 157-204, and also R.L. Gordon, “Franz Cumont and the Doctrines of Mithraism”, in Mithraic Studies, I, 215248, part. 226. 11

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Mithras and Dawn and darkness in a Christian vein14, i.e. as good and evil, as product of the Lord and of the Devil, respectively. Plutarch means Ahriman when he speaks of Hades, but Hades is far from being identified with the Devil. When the Iranian doctrine speaks of light and darkness it also means the true light and true darkness, and Mithras appears as the mediator in the physical world: he shines first at dawn with his own light. He was placed between night and day, between darkness and light. His light was also that of the star Venus, if we follow the Herodotean testimony. Aphrodite was born from the foam which surrounded the genital organs of Uranus fallen into the sea, when sky and earth were separated. Aphrodite was a medium between earth and sky and her role was that of connecting living beings with love. Mithras was the god of treaties and friendship, Aphrodite the goddess of love, and both were engaged in establishing a harmonic connection between two different entities. The star of Venus appears low on the horizon, between earth and sky. What was hidden in the darkness is revealed thanks to Mithras’ light, early in the morning, when Venus shines. The truth appears, criminals and wrongdoers are detected and recognized, when this light shines.15 Mithras was also between light and darkness during the calendrical year, his festival taking place in October. The Mithrakana or Mihragan is a festival still celebrated in honour of Mithras in Iran, today.16 It has been described by Mary Boyce after she visited an Iranian village of Zoroastrians, in 1964. It takes place in autumn, in the month of Mihr (Mithras). On this occasion, a sheep and a goat are sacrificed. The Iranian month of Mithras, Mihr, corresponded to the zodiacal sign of Libra (called Tarazhuk) and was the first autumnal month.17 Ohrmazd is at the head of the divinities of the first half of the month, and Mihr (i.e. Mithras), as lord of the sixteenth day, is at the head of those of the second half. Similarly, Mihr, as presiding over the second half of the year, is also at the head of the divinities of the second half of the year.18 The connection between Mithras and the autumnal equinox is testified by both Porphyry and the emperor Julian. In his de antro Nympharum Porphyry writes: On this account, the gates of the Homeric cavern are not dedicated to the east and west, nor to the equinoctial signs, Aries and Libra, but to the north and south, and to those celestial signs which towards the south are most southerly…. But these places are adapted to souls descending into generation, and afterwards separating themselves from it. Hence, a place near to the equinoctial circle was assigned to Mithras as an appropriate seat. And on this account he bears the sword of Aries, which is a martial sign. He is likewise carried in the Bull, which is the sign of Venus. For Mithras as well as the Bull, is the Demiurgus and lord of generation. But he is placed near the equinoctial circle, having the northern parts on his right hand, and the southern on his left. They likewise arranged towards the south the southern hemisphere because it is hot; but the northern hemisphere towards the north, through the coldness of the north wind.19 The edition of Porphyry’s de antro Nympharum in the Arethusa Monographs20 corrected the traditional text by recognizing the names of Cautes and Cautopates: τοῦ Καύτου and τοῦ Καυτοπάτου instead of κατ’αὐτόν and τοῦ κατ’ἐκεῖνον, as in the edition by Nauck.21 The result of this correction would be the following: Mithras is the Demiurgus and lord of generation and therefore is placed near the equinoctial circle, having the northern parts on his right hand, and the southern on his left, and Cautes is placed in the South of those zones, because it is warm, and Cautopates in the North, because of its cold wind. The emperor Julian, in his discourse on Helios, located the Dioscuri in the same astrological position, near the solstices,   Shared by the Christian Bardaesanes and Mani.   The myth of Phaethon is depicted on the reliefs from Dieburg (CIMRM 1247) and Osterburken (CIMRM 1292) and this myth deals with the rising sun and Eos/Aurora. The function of Venus and the star of Venus in Mithraism has been investigated by R. Gordon, “Reality, Evocation and Boundary in the Mysteries of Mithras”, JMS 3, 1980, 19-99, part. 48-54; A.B. Griffith, “Completing the Picture: Women and the Female Principle in the Mithraic Cult”, Numen 53, 2006, 48-77 part. 69-71. An interesting comparison can be found in the Mesoamerican religion where dawn and Venus were extremely important, and Venus was identified with the great god Quetzalcoatl; see, for ex., A.F. Aveni, “Venus and the Maya”, American Scientist 67, 1979, 274285; M. Mathiowetz, P. Schaafsma, J. Coltman, and K. Taube, “The Darts of Dawn: The Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli Venus Complex in the Iconography of Mesoamerica and the American Southwest”, Journal of the Southwest 57, 2015, 1-102. 16   M. Boyce, “Mihragāna among the Irani Zoroastrians”, in Mithraic Studies, ed. J.R. Hinnells, I, Manchester 1975, 106-118; cf. A. De Jong, “Armenian and Georgian Zoroastrianism”, in The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Zoroastrianism, eds. M. Stausberg, Y. Sohrab-Dinshaw Vevaina, and A. Tessmann, Chichester 2015, 119-128, part. 124. 17   Bundahishn 25: “As from the auspicious day Ohrmazd of the month Frawardin to the auspicious day Anagran of the month Mihr is the summer of seven months … the month Mihr, the month Aban, and the month Adar are autumn”; transl. West. 18   M. Boyce, “On Mithra’s Part in Zoroastrianism”, BSOAS, 32, 1, 1969, 10-34, part. 24. 19  Porph., de antro 24; transl. Taylor. 20   J. Barnes, Porphyry: The Cave of the Nymphs in the Odyssey, Arethusa Monographs, Buffalo NY 1969, 170. 21   A. Nauck, Porphyrii philosophi Platonici opuscula selecta, Leipzig 1887. 14 15

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The Mithraic Prophecy and placed Helios near the equinoctial line.22 Therefore the modern astrological connection of Cautes with the summer solstice, and Cautopates with the winter solstice cannot be dismissed as false, even if we do not accept Barnes’ problematic correction in the Arethusa Monographs. Richard Gordon underscored that Porphyry’s account corresponds to the astrological location of Mithras on many reliefs, where the god has Libra over his head and Aries under his feet, or vice versa.23 In the wall of the Mithraeum of Hawarte a slit has recently been noticed, which is slanting inwards and downwards, and due to its alignment, direct sunlight penetrated it between 24 September and 12 November, and again between 29 January and 20 March – the altitude of the sun being always close to the possible maximum – and the time of the day between about 15:00 and 16:00 O’clock. This reckoning admits only little approximation and seems to refer to the equinoxes. On the winter solstice, the sun illuminated the right half of the niche in the main room, where the sculptured figure of Mithras must have once stood.24 4.2. Augustus and Libra Augustus’ astrological sign was Libra, exactly at the autumnal equinox. He was born at the equinox, was deified in September, and his astral position, as a divus, was in Libra. The line of equinoxes is a diameter in the zodiacal circle going from Libra to Aries and we know that the deified Augustus ruled the cosmos from the position of the autumnal equinox, because his home was in Libra, the zodiacal sign of his birth. I have already clarified all this in my book The Mysteries of Mithras, and I summarize here my discussion of the sources. Augustus’ birth occurred on 22 or 23 September, 63 BC, corresponding to the autumnal equinox. We know of the relationship between Augustus and Libra25 thanks to Virgil, in the following passage of his first book of Georgics: tuque adeo, quem mox quae sint habitura deorum concilia incertum est, urbisne inuisere, Caesar, terrarumque uelis curam, et te maximus orbis auctorem frugum tempestatumque potentem accipiat… anne nouum tardis sidus te mensibus addas, qua locus Erigonen inter Chelasque sequentis panditur (ipse tibi iam bracchia contrahit ardens Scorpius et caeli iusta plus parte reliquit). And you also, Caesar, what councils of the gods will soon receive you? This is uncertain. Would you wish to look after cities and care for lands on earth? Would the greatest (heavenly) circle receive you as the guarantor of crops and the master of seasons …   Or would you, in the later months of the year, add yourself, a new sign, in that part of sky where a space opens up between Virgo and following Chelae? Bright-burning Scorpio is the one drawing in its pincers for you, and leaving more than a fair portion of sky.26 The names that Virgil uses here for the constellations reflect the tradition of Aratus; the constellation we call ‘Libra’ is mentioned as “the ‘Claws’ (Chelae) of Scorpio”, and the observation that Scorpio (with its Claws) thus occupies more than its share of the zodiacal circle is typical of Aratus and poetic astronomical nomenclature up to Virgil’s time. Roman poets, however, in the generation after Virgil were aware of the designation of Libra as a zodiacal sign in its own right, but the Mantuan poet uses his astronomical Aratean knowledge to honour Augustus by proposing that a new constellation, the Augustan Libra, will occupy the place of Scorpio’s Claws.

 Iulian., in Solem regem 25-26.   See Gordon, “The sacred Geography”. The relief from the Mithraeum of London (Walbrook): CIMRM 810.1; Merkelbach, Mithras, 398, and other two monuments (CIMRM 860 [Vercovicium, near Hadrian’s wall]; 985 [Trier]) have, instead, Aries and Libra at the two sides of the god. 24   M. Gawlikowski, K. Jakubiak, W. Małkowski, and A. Sołtysiak, “A Ray of Light for Mithras”, in Un impaziente desiderio di scorrere il mondo. Studi in onore di Antonio Invernizzi, eds. C. Lippolis and S. de Martino, Florence 2011, 169-175. On this kind of “observational astronomy” in several Mithraea: W. Lentz, “Some Peculiarities not hitherto fully understood of Roman Mithraic Sanctuaries and in Mithraic Representations”, in Mithraic Studies, II, 358-377, part. 367. 25   On this topic and the role of Libra in Manilius’ astronomical poem: G. Cresci Marrone, Ecumene augustea. Una politica per il consenso, Rome 1993, 232-233; J.H. Abry, “Auguste: la Balance et le Capricorne”, REL 66, 1988, 103-121; P. Domenicucci, Astra Caesarum. Astronomia, astrologia e catasterismo da Cesare a Domiziano, Pisa 1996; P.L. Gatti, “La dea e la Bilancia. Elementi di datazione per la Ciris pseudovirgiliana”, CentoPagine 2, 2008, 28-38 (internet page: http://www2. units.it/polymnia/iniziative/SCA2008_Gatti.pdf. 26  Verg., Georg. 1.24-28 and 32-35. 22 23

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Mithras and Dawn The following passages from Manilius’ astrological poem prove that Virgil’s prediction was accepted after Augustus’ death and deification: Sed, cum autumnales coeperunt surgere Chelae, felix aequato genitus sub pondere Librae, iudex examen sistet vitaeque necisque imponetque iugum terris, legesque rogabit. illum urbes et regna trement nutuque regentur unius, et caeli post terras iura manebunt. When autumn’s Claws begin to rise, blessed is he that is born under the equilibrium of the Balance. As judge he will set up scales weighted with life and death; he will impose the weight of his authority upon the world and make laws. Cities and kingdoms will tremble before him and be ruled by his command alone, whilst after his sojourn on earth jurisdiction in this sky will await him.27 In another celebration of Libra, Manilius says: Hesperiam sua Libra tenet, qua condita Roma orbis et imperium retinet discrimina rerum, lancibus et posit as gentes tollitque premitque, qua genitus Caesar melius nunc condidit urbem et propriis frenat pendentem nutibus orbem. Italy belongs to the Balance, her rightful sign: beneath Rome and her sovereignty of the world were founded, Rome which controls the issue of events, exalting and depressing nations placed in the scales: beneath this sign was born Caesar, who has now effected a better foundation of the city and governs a world which hangs on his command alone.28 This deified ‘Caesar’ who dwelt in Libra was neither the divus Julius nor Tiberius, but the divus Augustus himself, and the Virgilian name ‘Caesar’ recurs in the following late antique epigram which mentions the zodiacal signs starting from Aries: Laniger astrorum ductor, Taurusque secundus, tum sidus geminum et Cancri fulgentis imago, truxque Leo et Virgo, quae spicea munera gestat, et Libram qui Caesar habet, chelaeque minaces... The fleecy is leader of stars, Taurus is the second, and then the twin star, and the bright image of Cancer, and the savage Leo, and Virgo who bears, as a present, ears of corn, and Libra ruled by Caesar, and the threatening arms of Scorpio...29 The divus Augustus became the new ruler of the cosmic spheres, as Manilius says at the end of his fourth book: Augusto crescet sub principe caelum (the firmament becomes greater with Augustus as its chief).30 The quoted epigram uses the generic name of ‘Caesar’ probably because it was influenced by Virgil, who wrote during Octavian’s life, before 27 BC, when Caius Julius Caesar (Octavian) received the title of Augustus. Edmund Buchner proposed a well-known theory, according to which the Horologium in the Campus Martius, conceived by the mathematician and astrologer Facundus Novus,31 and the Ara Pacis Augusti, were aligned in such a way that on Augustus’ birthday (i.e. the approximate date of the autumnal equinox) the shadow of the obelisk followed the equinoctial line across the pavement from west to east throughout the day so that it fell through the open doorway in the west façade of the Ara Pacis at sunset.32   Manil. 4.546-551; transl. Goold.   Manil. 4.773-777. 29   Anthologia Latina 618 Riese. 30   On the divus Augustus and Apollo as the rulers (but the first was identified with the second) of the whole cosmos see B.A. Kellum, “The City Adorned: Programmatic Display at the Aedes Concordiae Augustae”, in Between Republic and Empire: Interpretations of Augustus and his Principate, eds. K.A. Raaflaub and M. Toher, Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London 1990, 276-307, part. 294. 31   Plin., N.h. 36.72. 32   E. Buchner, “L’orologio solare di Augusto”, Rendiconti della Pontificia Accademia di Archeologia 53-54, 1980-82, 331-345; Id., Die Sonnenuhr des Augustus, Mainz am Rhein 1982; cf. also J. Pollini, Studies in Augustan Historical Relief, Diss. Berkeley 1978, 142-3; M. Torelli, “Topografia e iconologia. Arco di Portogallo, Ara Pacis, Ara Providentiae, Templum Solis”, Ostraka 1, 1992, 105-131; P. Rehak, Imperium and Cosmos: Augustus and the Northern Campus Martius, Madison, Wisconsin 2006, 80-93; P. Heslin, “Augustus, Domitian and the So-called Horologium Augusti”, JRS 97, 2007, 1-20. For a criticism: M. Schütz, “Zur Sonnenuhr des Augustus auf dem Marsfeld”, Gymnasium 97, 1990, 432-57; a large debate among the 27 28

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The Mithraic Prophecy Augustus also had the ancient temple of Apollo in circo Flaminio (also known as Apollo Sosianus) rebuilt, and it was dedicated on 23 September, the birthday of the princeps,33 and therefore Apollo shared the equinoctial nature of both Augustus and Mithras. Augustus was worshipped on 22 September even before his death. In fact, we read in an inscribed altar in Narbo: When Titus Statilius Taurus and Lucius Cassius Longinus were consuls [=11 AD], on the 10th day before the Kalends of October [= September 22], a perpetual vow was undertaken by the people of [Gallia] Narbonensis: May it be good, favorable, and fortunate for Imperator Caesar Augustus, son of the divus, father of his country, pontifex maximus, holding tribunician power for the 34th time, and for his wife, children, and clan, and for the senate and the people of Rome, and for the colonists and residents of the colony of Iulia Paterna Narbo Martius, who have obligated themselves forever to the worship of his numen. The people of (Gallia) Narbonensis have set up an altar in the forum at Narbo, at which, every year on the 9th day before the Kalends of October [= September 23], on which day the happiness of this era proclaimed him as the ruler to the whole world, three Roman Knights from the people and three freedmen shall each sacrifice an animal and they shall provide incense and wine, at their own expense, for the colonists and residents, to supplicate his numen; and on the 8th day before the Kalends of October [= September 24], they shall also provide incense and wine for the colonists and residents; and on the Kalends of January [= January 1] they shall also provide incense and wine for the colonists and residents; and on the 7th day before the Ides of January [= January 7], the day on which he took the auspices of his first imperium over the whole world, they shall supplicate with incense and wine and shall each sacrifice an animal and provide incense and wine for the colonists and residents on that day; and on the day before the Kalends of June [= May 31], since on that day, when Titus Statilius Taurus and Manius Aemilius Lepidus were consuls [= AD 11], he reconciled the judgments of the people with those of the decurions, they shall each sacrifice an animal and shall provide incense and wine for the colonists and residents to supplicate his numen…34 The beginning of an inscription from Forum Clodii (now Bracciano) says as follows: In the year when Tiberius Caesar was consul for the third time and Germanicus Caesar for the second, and when Cnaeus Acceius Rufus Lutatius son of Cnaeus, of the Arniensis tribe, and Titus Petilius, son of Publius, of the Quirina tribe, were duumvirs, the following were decreed: an aedicula and these statues, [and] a sacrificial animal for their dedication; [and] two victims for 24 September, the birthday of Augustus, [those] which are customarily sacrificed perpetually, should be sacrificed on 23 and 24 September at the altar dedicated to the Augustan numen.35 4.3. Augustus and Dawn Augustus was born between night and day, between darkness and light, at dawn. Suetonius writes, on his birth: Natus est Augustus M. Tullio Cicerone C. Antonio conss. VIIII. Kal. Octob. paulo ante solis exortum, regione Palati ad Capita bubula, ubi nunc sacrarium habet, aliquanto post quam excessit constitutum. Augustus was born in the consulship of Marcus Tullius Cicero and Gaius Antonius [63 BC], upon the ninth of the calends of October [23 September], a little before sunrise, in the quarter of the Palatine Hill, and the street called The Ox-Heads, where now stands a chapel dedicated to him, and built a little after his death.36 Paulo ante solis exortum corresponds to “at dawn” when the star of Venus shines in the sky. It was an exceedingly opportune moment for being born because Venus was the divine ancestress of the gens Iulia, the mother of Aeneas, the hero of the Virgilian Aeneis, a key character in the Augustan ideology. This opportune moment for being born could raise doubts because it seems to depend on an ideological construct. If the precise moment of Augustus’ birth was arranged by some authors for ideological reasons, we should suppose that Augustus would necessarily be born at dawn, even if this was not true. The star of Venus, shining at dawn, would have been a sufficient reason for choosing this opportune different opinions is presented by the following book: The Horologium of Augustus: Debate and Context, ed. Haselberger, JRA suppl. 99, Portsmouth 2014; cf. also A. Schmid, “Augustus, Aequinokt und Ara Pacis”, in Homo Mathematicus. Actas del Congreso Internacional sobre Astrólogos Griegos y Romanos, Benalmádena, 2001, eds. A. Pérez Jiménez and R. Caballero, Malaga 2002, 29-50. See, in addition, data and bibliography in Mastrocinque, The Mysteries of Mithras, 180. 33   CIL VI, 2295 = Inscr.It. XIII.2, 2: e(o) d(ie) Imp(erator) Caesar Aug(ustus) pont(ifex) / ma[x(imus)] natus est …/ Apo[l]lini ad theatrum Marcelli. 34   CIL XII, 4333; transl. by M. Koortbojian, The Divinization of Caesar and Augustus. Precedents, Consequences, Implications, Cambridge 2013, 171. 35   CIL XI, 3303; transl. Koortbojian. The reason for the 24 September, instead of the 23, resides in the confusion due to the introduction of the Julian calendar; see D. Feeney, Caesar’s Calendar. Ancient Time and the Beginnings of History, Berkeley 2007, 154-5. 36  Suet., Aug. 5.

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Mithras and Dawn moment. However, paulo ante solis exortum was also a moment of balance and transition between night and day, darkness and light, and was coupled with the birth of Augustus at the autumnal equinox, when a balance and a transition occurred between light and darkness, warm and cold. This could have been true, by chance, or was partially a construct. In any case, Augustus was supposed to be in the centre and in a balance between different poles, he was the arbiter, the mediator who created harmony between opposite elements. In politics, he was the arbiter who created peace between optimates and populares, between Senate and leaders of the plebs, between rich and poor. In this manner, his political role was magnified and emphasized in a religious and cosmic dimension. Octavian himself was looking for an astrological event confirming his rule and his great destiny. Pliny the Elder recalls that the Roman people saw a comet in the sky, in July 44 BC, when Octavian was celebrating the games in honour of Venus Genetrix, and thought that it was the soul of Caesar, recently deceased and transformed into a god in the sky. Octavian expressed indeed this belief publicly. But Pliny adds: eo sidere significari vulgus credidit Caesaris animam inter deorum inmortalium numina receptam, quo nomine id insigne simulacro capitis eius, quod mox in foro consecravimus, adiectum est.” haec ille in publicum; interiore gaudio sibi illum natum seque in eo nasci interpretatus est. The common people believed that this star signified the soul of Caesar received among the spirits of the immortal gods and on this account the emblem of a star was added to the bust of Caesar that we shortly afterwards dedicated in the Forum. This was his public utterance but privately he rejoiced because he interpreted the comet as having been born for his own sake and as containing his own birth within it.37 Thus, Octavian looked at the shining comet as a sign concerning his second “birth” as Caesar’s son, with his new name Caius Julius Caesar. The popular opinion depended on the Hellenistic katasterismoi (i.e. transformations of a person, an animal or an object into a star) and the famous legend of Berenice’s hair, while Octavian’s idea was similar to the tradition concerning Mithridates VI: Huius futuram magnitudinem etiam caelestia ostenta praedixerant. Nam et eo quo genitus est anno et eo quo regnare primum coepit stella cometes per utrumque tempus LXX diebus ita luxit, ut caelum omne conflagrare videretur. The future greatness of this prince even signs from heaven had foretold; for in the year in which he was born as well as in that in which he began to reign a comet blazed forth with such splendour, for seventy successive days on each occasion, that the whole sky seemed to be on fire.38 The comet in Matthew’s gospel was also a sign of the birth of a king. We recognize now that Mithras shared with Augustus some important features. Herodotus testifies to a connection between Mithras and the star of Venus; the Avestan passages depict Mithras as the god of dawn; Mithras’ festival at the beginning of autumn confirms his role of mediator. Mithras was a mediator between the god of light and the god of darkness, as testified by Plutarch. These are features of the Persian god independent of the Augustan ideology, and the Augustan ideology was shaped independently of the Mithras’ cult, and had Apollo as the reference god. If these two religious and ideological domains were shaped independently (but this cannot be taken for granted), we should consider them as premises for interferences and interactions. As we have seen in The Mysteries of Mithras, the first documented interference between the Roman Empire and Mithras is the scene on the Grand camée de France (fig. 4.5), depicting Tiberius on his throne, under the divus Augustus, Mithras flying near Augustus and holding the cosmic globe. During the first decades of the 1st century AD, it was easier than now to recognize the similarities between Augustus and Mithras, and the old identification of Mithras with Apollo catalyzed the connection between the Roman imperial ideology and the Persian and Anatolian ideology of the political power pivoted on Mithras. A modern reader probably wonders by noticing those similarities, but the simple presence of an astrologist or an expert in religion from Commagene (Tiberius’ advisor was Thrasyllus, an Egyptian astrologist who was married to Aka, a

 Plin., N.h. 2.94; transl. Rackham. In the first Eclogue of Calpurnius Siculus a comet is told to have announced the coming of a new ruler (with a probable allusion to Nero). 38   Iustin. 37.2, transl. Watson. 37

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The Mithraic Prophecy

Fig. 4.5. The Grand Camée de France. From http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b550097420/f1.item

Commagenian princess39, and first met Tiberius in Rhodes between 1 and 4 AD), from Tarsus, Cilicia, Syria, Armenia, or even Persia at the Augustan court could account for the contact between these two domains. Such a person was able to notice these similarities and possibly infer important religious consequences for the cult of the first emperor. 4.4. Mithras Mesites We have seen that in his de Iside et Osiride Plutarch describes Mithras as the mediator between Ahura Mazda and Ahriman: Zoroaster … called the one Horomazes and the other Areimanius; and he further declared that among all the things perceptible to the senses, Horomazes may best be compared to light, and Areimanius, conversely, to darkness and ignorance, and midway between the two is Mithras: for this reason the Persians give to Mithras the name of “Mediator”.40 The famous sculptural group of statues on the Nemrud Dagh (fig. 4.6) depicts Commagene, Antiochus, Zeus Horomazes, Mithras Apollo, and Heracles Artagnes, and here Mithras is placed between Horomazes and Heracles. In Tarsus, this latter was identified with the infernal and warlike god Sandas and in Syria with Nergal, the god of the dead. The position of Mithras is the expected one, between the god of light and the god of darkness.41   His son Balbillus was an astrologist at the imperial court under Claudius, Nero, and Vespasian, and is supposed to have conceived the Mithraic mysteries: see R. Beck, “The Mysteries of Mithras: a New Account of their Genesis”, JRS 88, 1998, 115-28. 40   De Is. et Os. 46; transl. Cole Babbitt. 41   See Mastrocinque, The Mysteries of Mithras, chap. VI. 39

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Mithras and Dawn

Fig. 4.6. Zeus Oromasdes, Mithras, and Heracles on the Nemrud Dagh (mid-1st cent. BC)

Christian Bartholomae42 and above all Antoine Meillet43 singled out the Indo-European root *mei, “to exchange”, in the name of Mithras. In the Avesta, miθra means “covenant”, and in Sanskrit mitra means “friend”. In the Avestan Hymn to Mithras (Yasht 10.104) Mithras is the supervisor of contracts: In every watchpost, eight servants sit as watchers of the contract, watching the contract-breaker(s); they see them, they notice them, as soon as they begin to be false to the contract, and they guard the paths of those whom seek out the owners of Falsehood who are false to the contract and strike at what virtually owns Truth.44 The Hittite archives of Boğazköy kept the text of a treaty between Šattiwaza of Mitanni and Šuppiluliuma, the Hittite king, which occurred in ca 1380 BC. They swore by the names of several gods, among whom was Mithras.45 Julius Pokorny preferred an interpretation of *mei as “to bind”.46 In combination with the ending -tra, the name of this god should signify “that which binds”, “covenant, treaty, agreement, promise, oath”. Otto Helmut Wolfgang Lentz47 disagreed with those meanings and preferred a more religious concept, such as “piety”, whereas Hans-Peter Schmidt48 proposed a meaning of Avestan miθra as “alliance”. The etymology proposed by Meillet and Pokorny has been taken for granted by several scholars, who recognized in it a clue to understanding the nature of the god himself. For example, Reinhold Merkelbach49 thought that Mithras was the

  Chr. Bartholomae, Altiranisches Wörterbuch, Strassburg 1904 (= Berlin 1979), column 1183.   A. Meillet, “Le dieu Indo-Iranien Mitra”, JA 10, 1907, 143-59. On this topic: M. Mayrhofer, “Die bisher vorgeschlagenen Etymologien und die ältesten Bezeugungen des Mithra-Namens”, in Études mithriaques, Actes du 2e Congrès International. Téhéran 1er-8 Sept. 1975, AI 17, ed. J. DuchesneGuillemin, Leiden, Teheran, and Liège 1978, 317-325; F. Scialpi, “Mitra nel mondo naturale. Un dio grande ed amico”, in Mysteria Mithrae, 811-844, part. 815-818, who rightly argues against the acritically accepted theory. See a recent overview by J. Lahe, Mithras – Miθra – Mitra. Der römische Gott Mithras aus der Perspektive der vergleichenden Religionsgeschichte, Münster 2019, 103-106. 44   Hymn to Mithras 10, transl. Gersevich. 45   P. Thieme, “The ‘Aryan’ Gods of the Mitanni Treaties,” JAOS 80, 1960, 301-317. 46   J. Pokorny, Indogermanisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, Tübingen 1959, Lemma meih–4 (cf. μίτρη: headband). On the different meanings of the root *mei-: M. Mayrhofer, Kurzgefaßtes etymologisches Wörterbuch des Altindischen, Heidelberg 1972, 633-634. 47   W. Lentz, “Mithras Verfügung über die Herrschgewalt (Yasht 10. 109 und 111)”, in Indo-Iranica. Mélanges Georg Morgenstierne, Wiesbaden, 1964, 108-23; Idem, “The ‘Social Functions’ of the Old Iranian Mithra,” in W.B. Henning Memorial Volume, ed. M. Boyce, London 1970, 245-55. 48   H.-P. Schmidt, “Mithra I. Mitra in Old Indian and Mithra in Old Iranian”, in Encyclopaedia Iranica (New York, April 2011) http://www.iranicaonline. org/articles/mithra–i. 49  Merkelbach, Mithras. Other authors accepted Meillet’s theory, namely P. Thieme, Der Fremdling im Rigveda, Leipzig 1938, 134-6; Id., Mitra and Aryaman, New Haven 1957, 17-18; Id., “The ‘Aryan’ Gods of the Mitanni Treatises”, JAOS 80, 1960, 307; I. Gershevitch, The Avestan Hymn to Mithra, Cambridge 1959, 26-29; G. Dumézil, Le dieux souverains des Indo-Européens, Paris, 1977, 81-83; I. Imoto, “Mithra, the Mediator”, in Monumentum Georg Morgenstierne, Acta Iranica 21, Leiden 1981, 299-307; A.B. Griffith, “Mithraism in the private and public Lives of 4th-c. Senators in Rome”, EJMS 1, 2000 (http//:gama.inesc.pt/Lusitania/ejrm/), 14. Georges Dumézil (especially his Mitra-Varuna. Essai sur deux representations indo-européennes de la souveraineté, 2nd ed. Paris 1948) emphasizes the function of Mithras as a god of political power. R. Merkelbach, Mithras, Hain 1984, supposes that the god guaranteed the relationships between kings and nobility in Iran and between emperors and officials in the Roman Empire. 42 43

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The Mithraic Prophecy god of ‘the pact’, or of ‘the agreement’ that bound the Iranian king to his noblemen and subsequently the Roman emperor to the officers of the Empire. Such an interpretation proves shaky and reductive, as can be the case in any etymology of a divine name. Plato in the Cratylus proposed an etymological method for interpreting the names of the gods, but in the modern study of the history of religions we can no longer proceed in this manner. Etymology, if correct, can give information on the oldest conception of a god, but this is neither necessarily nor synchronically dominant, nor even exclusive. Jan Gonda50 was right in arguing against the “theory of the treaty”, because the Sanskrit word mitra means “friend”, and Middle Persian mihr means “love” or “friendship”. From this point of view, I noticed that Mithras was supposed to grant the highest power to some kings and rulers whom he cherished. He is depicted on several stelae in Commagene shaking hands with Antiochos I and his concern was that of helping and accompanying the king.51 This friendship was similar to that of the Roman god Sol who was labelled comes or socius of some emperors. This is true, but Mithras was more than this. The Indian culture conceived of the divine function of “mediator”. The god Varuna is celebrated as “the third” (trtiya: Atharvaveda 4.16). This god was similar to Mitra/Mithras and joined with him as Mitravaruna, and, as such, he was he “who created accord among men” (Rigveda 93). The functions and the features of Varuna were similar to those of Mitra/ Mithras.52 From this perspective, Paolo Martino53 underscored the role of Mithras as a mediator between sky and earth and support of the sky, according to what one can read from the following passage in the Mithras Yasht 28: “(Mithras) who arranges the columns of the high-pillared house”. According to Martino, Mithras was similar to Atlas, placed between sky and earth. In Indian mythology Mithra and Varuna hold both earth and heaven and provide the earth with rain from the sky.54 We add that a Phoenician myth reported by Philo of Byblos55 describes the rise and the fall of the morning star as an episode of Atlas’ life. In the Roman cult of Mithras, this god seems to have been depicted as Atlas, kneeling and bearing the cosmic globe on his shoulders.56 A comparison will be useful: Claudianus, de laude Stilichonis 1.61–3: rex ipse micantem inclinat dextra pateram secretaque Beli et vaga testatur volventem sidera Mithram The Persian king himself lowers the jewelled patera and swears by the secrets of Bel and by Mithras, who makes the wandering stars turn. and Virgil, Aeneis 4.481–482 (= 6.796): maximus Atlas axem umero torquet stellis ardentibus aptum mighty Atlas whirls the sky, studded with burning stars57. The altar from Trier (fig. 4.7) depicting the young Mithras moving the zodiacal belt58 recalls the function of Atlas who not only carries the cosmos on his shoulders but also makes it rotate.59

  J. Gonda, The Vedic God Mitra, Leiden 1972; Idem, “Mitra and Mitra, the Idea of ‘Friendship’ in Ancient India”, in Indologica Taurinensia 1, 1973, 71-107. He gave to this specific “friendship” the meaning of “protection” and “restoration of the order”: Gonda, The Vedic God Mitra, 317-326. Jean Varenne and Louis Renou interpreted Mithras as the god who creates accord among the humans: J. Varenne, Le Veda, premier livre sacré de l’Inde, preface by L. Renou, Paris 1967. Cf. the overview of different opinions in J. Ries, Il culto di Mithra dall’India Vedica ai confini dell’impero romano, Milan 2013, 27-28. 51  Mastrocinque, The Mysteries of Mithras, chap. 2; part. §§ 13-14. 52   See P. Martino, Il nome etrusco di Atlante, Rome 1987, 35-36. 53   Martino, Il nome etrusco di Atlante, chap. IV, part. 37-38. 54   F.B.J. Kuiper, Ancient Indian Cosmogony, New Delhi 1983, 68; on the rain: Ries, Il culto di Mithra, 30. 55   FGH 790, F 2.17; cf. R. Du Mesnil Du Buisson, “Le drame des deux étoiles du matin et du soir dans l’Ancien Orient”, Persica 3, 1967-68, 10-36; A.I. Baumgarten, The Phoenician History of Philo of Byblos, EPRO 89, Leiden 1981, 198; A. Mastrocinque, “The Caucasus in the Geographic and Cosmological Conception of the Greeks in the Archaic Period”, in At the Northern Frontier of Near Eastern Archaeology. Recent Research on Caucasia and Anatolia in the Bronze Age, Proceedings of the International Humboldt Kolleg Venice January 9th-January 12th 2013, eds. E. Rova and M. Tonussi, Turnhout 2017, 459-474. 56   Relief from Neuenheim: CIMRM 1282, and also that from Osterburken: CIMRM 1292 (here fig. 2.1, on the right, second last below). Two Atlases are depicted as supports of the heavenly vault and the zodiac in a Mithraeum in southern Syria: M. Kalos, “Un sanctuaire de Mithra inédit en Syrie du sud”, Topoi 11.1, 2001, 229-277. 57   Transl. Johnston. See R.R. Hardie, “Atlas and Axis”, CQ 33, 1983, 220-228. 58   CIMRM 985 = E. Schwertheim, Die Denkmäler orientalischer Gottheiten im römischen Deutschland, EPRO 40, Leiden 1974, 230, no. 190b. 59   Schol. Vet. in Hesiod. Theog., 509, ed. di Gregorio; Ps. Aristot., De motu animalium, p. 699a Bekker; Vitae Arati et varia de Arato, in Schol. in Aratum vetera, 5a ed. Martin. 50

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Fig. 4.7. Mithraic relief from Trier. Rheinisches Landesmuseum Trier (photograph Mastrocinque)

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The Mithraic Prophecy Another important feature of Mithras was his luminous nature combined with the control over contracts and oaths. The mechanism for enforcement of contracts drove the identification of Mithras with the sun-god who, according to both Indian and Greek beliefs, was the universal overseer controlling the justice and denouncing deceptions and sins. Both the Sun and Mithras were traditionally enforcers of truth and observers of human action, both were supposed to be owners of cattle pasturing on some lands, and all these factors led to the conflation of the two deities. The solar god and Mitra/ Mithras must have been associated at an early stage in the Indo-Iranian religion.60 Modern scholarship does not have the right to choose between either “friendship” or “treaty”, nor to forget other features of this god. Only a great naivety can lead one to believe that he or she was grasping the true and original meaning and function of an ancient god’s name. Moreover, one cannot rule out influences from different civilizations and, in particular, Semitic influences have been supposed.61 4.5. Mithras between Sol and Luna In a recent book62 Olympia Panagiotidou and Roger Beck describe what an onlooker saw when he came in front of the scene of Tauroctony: “As someone looks at the scene from an external point of view… the symbol of the sun as a man with the quadriga to the left would again have indicated the east, the point at which the planets and constellations rise and become visible to the northern celestial hemisphere. Respectively, the icon of the female figure with the biga to the right would have symbolized the moon which appears when the sun has set and further would have indicated the west, the point at which the celestial bodies set and become invisible on the northern celestial vault. The bottom of the scene would have represented the celestial equinox above which the northern celestial hemisphere extends while the southern celestial hemisphere remains hidden beneath. Thereby, the lower border of the scene would have been at the south, the upper border at the north”. Such an impression fits the reconstruction of a celestial chart in the Tauroctony according to Roger Beck, who noticed that the Mithraic Tauroctony depicted a series of constellations in a sector of the northern hemisphere, namely in the area encompassing Taurus, Canis Major and Canis Minor, Hydra (serpent), Scorpio, Corvus, Gemini, Crater, Leo, and the star Spica.63 An ancient astrologist and many other people relatively acquainted with astrology could indeed recognize these constellations, but Porphyry, who was acquainted with the Platonic doctrine, recognized another main subject in the scene: the cosmos as a cave with two gates through which the souls entered the cosmos and went away after the death. In some cases, such as that of the relief from Tor Cervara, near Rome,64 the Sun emerges from, and the Moon enters into, holes in a rocky dome. Porphyry describes the Mithraic cave as an imitation modelled after the Persian cave of Zoroaster: The Persians perfect their initiate by inducting him into a mystery of the descent of souls65 and their exit back out again, calling the place a ‘cave’. For Eubulus tells us that Zoroaster was the first to dedicate a natural cave in honour of Mithras, the creator and father of all; it was located in the mountains near Persia and had flowers and springs. This cave bore for him the image of the cosmos which Mithras had created, and the things which the cave contained, by their proportionate arrangement, provided him with symbols of the elements and climates of the cosmos. After Zoroaster it became the custom among others to perform ceremonies of initiation in caverns and caves, either natural or artificial. Just as they consecrated temples, shrines and altars to the Olympian gods, sacrificial hearths to terrestrial deities and heroes, and ritual pits and trenches to the gods of the underworld, so they dedicated caverns and caves to the cosmos, and likewise to the nymphs too on account of the water that pours down in caves or bursts forth in them.66 And also:

  D.H. Sick, “Mit(h)ra(s) and the Myths of the Sun”, Numen 51, 2004, 432-467.   P. Martino, Arbiter, Rome 1986, 60-62, footnote 141. 62   O. Panagiotidou and R. Beck, The Roman Mithras Cult. A Cognitive Approach, London and New York 2017, 133-134. 63   R. Beck, Beck on Mithraism, Collected Works with New Essays, Aldershot 2004, 251-265; R. Beck, The Religion of the Mithras Cult in the Roman Empire: Mysteries of the Unconquered Sun, Oxford 2012, 30-32 (where one can find a bibliography). For a criticism of the astrological interpretations: R. Turcan, Recherches mithriaques, Paris 2016, 179-181. A recent statement of the central role of astrology in the Mithraic cult is that of T. Gnoli, “Mithras and the Stars. A Note”, in Ancient and Middle Iranian Studies. Proceedings of the 6th European Conference of Iranian Studies, held in Vienna, 18-22 September 2007, eds. M. Macuch, D. Weber, and D. Durkin-Meisterernst, Wiesbaden 2010, 77-86. 64   E. Lissi Caronna, “Un rilievo mitriaco di marmo”, Bollettino di Archeologia 50, 1965, 91-94. 65   I.e. into the world. 66  Porph., de antro 6 (the first part is translated according to R. Beck, “Ecstatic Religion in the Roman Cult of Mithras”, in Practicing Gnosis. Essays in Honor of Birger A. Pearson, eds. A.D. DeConick, G. Shaw, and J.D. Turner, NHMS 85, Leiden and Boston 2013, 75-89). 60 61

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Mithras and Dawn Theologists therefore assert, that these two gates are Cancer and Capricorn; but Plato67 calls them entrances. And of these, theologists say, that Cancer is the gate through which souls descend; but Capricorn that through which they ascend.   Cancer is indeed northern, and adapted to descent; but Capricorn is southern, and adapted to ascent. The northern parts, likewise, pertain to souls descending into generation. And the gates of the cavern which are turned to the north are rightly said to be pervious to the descent of men; but the southern gates are not the avenues of the Gods, but of souls ascending to the Gods …68 According to Porphyry, the Mithraic cave was similar to the cosmos as it is described by Plato, in his famous myth of Er, the Pamphylian.69 Robert Turcan70 recommended a cautious approach to this source and other ones that depend mostly on philosophical interpretations of Mithraism by non-initiated Greeks. In this case, the comparison of Plato with Mithraism was mainly due to Numenius, a Middle-Platonist interested in comparisons between many different religious systems. Numenius and other thinkers sought unifying ideas among different cults by adopting a Platonic approach. Despite the caveat by Turcan, many scholars recognized some fundamental doctrines of Mithraism in this account, and the approach of many other modern onlookers to the Mithraic scene is deeply influenced by Porphyry’s interpretation. It is possible that both an image of the cosmos with its gates and a depiction of several constellations were what the father of Mithraism wanted to show in the Tauroctony. I wanted only to focus on a detail that every person who looks at these reliefs easily recognizes. It was and is still wellknown that an image of a man wearing a radiate crown and driving a quadriga is that of the Sun-god, and if he is driving his chariot upward, he is the rising Sun. The case of the Moon is more complicated. The moon goddess is depicted either as a bust or a figure driving a chariot drawn by two bulls and going dawn. She is a goddess who is setting, for certain. We have thus two possibilities: 1) she is going down either in the morning, or 2) in the evening, that is to say, that the scene shows a moment of the day or the entire day, from morning to evening. During the first part of the lunar month, the moon sets during the night and this would be scarcely harmonised with the rising sun: they were expected to appear either together in the morning, or one in the morning and one in the evening. Therefore, we have two cases, again: 1) with the full moon, on the 15th day of the cycle, the planet rises at sunset and sets at daybreak. In this case, the scene depicts the same moment and takes place at daybreak, with sunrise on the left and moonset on the right. In winter, moonset occurs in the north-west, in summer in the south-west, and in spring and autumn in the west. Therefore, we have, in any case, the sun rising in the east and the moon setting in the west, at the same moment of the day. When the moon is waning gibbous, on the 16th day to the 21st, it is visible as setting in the west at dawn, as well. 2) In the second case, the moon is setting in the east at dawn for a short time as a waning crescent, in the days from the 23rd to the 28th. This second case is less probable because both the sun and the moon would be in the east whereas they are depicted on the opposite sides of the reliefs. As a result of this overview, we see a larger number of probabilities for the full moon or waning gibbous moon setting west, at dawn. There are more probabilities that the scene depicts the full moon setting in the west when the sun is rising in the east, in the morning of these days of the lunar month. In this case, the whole scene, and not only its left side, that of the sun, is taking place at dawn, when Mithras is the mesites, the mediator between darkness and light. In the fresco of the Mithraeum Barberini the sun emits a beam that passes through Capricorn, and every visitor of this Mithraeum knew that such a scene took place between 22 December and 20 January. Mithras is also mesites because he is placed between Cautes and Cautopates, who hold, respectively, a torch upward and downward. 4.6. Eros and Mithraism On many Mithraic reliefs and paintings, Sol and Luna are following a flying Eros and driving their chariots. Eros is holding a torch. This is not a feature exclusive of Mithraism and suggests useful comparisons.  Plato, Resp. 614b and 614d. On these two gates, corresponding to Cancer and Capricorn, see also Macrob., in Somn. Scip. 1.12.1-2; Proclus, in Remp. II, 128-9 Kroll. 68  Porph., de antro 22. 69  Plato, Rep. 10, 614C-615E. 70   R. Turcan, Mithras platonicus, EPRO 47, Leiden 1975, and, more recently, R. Turcan, “Une aporie de la tradition littéraire sur le «Lion» mithriaque”, in Les religions orientales dans le monde grec et romain cent ans après Cumont (1906-2006). Bilan historique et historiographique. Colloque Rome, 16-18 November 2006, eds. C. Bonnet, V. Pirenne-Delforge, and D. Praet, Brussels and Rome 2009, 429-448 = Recherches mithriaques, 419-442. 67

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The Mithraic Prophecy Eros is the god who shows the way to enter or to leave the cosmos through heaven’s gates. Eros leading Sol and Luna also appears, with the same iconography, on the silver dish from Parabiago.71 The case of Luna could be compared to the myth of Endymion, recurring on Imperial Age sarcophagi, according to which the goddess stepped out of her chariot to meet the sleeping shepherd, whom she loved.72 On these sarcophagi Eros is always leading Luna/Selene (see fig. 2.12). Eros symbolizes attraction, desire, love, as the myth of Endymion shows, and we can also see Pluto-Dispater guided by Eros when raping Proserpina, and Dionysos in his encounter with Ariadne. The theatrical performance staged by Alexander, the “false prophet”, in order to appear to be the beloved of Selene73, proves that it is a matter of love, and especially the love of gods for humans. Another series of images of the little god does not show any object of love and is more difficult to explain. First of all, we mention Eros and Saturn. A Mithraic relief, formerly in Bologna,74 shows Eros driving a two-horse chariot towards the sleeping Saturn (fig. 4.8). Its meaning is that Saturn was longing for what he was seeing in a dream, or simply that he fell in love with the perfection he saw. As I have explained in chapter 3 of The Mysteries of Mithras, the recurring scene of the sleeping Saturn is joined, in many Mithraic reliefs, with the following scene, depicting the birth of Mithras from the holy rock (petra genetrix), and a relief from Poetovio75 depicts what Saturn saw in his dream: he saw the goddess Victoria. According to a work from the Corpus Hermeticum, Saturn/Kronos once saw the perfect vision, the pure beauty, in a dream.76 The result of such a vision should have been the ejaculation and fecundation of the rock, which became pregnant. We deduce such a detail from Jerome who compared Erichthonios with Mithras, “born from the rock or from the soil, which was fertilized by excesses of libido”.77 The myth of Erichthonios is known: Hephaestus was overcome by desire when he saw Athena and tried to rape her; she fled and the god let his semen fall. Subsequently, Erichthonios was born from the semen that fell to the earth. In the case of Saturn, Eros was not the love for a human being, but love for perfection, for pure beauty, and Victory represented perfection and beauty. The case of Eros leading Sol should also have been that of a higher form of love. Sol is rising and his chariot is following the flying Eros. Eros was the guide leading to the world of the heavenly, supreme gods. On the Grand Camée de France, we can see Germanicus riding on the back of Pegasus towards the heavenly realm governed by the divus Augustus.78 A 2nd-century sarcophagus79 from the territory of Rome, kept in a portico of the Museo Nazionale Romano (Museo Epigrafico, Terme di Diocleziano), shows Eros preceding a family carried in a two-horses chariot. Therefore, even in the iconography of humans Eros was a guide, in this case leading towards the afterlife, and Eros did not symbolize love for a person, but love for a perfect world, the world of the gods. The works of Plato (Phaedrus, Symposium) help understand such a belief: Eros allowed human souls to strengthen their wings and fly aloft, towards the perfect world of ideas, where they came from. A marble relief is walled in the Mithraeum of Santa Maria Capua Vetere and depicts a nude, winged Eros holding a torch and seizing the arm of Psyche, also winged, to lead her away.80 This is an evident allusion to the Platonic myth of Eros in the Phaedrus81, according to which Eros inspired love for Justice, Beauty, and other ideas of perfection, and helped the soul recognize them in this world. By recognizing and loving Beauty and Virtues, the soul becomes winged and is able to reach heaven after death.

  A. Levi, La patera d’argento di Parabiago, Rome 1935; L. Musso, Manifattura suntuaria e committenza pagana nella Roma del IV secolo, indagine sulla lanx di Parabiago, Rome 1983. 72   H. Sichtermann, Die mythologischen Sarkophage. Zweiter Teil. Apollon, Ares, Bellerophon, Daidalos, Endymion, Ganymed, Giganten, Grazien, Die Antiken Sarkophagreliefs, Band XII.2, Berlin 1992. 73  Lucian., Alexander 39. 74   CIMRM 693. 75   1593-4. 76   Corpus Herm. 10.4-5. 77  Hieron., adv. Iovinianum I.7.247 (PL 23, 229; Cumont, MMM, II, 19): Mithram et Erichthonium vel in lapide vel in terra solo aestu libidinis esse generatos (Mithras and Erichthonius were born from the rock or from the soil, which was fertilized by excesses of libido). 78  See L. Giuliani (in Zusammenarbeit mit Gerhard Schmidt), Ein Geschenk für den Kaiser. Das Geheimnis des grossen Kameo, Munich 2010; Mastrocinque, The Mysteries of Mithras, chap. 2. 79   Inv. 65199; R. Amedick Die antiken Sarkophagreliefs, I.4. Die Sarkophage mit Darstellungen aus dem Menschenleben. Vita Privata, Berlin 1991, 153, no. 190, pl. 451-5; Museo Nazionale Romano, I.2. Le Sculture, ed. A. Giuliano, Rome 1981, 73-74, no. 55. 80   CIMRM 186. The feminine attributes of Psyche have been moderated giving her a more masculine appearance, fitting for the male attendance of the Mithraeum: Merkelbach, Mithras, 82; L. Martin, “The Amor and Psyche Relief in the Mithraeum of Capua Vetere: an Exceptional Case of GraecoRoman Syncretism or an Ordinary Instance of Human Cognition?”, in Mystic Cults in Magna Graecia, eds. P.A. Johnston and G. Casadio, Austin 2009, 277-289 = The Mind of Mithraists, London, New Delhi, New York, and Sydney 2015, 107-118. 81  Plat., Phaedr. 244A-257B. On Platonic ideas in the Roman Mithraism: Merkelbach, Mithras, cit., 92; 235-6. 71

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Fig. 4.8. Mithraic relief once in the archaeological museum of the city of Bologna.

As we have seen in this paragraph, human souls could reach the realm of gods if the gods or one god loved them.82 Erotes are almost omnipresent on funerary monuments of the Imperial Age, and this is far from obvious, but, instead, it was the result of an ideological revolution that deeply changed customs, beliefs, and values in Roman society and the whole Empire during the Augustan period. In the Republican Age, Erotes were rare on funerary monuments and, in case, connected with the Dionysiac sphere. Augustus gave a new impetus to Eros’ cult, to his meaning and value, and chose Eros as his unique companion in his statue from Primaporta.83 Verses by Propertius and Ovid (Amores I. 2) made modern readers believe that Eros was rarely seen as a serious deity because he was acting against the laws of Augustus on marriage and fidelity. However, this was not always true, and one must remember, instead, that Eros was Aeneas’ brother, for they were both Aphrodite’s children. Ovid (Amores I.2.51) wrote about Eros: aspice cognati felicia Caesaris arma (“see the fortunate weapons of your relative Caesar”). From our iconographic point of view, the first human to be led by Eros into the heavenly realm of the gods is Germanicus, who is depicted on the Grand Camée de France. In the upper part of the carving, one can see the heavenly world with the divus Augustus at the centre and Germanicus on the right who is riding aloft on the back of Pegasus, preceded by a flying Amor-Eros. An interesting element of Mithraism is the role of Eros, who is the divine being who performs the transformation of a human into a god by reaching the heavenly realms.   A perfect example of this form of deification can be read in the inscription IG V.2, 312, from Mantinea, shortly after 130 AD: “the god Antinous loved Isocrysos and took him to the thrones of the gods”. On gods loving humans: A. Wypustek, Images of eternal Beauty in Verse Inscriptions of the Hellenistic and Greco-Roman Periods, Leiden, Boston 2013. 83   J. Pollini, The Portraiture of Gaius and Lucius Caesar, New York 1987, 41, recognizes some features of Gaius in this image of Amor. 82

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The Mithraic Prophecy 4.7. Eros, Mithras, and Mercury The flying baby god in the Mithraic iconography is Eros because of analogies with similar iconographies depicting Luna-Selene and Hades, who were guided by Eros in their love affairs. He is Eros also because of the relief from Capua depicting Eros and Psyche. Several scholars84 label the flying god Lucifer/Phosphoros. Is it possible that the flying Eros was also the morning star, which appears at sunset as Hesperus? This star is Venus, the mother of Eros, and therefore identification is possible. Eros as a representative of the planet Venus precedes Sol, and this is what occurs every morning above the horizon. The left part of the Mithraic reliefs, in fact, depicts the rising sun preceded by the flying boy-god holding his torch. Dawn and the morning star appear together. Lucifer-Phosphoros apparently produces the first light in the sky, and one could say that the Mithraic Eros is also Lucifer-Phosphoros. Mithras as an Aion, i.e. a metaphysical god and ruler of the cosmos, is represented as appearing out of an egg.85 According to many Orphic theogonies, a primaeval generative being was born out of a cosmic egg and this divine being is called Phanes, Eros, and Phaethon.86 Therefore, it is possible that Mithras-Aion was supposed to encapsulate features and powers of Eros and other gods. In a relief from Virunum,87 the chariot of the Sun is preceded by a flying Mercury (fig. 4.9). Hermes/Mercury was the traditional leader of souls both in coming to life88 and in going to the other world,89 to Hades.90 In this relief from Virunum his iconography corresponds perfectly to that of the flying Eros of other Mithraic images. Mercury, the guide of souls, leads the Sun, and this is true because sometimes one can also see Mercury shortly before sunrise. Apuleius91 says that the Sun rises along with his two companions: comites amoenus Lucifer et com[mun]is Cyllenius. The charming Lucifer and the affable Cyllenius (i.e. Mercury). Pliny adds that Mercury appears in the morning under Libra and Aquarius92 and thus we assume that Augustus was born when the stars of Venus and Mercury were shining. Mercury was sometimes called Mercurius Matutinus.93 The (pseudo)Aristotelic treaty de mundo says that the sun was accompanied by Phosphoros and Mercury.94 Among the ancient astrologists, “there was some incertitude about the stars of Mercury and that of Venus, and the star of Mercury was called Stilbon but the Egyptians called him ‘star of Apollo’”.95 The famous horoscope stela from the Nemrud Dagh depicts the Lion and some planets, among whom one called Στίλβων Ἀπόλλωνος: Stilbon of Apollo. Pliny the Elder echoes this theory:96 proximum illi Mercurii sidus, a quibusdam appellatum Apollinis. The star next to Venus is Mercury by some authors called Apollo.   For ex. Cumont (see TMM, II, 349), Vermaseren, and Merkelbach.   CIMRM 695 = R. Bortolin, Il leontocefalo dei Misteri mitriaci. L’identità enigmatica di un dio, Padua 2012, no. 44 (Housestead); CIMRM 985 = E. Schwertheim, Die Denkmäler orientalischer Gottheiten im römischen Deutschland, EPRO 40, Leiden 1974, 230, no. 190b (Trier); cf. the Aion in Modena, Galleria Estense: CIMRM 695/6. 86  Damascius, de principiis 123bis Ruelle = fr 54 Kern (the cosmic egg containing a male/female generative being); Athenag., pro Christianis 18 and 20 = fr. 57-58 Kern (the cosmic egg split into two parts which became the sky and the earth, Phanes, the protogonos, appeared from the egg); Lactant., Div. Inst. 1.5.4-6 = fr. 73 Kern (the protogonos, i.e. the first generative being, was Phanes, also called Phaethon); Plocl., in Tim. 31 = fr. 74 Kern (Phanes was also called Eros). 87   CIMRM 1430 C3. 88  Hom., Hymn. Dem. 335-6; Hom., Od. 11.626; Petron., Sat. 140. 89   See the flying Hermes who precedes the four-horses chariot of Hades and Persephone in a 2nd cent. AD tomb from Tyrus: M. Dunand, “Tombe peinte dans la campagne de Tyr”, Bull. Mus. Beyrouth 18, 1965, 5-51; E. Pettenò, Cruciamenta Acherunti. I dannati nell’Ade romano: una proposta interpretativa, Rome 2004, 126 (according to whom the chariot is going aloft to the sky). A Hellenistic funerary stela from Apollonia (Epirus) shows Hermes preceding the soul of a deceased person ascending a ladder which leads to heaven: V. Dimo, Ph. Lenhardt, and F. Quantin, Apollonia d’Illyrie, I. Atlas archéologique et historique, Athens and Rome 2007, 122-123. On Hermes-Mercury as the guide of souls: F. Cumont, Lux perpetua, Paris 1949, 301. 90  Hom., Hymn. Hermes 573: “he only should be the appointed messenger to Hades”. 91   Apul., de mundo 29. 92   Plin., Nat. hist. 2.77. 93   CIL XIII, 5235; cf. 5234C; AE 1992, 1300. On the two planets appearing before sunrise in other cultural traditions: M.A. van der Sluijs, “Multiple Morning Stars in Oral Cosmological Traditions”, Numen 56, 2009, 459-476; P.T. Keyser, “Venus and Mercury in the Great Procession of Ptolemy II”, Historia 65, 2016, 31-52. 94   Ps. Aristot., de mundo, 399a Bekker. 95   Achill. Tat., Isag. 17. 96  Plin., Nat. hist. 2.39. 84 85

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Fig. 4.9. Mithraic relief from Virunum (Landesmuseum Kärnten, Klagenfurt)

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The Mithraic Prophecy And Apuleius says: Stilbon, cui quidam Apollinis, ceteri Mercuri nomen dederunt. Stilbon was called Apollo by some authors and Mercury by others.97 Mercury had an important role in the mysteries of Mithras. A detail of the Transitus (i.e. the scene of Mithras carrying the bull on his shoulders) is worth noting: Mithras is shown dragging the bull by its hind legs (fig. 2.22). As Patricia Johnston98 and Luciano Albanese recently underscored,99 this iconography alludes to the Homeric myth of Hermes stealing Apollo’s cattle. Porphyry (de antro 18) labels Mithras (or Hermes?) “stealer of oxen”: βουκλόπος θεός, and Firmicus Maternus also confirms this when he says: Μύστα βοοκλοπίης (“O initiate of the theft of the bull”). Commodianus (3rd–4th cent. AD) devoted a poem to this theft: Invictus de petra natus si deus habetur, Nunc ergo reticeo; vos de istis date priorem! Vicit petra deum, quaerendus est petrae creator. Insuper et furem adhuc depingitis esse, Cum, si deus esset, utique non furto vivebat. Terrenus utique fuit et monstruosa natura, Vertebatque boves alienus semper in antris, Sicut et Cacus Vulcani filius ille. Whether the invincible, born from a rock, is to be regarded as divine — I now pronounce no judgement; it is for you to decide which of these has the priority. If the rock preceded the god, who then was the rock’s creator? Moreover you portray him as a thief. Yet surely were he divine he would not be guilty of theft. The truth is he was of earthly birth and shared the nature of monsters, and was always driving off another’s bullocks in his caves, like Cacus of the story the fabled son of Vulcan.100 Mithras dragged the bull backwards, in order to make its footprints indicate the opposite direction. The Homeric Hymn to Hermes was indeed the model of the Mithraic Transitus, as one can see by reading the following Homeric verses: The Son of Maia, the sharp-eyed slayer of Argus then cut off from the herd fifty loud-lowing kine, and drove them straggling-wise across a sandy place, turning their hoof-prints aside. Also, he bethought him of a crafty ruse and reversed the marks of their hoofs, making the front behind and the hind before, while he himself walked the other way.101 The meaning of this theft is explained by the end of the Homeric myth. The Homeric hymn provides us with other elements that dovetail with both Augustus’ ideology and Mithraic iconography. This hymn mentions the wonderful song of Hermes: The goodly son of Zeus hymned the rest of the immortals according to their order in age, and told how each was born, mentioning all in order as he struck the lyre upon his arm.102 And it mentions the lyre given by Hermes to Apollo: Since, as it seems, your heart is so strongly set on playing the lyre, chant, and play upon it, and give yourself to merriment, taking this as a gift from me, and do you, my friend, bestow glory on me. Sing well with this clear-voiced companion in your hands; for you are skilled in good, well-ordered utterance.103

 Apul., de mundo 2.   P. Johnston, “The Importance of Cattle in the Myths of Hercules and Mithras”, in Animals in Greek and Roman Religion and Myth. Proceedings of the Symposium. Grumento Nova 2013, eds. P.A. Johnston, A. Mastrocinque, and S. Papaioannou, New Castle upon Tyne 2016, 281-298, part. 283; cf. M.J. Edwards, “Porphyry and the Cattle-Stealing God”, Hermes 121, 1993, 122-125. 99   P.A. Johnston, “The Importance of Cattle in the Myths of Hercules and Mithras”, in The Role Animals in Ancient Religion and Myth, eds. P.A. Johnston, A. Mastrocinque, and S. Papaioannou, New Castle upon Tyne, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2016, 299-316. 100  Commodianus, Instructiones 1.13 (with Invictus in acrostic), ed. Dombart. A medieval legend in Mingrelia (western Caucasus) narrates that St George once carried a bull for a long stretch and the subsequent bishops of the local church had to steal a bull and drag it in a similar way. See F. Cumont, “St. George and Mithra, the Cattle-thief”, JRS 27, 1937, 63-71, who suggests a Mithraic origin of the legend. 101  Hom., Hymn. Herm. 73-78; transl. Evelyn-White. 102  Hom., Hymn. Herm. 432-433. 103  Hom., Hymn. Herm. 475-479. 97 98

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Mithras and Dawn A marble statue of Mercury has been found in the Mithraeum of Mérida depicting him sitting on a rock and holding his lyre, and a lyre was discovered in the Mithraeum of Inveresk, Scotland.104 A Mithraeum was discovered and excavated in 1878–1879 in an extra-urban villa near the city of Spoletum where a bone statuette of Apollo playing the lyre was found.105 A statuette from the Mithraeum of Carrawburg probably depicts Apollo holding a lyre.106 Recently, Claudina Romero Mayorga107 described the different meanings of Mercury’s lyre, which allowed Mercury to receive Apollo’s teachings. A similar image of Mercury recurs on some denarii of Augustus108 struck between 32 and 29 BC. Moreover, some reverses of Augustan denarii depict the lyre.109 The meaning of this musical instrument is clarified by Propertius, in his celebration of Apollo’s temple on the Palatine hill. Arrows and bow were the symbols of Apollo at war, whereas the lyre was a symbol of peace and harmony, as the poet says: non ille attulerat crines in colla solutos aut testudineae carmen inerme lyrae sed quali aspexit Pelopeum Agamemnona vultu egessitque avidis Dorica castra rogis aut quali flexos solvit Pythona per orbes serpentem imbelles quem timuere deae. Phoebus did not come with his hair streaming around his neck, or with the mild song of the tortoise-shell lyre, but with that aspect that gazed on Agamemnon, Pelop’s son, and came out of the Dorian camp to the greedy fires, or as he destroyed the Python, writhing in its coils, the serpent that the peaceful Muses feared.110 The ideology of Augustus was recalled in the age of Septimius Severus, who restored the temple to Augustus in Tarraco and saw himself in a dream looking from a mountain to the provinces playing the lyre, flute, and singing in a concert.111 According to the Commagenian religion, Mithras was Helios, Apollo, and Hermes112 and Mithras has been represented on some stelae as shaking hands with King Antiochus I. Some scholars emphasized that this symbolic act of agreement, friendship, reciprocate faith, and peace also recurs in the name of the Mithraic initiates themselves, syndexioi.113 The dextrarum iunctio was an important symbol for the Romans, as we read in Livy: fidem tutandam sedemque eius etiam in dexteris sacratam esse (Faith should be sheltered and her seat is sacred also in men’s right hands).114 Many Roman coins represent the caduceus of Mercury between or on two clasped hands (fig. 4.10), and therefore we know that this god was presiding over this gesture. Mercury was the ambassador who mediated and established an agreement, or even a friendship between men, cities, legions, and peoples. Mercury was the mediator who created harmony between two elements. Nobody better than the emperor Julian described the role ascribed to the Sun-god as a mediator, a universal mediator: Now “middleness” we define not as that mean which in opposites is seen to be equally remote from the extremes, as, for instance, in colours, tawny or dusky, and warm in the case of hot and cold, and the like, but that which unifies and

  F. Hunter, M. Henig, E. Sauer, J. Gooder, A. Braby, L. Campbell, P. Hill, J. Humble, G. Lawson, F. McGibbon, D. McLaren, J. Robertson, R. Siddal, and R.S.O. Tomlin, “Mithras in Scotland: A Mithraeum at Inveresk (East Lothian)”, Britannia 47, 2016, 119-168, part. 133. 105   See recently G. Bastianelli, “Mithras in Regio VI, Umbria. Fragments of a Shipwreck”, Acta Antiqua 58, 2018, 85-115, esp. 91-7. 106   Hunter, Henig et alii, “Mithras in Scotland: A Mithraeum at Inveresk (East Lothian)”, 155, fig. 26. The iconography of Orpheus playing lyre shows some similarities with the Mithraic iconography and shares the same concept of harmony: Chr. Vendries, “Orphée, Isis, Sarapis et l’âne terrassé. Le décor d’un cadran solaire de Durostorum (Silistra)”, Revue Archéologique 2017, 285-310, part. 293-296. 107   C. Romero Mayorga, “Mercury with Lyre: a new Interpretation of a Mithraic Sculpture found in Hispania”, in Tra lyra e aulos. Tradizioni musicali e generi poetici, eds. L. Bravi, L. Lomiento, A. Meriani, and G. Pace, Pisa and Rome 2016, 199-206. 108   RIC I, 59, no. 257. 109   RIC I, 62-63, nos. 293; 298; K. Kraft, Zur Münzprägung des Augustus, Wiesbaden 1969, recognizes, instead, an Apollo with petasus. 110   Prop. 4.6.31-36; transl. Kline. On the fundamental transformation of the politics of Octavian after Actium cf. a recent work by I. Cogitore, “Du vengeur de César au Prince de la paix, une longue metamorphose”, in Entre mots et marbre: les métamorphoses d’Auguste, eds. S. Luciani and P. Zuntow, Bordeaux 2016, 195-208. 111   Historia Augusta, Severus 3.4. 112   The great inscription from the Nemrud Dagh: IGLS I, 1, ll. 53-67; and stelae from Commagene: C. Crowther and M. Facella, “New Evidence for the Ruler Cult of Antiochus of Commagene from Zeugma”, in Neue Forschungen zur Religionsgeschichte Kleinasiens, eds. G. Heedemann and E. Winter, Bonn 2002, 45-53, part. 46-7, l. 14-23; J. Wagner and G. Petzl, “Relief- und Inschriftfragmente des kommagenischen Herrscherkultes aus Ankoz”, in Neue Forschungen zur Religionsgeschichte Kleinasiens, 85-96, part. 91, ll.17-26. 113   Firm. Mat., de errore 5; graffito from Dura Europos: Preliminary Report of the Seventh and Eighth Seasons of Work at Dura-Europos, eds. M. Rostovtzeff, F.E. Brown, and C.B. Welles, III, New Haven 1939, no. 858 = CIMRM 60; F. Cumont, “The Dura Mithraeum” (transl. and ed. by E.D. Francis), in Mithraic Studies, I, 439. See M. Le Glay, “La ΔΕΞΙΩΣΙΣ dans les mystères de Mithra”, in Études mithriaques, Actes du 2e Congrès International. Téhéran 1er-8 Sept. 1975, ed. J. Duchesne-Guillemin, Acta Iranica 17, Leiden, Teheran, and Liège 1978, 279-303; On Commagenian kings shaking hands with their gods: H. Waldmann, Der kommagenische Mazdaismus, MDAI(I) Beiheft 37, Tübingen 1991, 60-63; G. Petzl, “Antiochos I. von Kommagene im Handschlag mit den Göttern”, in Neue Forschungen zur Religionsgeschichte Kleinasiens, eds. G. Heedemann and E. Winter, Bonn 2002, 81-84. 114  Liv.1.21.4. 104

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The Mithraic Prophecy

Fig. 4.10. Quadrans of Augustus struck in 9 BC depicting a caduceus between two clasped hands. (from internet acsearch. info. NAC AG auctions)

links together what is separate; for instance the sort of thing that Empedocles115 means by Harmony when from it he altogether eliminates Strife.116 Harmony, friendship, treaty, agreement, and mediation were produced by Mithras. On the other hand, the mysteries of Mithras alluded to the earthly story of this god who appeared under the shape of Augustus or appeared to assist this great ruler. Mithras and Augustus shared many features. Augustus was born at the autumnal equinox, shortly before sunrise, when his ancestress Venus was shining in the sky, between night and day. Augustus was able to bring peace and stop the Civil Wars, and in this respect was similar to Mercury, as Horace said.117 Augustus built the temple to Apollo, a god who, after fighting along with him against their enemies, was appeased, let his bow drop, and picked up the lyre to establish harmony. This is the reason why Mithras played the role of Mercury and the lyre was a Mithraic symbol. Conclusions We need a clue to understanding the Mithraic scenes depicted on reliefs and frescoes. We were unable to understand the meaning of reliefs on Romanesque and Gothic churches without the Old and the New Testament and the problem is the same with Mithraism. We miss the Mithraic prophetic text known to Firmicus Maternus but we have seen that this text probably shared many features with the most famous Roman prophetic poetry, the Virgilian fourth Eclogue. By using this poetic prophecy, we realize what the Mithraic panels mean. The Mithraic prophecy also shared the main scheme of numerous ancient, apocalyptic prophecies. In the Hellenistic Age, such kind of prophetic texts became an important way to give new hope to oppressed peoples and also a new interpretation of history in a teleological frame. Social, economic, religious, and military crises were interpreted as a prelude to a final period of happiness, religiousness, and abundance granted by a saviour who rescued the better part of mankind. The Virgilian prophecy interpreted the Civil Wars and the birth of the first man of the new generation in the same manner and, later on, in the Aeneis, the poet admitted that Octavian was the man promised by many prophecies. Our method has been in accord with the famous sentence by William of Ockham, the “Ockham’s razor”, according to which the simplest solution should be preferred. A cherished cult among the Romans such as Mithraism, a cult with recurring implications with the emperors and the imperial family, a cult which was often located in central places of the cities and even in the Capitol hill should have had meaning within the Roman and the imperial ideology. Cults referred to or also referred to the imperial ideology were numerous in the Roman Empire and a large part of financial resources for cults was conveyed to cults for deified emperors, gods protecting the emperors and the Empire, or gods governing the whole cosmos preferred by each emperor in turn. Such cults were a means to obtain favour from the emperors and the imperial administration, and this interpretation is the simplest to explain the remarkable resources invested by some Mithraic Patres for statues and furniture of their Mithraea. The Persian and Anatolian god Mithras was a protector of kings and rulers, as the evidence from Commagene shows, and this fact proved him an excellent candidate for protecting the Roman emperors, as well. The Tiberian Age was   cf. fr. 30 Diels-Kranz; see Iambl., Vita Pyth. 113; on this harmony see also Plat., Tim. 32 A.  Iulian., In Solem regem 13; transl. Wright. 117  Hor., Carm. 1.2.41-46, quoted in § 2.10. 115 116

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Mithras and Dawn characterized by the sprawl of cults to the divine Augustus. Augustales, seviri Augustales,118 archpriests of the imperial cult in the provinces, temples to Rome and Augustus, sacred groves to this god, gigantic altars for this purpose were forms of the new cults, and we place the early conception of the Mithraic cult into this frame, as well. This is the simplest hypothesis, supported by the iconography of the Grand Camée de France. Hypotheses based on comparisons with Christianity are weaker indeed. The Golden Age depicted on Mithraic reliefs is a reading based on a comparison with Virgil, simpler than hypothetic Mithraic paradises in the netherworld. The Roman concept of servare is simpler and more appropriate than the Christian concept of salvation to interpret the mysteries of Mithras. All this does not rule out the probable hope in a happy afterlife for initiates because many Greek mystery cults were aimed at providing initiates with such hope and the doctrine of Eros induces us to suppose ideas of elevation to the heavenly world for the initiates. The essential feature of the god Mithras was that of being a mediator, especially between light and darkness. The concept of mediation made him similar to the star of Venus, sometimes represented by Eros, the son of Venus, and also made him similar to Mercury, who appeared as a star at dawn, similar to Helios and the solar Apollo because the light of morning and sunset produces either sunlight or darkness. The concept of mediation also fits the meaning of Mitra in India where he is the god of friendship. Mithras promoted love, friendship, agreement, harmony in the cosmos and among human beings. For these reasons, Mithras became an important and meaningful god of the Romans. The first Roman emperor, Augustus, became the mediator between the Senate and the plebs, between optimates and populares, between Latins and Greeks. He was fated to be such a statesman because he was born between light and darkness, at the equinox of autumn, at dawn, under the sign of Libra, the balance of opposite weights. He was identified with a solar Apollo and with Mercury and was protected by the star of Venus, the goddess who gave birth to Aeneas. All this shows that Mithras was a fit god for protecting and increasing the Roman Empire and supporting the imperial ideology. l’amor che move il sole e l’altre stelle. (Dante Alighieri, Paradiso, canto XXXIII)

  Some Mithraic devotees were also Augustales or seviri Augustales: CIMRM 528; 718; AE 1996, 601.

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Abbreviations AE L’Année épigraphique AJA American Journal of Archaeology AJPh American Journal of Philology ANRW Aufstieg und Niedergang der Römischen Welt. Festschrift J.Vogt, eds. H. Temporini and W. Haase, Berlin, and New York 1972– ANSMN American Numismatic Society. Museum Notes ARG Archiv für Religionsgeschichte BCAR Bullettino della Commissione Archeologica Comunale di Roma BCH Bulletin de correspondence hellénique BICS Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies CIL Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum CIMRM M.J. Vermaseren, Corpus inscriptionum et monumentorum religionis Mithriacae, I–II, The Hague 1956 and 1960 CQ The Classical Quarterly CSEL Corpus scriptorum ecclesiasticorum Latinorum EJMS Electronic Journal of Mithraic Studies EPRO Études préliminaires aux religions orientales dans l’empire romain, Leiden 1961–1990 FGH Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker, ed. F. Jacoby, Berlin and Leiden 1923– FHG Fragmenta historicorum Graecorum, ed. K.W.L. Müller, I–V. Paris 1841–1872 GCS Die Griechischen Christlichen Schriftsteller der ersten Jahrhunderte IG Inscriptiones Graecae IK Inschriften griechischer Städte aus Kleinasien, Bonn 1972– ILLRP Inscriptiones Latinae liberae rei publicae, ed. A. Degrassi, Florence 1957–63 ILS Inscriptiones Latinae selectae, ed. H. Dessau, Berlin 1892–1916 Inscr.It. Inscriptiones Italiae JA Journal Asiatique JAOS Journal of the American Oriental Society IGLS Inscriptions grecques et latines de Syrie, I–XVII, Paris and Beirut 1929–2014 JMS Journal of Mithraic Studies JNES Journal of Near Eastern Studies JRA Journal of Roman Archaeology JRS Journal of Roman Studies LIMC Lexicon iconographicum mythologiae classicae, Basel 1981–2009 MAAR Memories of the American Academy in Rome MDAI(I) Mitteilungen des deutschen archäologischen Instituts (Istanbuler Abteilung) MEFRA Mélanges de l’École Française de Rome (Antiquité) NHMS Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies OGIS Orientis Graeci inscriptiones selectae, ed. W. Dittenberger, Leipzig, 1903–1905 OLA Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta ORA Orientalische Religionen in der Antike PawB Potsdamer altertumswissenschaftliche Beiträge PGM Papyri Graecae Magicae. Die griechischen Zauberpapyri, eds. K. Preisendanz and A. Henrichs, Munich and Leipzig 1973 PL Patrologiae cursus completus (series Latina), ed. J.P. Migne, Paris 1866–1911 RE Real-Encyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft, eds. C. Pauly, G. Wissowa, and W. Kroll, Stuttgart 1892–1980 REA Revue des Études Anciennes REL Revue des Études Latines RGRW Religions in the Greek and Roman World RHR Revue de l’histoire des Religions RIC The Roman Imperial Coinage, eds. C.H.V. Sutherland et alii, I–X, London 1923–1994 RPh Revue de Philologie RRC M.H. Crawford, Roman Republican Coinage, Cambridge 1971 99

The Mithraic Prophecy SEG SMSR TAPhA TMM ZPE

Supplementum epigraphicum Graecum Studi e Materiali di Storia delle Religioni Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association F. Cumont, Textes et monuments figurés relatifs aux mystères de Mithra, I–II, Brussels 1896–1898 Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik

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BAR IN TERNATIONA L SE RIE S 3074

‘The author grounds his arguments in written testimony and iconographic evidence. In particular, he associates diverse sources, including Virgil’s IV Eclogue and the Iranian prophecies of Hystaspes, the Bahman Yasht and the Jamasp Nama to provide new insights into the study of Mithraism and to offer a new interpretation the iconographic evidence of the Mithras cult.’ Dr Olympia Panagiotidou, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki ‘The author goes beyond the methodology of classical philology, but also of that of history of art, and analyses the literary passages and the visual narratives of the Mithraic reliefs using a new, innovative comparative method.’ Dr Csaba Szabó, University of Szeged

Why did the Romans worship a Persian god? This book presents a new reading of the Mithraic iconography taking into account that the cult had a prophecy. It is likely that the Mithraic reliefs alluded to it and the scenes in the upper panels depict the Golden Age which was the final result of many apocalyptic, prophetic texts including the 4th Eclogue of Virgil. The Avesta, the Vedas, and Herodotus associate Mithras with the morning star and the dawn and this god was the mediator between darkness and light. Additionally, Mithras was a protector of rulers and, similar to Apollo, arbiter and mediator between opposite elements, and saviour of humankind. For these reasons he was ideal to become the god of Augustus and the Roman emperors.

Attilio Mastrocinque is a fellow of the Istituto Italiano per gli Studi Storici, the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, and the Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung. He was a researcher of Ancient History (University of Venice), professor of Greek History (University of Trento), is full professor of Roman History (University of Verona), and director of archaeological research at Tarquinia.

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