SummaryThe Vetus Latina Bible includes a variety of vocabulary according to various translators’ and revisers’ milieus and intents as they worked from Greek originals. This study aims to analyze the use of cultic verbs in the Vetus Latina Book of Daniel in all its pluriformity, and in Jerome’s translations of the Greek additions to this book.In order to do so, I focus on key patristic witnesses to trace verbs denoting or connoting divine worship, from the time of Tertullian of Carthage, over Cyprian of Carthage and Lucifer of Caralis, to Jerome of Stridon. The expressions treated, each corresponding to a Greek verb, are: seruio, colo, famulor, appareo, exomologesin facio, hymnum cano, sacrifico, timeo, benedico, adoro, laudo, confiteor, and primitiae. They are analyzed in relation to their Greek Vorlagen and to the Latin context consisting in similar renderings by the same Fathers. The biblical book’s fragmentary VL manuscript evidence and the wider patristic and liturgical tradition are also taken into account. This approach allows for a diachronic view marked sometimes by continuity, sometimes by change, for the Latin rendering of a Greek verb.

SummarySupport verb constructions are documented throughout the history of Latin. These syntagms are characterized by the presence of a support verb with a more or less reduced semantic force, and a predicative (abstract or verbal) noun that often constitutes its direct object. The present contribution deals, specifically, with the use of facio as a support verb (as in bellum facere, iter facere, insidias facere etc.), focussing on the post-classical and late period. Two main questions shall be discussed: (a) whether, and if so, how facio becomes more productive in later centuries in both non-Christian and Christian sources; (b) what type of semantic evolution the verb undergoes in later Latin and whether, in this respect, continuity or rupture should be assumed with regard to the earlier period. This last point will enable us to suggest a more convincing explanation of an often-quoted passage of Cicero (Phil. 3. 22), in which the expression contumeliam facere is found.

Summary This proposal aims to provide an update of the catalogues of findings associated with the mysteries of Mithras in Hispania produced by García y Bellido (1967) and Alvar Ezquerra (1981). A new approach to the archaeological material is needed due to the multiplicity of findings in recent decades and the overcoming of traditional theories in this field of study. We have focused on the figurative monuments, as Mithraic iconography has been considered a mere vehicle for the transmission of the eschatology of the cult. Although three representations of tauroctony were located in the province of Baetica, the findings of Tróia and Mérida, both in Lusitania, are the most important source of materials in the territory of Hispania. Recent discoveries in Lugo, Altafulla, Cabrera de Mar, Puente Genil, San Juan de la Isla, Barbate, Mérida, along with the revision of the Museo Nacional de Arte Romano collection, have been a great contribution to the study of Mithraism in the Iberian Peninsula.

Summary The recently published curse tablets from the sanctuary of Magna Mater in Mainz, from the hero shrines of Opheltes and Palaimon, and from the sanctuary of Demeter and Kore, as well as a single curse tablet from late Roman Antioch invoking the “secret names” of the Samothracian deities, all suggest some connection between mystery religions and cursing. Two possible explanations are explored: (i) because initiates had special access to divine powers, their curses were thought to be especially powerful; or (ii) because these new discoveries fit two traditional types of defixiones: those placed in or at the graves of those violently killed, like Opheltes, or those placed in sanctuaries of female divinities, like Demeter, whose myths focus on the loss and return of a loved one from Hades.

Summary Three pictorial scenes represented on the walls of the newly discovered Mithraeum in Hawarte (Syria) are deeply rooted in the Middle-Iranian religious world. The pictures of the ‘City of Darkness’, and of ‘The Twin Riders’, as well as that of ‘The Lion and the Demons’, can only be explained by their evident Iranic background. Some of these iconographies are not limited to the Syrian area but are spread all around the Roman world, until London and Vienne-sur-Rhône. Moreover, a possible connection with a heterodox doctrine concerning the post-mortem vehiculated by the Pseudo-Macarius is proposed in this contribution.

Summary Even though the Mithraic epiclesis SAECULARIS has been explained with a link to the Ludi SAECULARES of 248, we prefer to elucidate it with the relief that we can observe between the two altars consecrated to MYTRAE SAECULARI, in Housesteads, in the civil parish of Bardon Mill in Northumberland, England, south of Broomlee. Close to Hadrian's vallum, we can actually see a representation of Mithras, identified with Phanes, emerging from the cosmogonic egg with a zodiacal belt around him, lighting up the world. Concerning Jupiter (IOVI SEQULARI), moreover, on an Antoninianus of Claudius II “the Gothic”, this epiclesis expresses his responsibility for the kosmos in its cyclic eternity. Like Jupiter, Mithras is a sovereign of the universe.

Summary A mithraeum always has long benches, which were called praesepiae, “places where cattle are fed in a stall” (CIMRM 233). The name is inappropriate for a dining room, which was usually called, instead, triclinium. Mithraeum is the current modern name, whereas the ancients called it spelaeum, antrum, templum. Another important name was Leonteum, which was not a separate cultic place for Leones only, because Porphyry states that the members of a Mithraic community were the Leones and the servants were called Korakes, the Ravens (Porphyr. de abst. 4. 16). The Mithraic menu apparently consisted of meat rather than of vegetables, even though one should take into account the fact that bones are better preserved than vegetables in an archaeological site, and therefore they are often published, whereas vegetal remains had never been investigated by means of chemical analyses. Lions are notoriously carnivorous and the praesepiae had to be filled with meat for the Leones. The initiation of Leones was supposed to be dry and fiery (Tert. Adv. Marcionem I 13), and we are also told that the Mithraic Leones avoided water for their purifications and washed their hands with honey (Porph. De antro 15–16). Moreover, a lion and a snake are often depicted on Mithraic reliefs as going to drink from a crater. It is possible to get some information from those facts about what Leones were used to drinking during their symposia: they were thirsty but their drink could not be water, but eventually, wine was permitted. Iustin. Apol. I 66 speaks of a cup of water, but only to mention some ritual acts during initiations and not during symposia.

Summary Roman Mithraism has been subject to philosophical interpretations and influences over the years. In this paper, I will present the important case of Mithras as a Demiurge by following the Platonic doctrine of the three Gods and its evolution, and after Plato, in three further phases. A. Plato in the Timaeus and in the dialogue The Sophist (both written in 360 BC) debated three fundamental divine figures: the Being, who accounts for the early Idea and the source of all the other ideas, as well as the early cause of the world; the Demiurge, who was born from the Being and accounts for the acting Power creating the perceivable world; the Anima Mundi (the Soul of the World or the World Soul), who was born from the other two Gods and is the “mother” shaping all of beings. B. Later, Middle Platonism (lasted from the 1st century BC to the 2nd century AD and on which the Chaldean Oracles were based) identified the Being as the First God and the source of every indistinct idea; the Demiurge as the Second God featuring the early Idea in order to create the world; and the Anima Mundi as the unifying principle from which all of organisms are shaped. C. Finally, in Neoplatonism (lasted from the 3rd century to the 6th century AD and on which the Porphyry's De Antro Nympharum is based) this doctrine was fitted together with Mithraism: Mithras was the Demiurge and the Goddess Hecate was identified with the Anima Mundi. This paper contributes to the current state of knowledge on this topic with a full detailed analysis of the connected different phases of Platonism in order to reach the identification of Mithras as the Demiurge.

Summary During rescue excavations carried out near the vicus at Kempraten (municipality of Rapperswil-Jona, St. Gallen, Switzerland) in advance of a private construction project, a Mithraeum measuring approximately 8 by 10 m was unexpectedly discovered in the summer of 2015 and subsequently excavated and investigated in detail. This paper presents the preliminary results of the excavation, which was completed less than a year ago, and pays particular attention to the interdisciplinary approach used in the excavation. These included intense sampling of the features for the purposes of micromorphology and archaeobiology. Three construction phases with intermittent conflagrations were identified. The question as to whether there was an ante-chamber remains unanswered. The external areas are also quite difficult to interpret, at least for the time being. The rich assemblage of finds, which included numerous coins, pottery, animal bones and a range of religious artefacts (e.g. altars and a half relief), will only be dealt with in a cursory manner here. According to the range of coins, the Mithraeum undoubtedly dated from the late 3rd to the late 4th or early 5th centuries. The site will be analysed by an interdisciplinary team and preliminary work is already underway.