CIMRM 918 - Statue of Cautes. Les Bolards / Dijon, France.

Found at Nuits-Saint-Georges at Les Bolards. Now held in Musée Archéologique, Dijon.

Inscription:

L. L. Antti/oc(h)us d(e) s(uo) d(edit)

L. L. Antiochus gave it for himself.

Literature:

AE 1951, 00114; Smear 919; P. Wuilleumier, Inscriptions Latines des trois Gaules, Paris 1963 No. 318; V.J. Walters, The cult of Mithras in the provinces of Gaul, Leiden 1974 No. 22; Deyts, Sculptures Gallo-Romaine's Mythologiques et Religieuses, Dijon Musée Archéologique 1976, 161.

CIMRM entry

918. Statue (H. 0.85), found near the entrance. As well as the following Nos. in the Coll. Roux-Vauthier. Thevenot in Gallia VII, 1949, 307f; 318 No. 38 and fig. 6. See fig. 231, kindly procured by our friend Emile Thevenot. On a base Cautes in Eastern attire. He raises with both hands the flaming torch; not cross-legged. Behind his r. foot a globe. Face slightly damaged. On the base an inscription: 919. Gallia 1949, 327 No. 15a. L(ibens) l(aetus) Anttifocus(sic!) d(e) s(uo) p(osuit).

From Walters, p.88:

22. Statue from Les Bolards, Nuits-Saint Georges, now in the Music archiologique de Dijon, Inventory no. 953.6 : see Pl. IX. Findspot: The statue was found inside the Mithraeum excavated on a site to the south-east of Nuits-Saint Georges,1 about 3 km to the west of the Roman road which linked Lyon with Trier and Cologne. It was lying in the vestibulum, 2 to 3 m from the stairway, a distance which corresponds to the entrance to the nave. Of local limestone from the Carriere Poret, height 83 cm, width 34 cm, thickness 10 cm, it depicts a torchbearer (Cautes), clothed in a tunic, short cloak, and boots, and wearing a Phrygian cap. The figure stands upright, legs uncrossed, holding with both hands his upraised torch. Behind his left foot is a globe encircled by a horizontal band from which radiate a series of spikes. The representation of the globe, an attribute of the sun, at the foot of a torchbearer is rare. It appears on a relief from Sarrebourg, which depicts Cautes, standing upright on a sphere marked with spikes, and on an altar from Heddernheim, where the figure of Cautes is accompanied by an inscription C(A)ELUM and the representation of an eagle clasping a thunderbolt above a globe dotted with stars and cut by two meridians.2 Campbell suggests that the statue from Les Bolards indicates the association of Cautes with cosmic fire, revealed in the thunderbolt and planetary sky. The stone has been left unworked at the back, indicating that it was intended to be seen from the front only; it stood most probably against the front of one of the side benches. On the base of the statue is an inscription : L(IBENS) L(AETUS) ANTTIOCUS D(E) S(UO) D(EDIT) Dating : Thevenot has dated the inscription to the late Empire on the evidence of the poor quality of the lettering. Coin evidence from the Mithraeum reveals a series commencing with Commodus and continuing until the end of the fourth century A.D., which would place the life of the Mithraeum broadly within the third and fourth centuries. The most that can be said is that the statue was set up sometime within this period. Origin of the dedicant : The name Anttiocus is of East Mediterranean, possibly Syrian, origin, the illiterate spelling (two Ts instead of one) probably indicating a mistake by the carver. The site at Les Bolards has produced evidence of commercial and industrial activity grouped around an indigenous sanctuary area. It lay near the border between the Lingones and Aedui, and only 3 km to the west of the most frequented road in Roman Gaul. It is thus not surprising to find the cult of Mithras established near such an important route of communication. Bibliography E. Thévenot, 'La station antique des Bolards à Nuits-Saint-Georges'. Gallia. VI (2). 1948. p. 303. fig. 6. pp. 308. 318. no. 38. p. 327. no. 15a. Esp., Rec. Gaule, XV. p. 95. no. 9064, pl. LXXVI. H.-P. Eydoux, La France antique, Paris 1962, p. 287, fig. 341. S. Deyts, RAEst, XIII, 1971, p. 370, n. 36. CIMRM, 1,918-9, fig. 231.

Links

• E. Thévenot, "La station antique des Bolards à Nuits-Saint-Georges", Gallia 6 (1948) Online here.
• F. and O. Harl, 25418Cautes-Relief at Ubi Erat Lupa website.
• Epigraphische Datenbank Heidelberg, HD021136, includes photographs.