in the ancient Roman provinces.

* * * * *

Just as we cannot understand the character of the mysteries of Isis and
Serapis without studying the circumstances accompanying their creation by
the Ptolemies, so we cannot appreciate the causes of the power attained by
the mysteries of Mithra, unless we go far back to their origin.

Here the subject is unfortunately more obscure. The ancient authors tell us
almost nothing about the origin of Mithra. One point on which they all
agree is that he was a Persian god, but this we should know from the Avesta
even if they had not mentioned it. But how did he get to Italy from the
Persian uplands?

Two scant lines of Plutarch are the most explicit document we have on the
subject. He narrates incidentally that the pirates from Asia Minor
vanquished {143} by Pompey in 67 performed strange sacrifices on Olympus, a
volcano of Lycia, and practiced occult rites, among others those of Mithra
which, he says, "exist to the present day and were first taught by
them."[14] Lactantius Placidus, a commentator on Statius and a mediocre
authority, also tells us that the cult passed from the Persians to the
Phrygians and from the Phrygians to the Romans.[15]

These two authors agree then in fixing in Asia Minor the origin of this
Persian religion that later spread over the Occident, and in fact various
indications direct us to that country. The frequency of the name
Mithradates, for instance, in the dynasties of Pontus, Cappadocia, Armenia
and Commagene, connected with the Achemenides by fictitious genealogies,
shows the devotion of those kings to Mithra.

As we see, the Mithraism that was revealed to the Romans at the time of
Pompey had established itself in the Anatolian monarchies during the
preceding period, which was an epoch of intense moral and religious unrest.
Unfortunately we have no monuments of that period of its history. The
absence of direct testimony on the development of Mazdean sects during the
last three centuries before our era prevents us from gaining exact
knowledge of the Parseeism of Asia Minor.

None of the temples dedicated to Mithra in that religion have been
examined.[16] The inscriptions mentioning his name are as yet few and
insignificant, so that it is only by indirect means that we can arrive at
conclusions about this primitive cult. The only way to explain its
distinguishing features in the Occident is to study the environment in