CIMRM Supplement - Main Altar (A), Mithraeum III. Apulum/Alba Iulia, Romania
See also: Mithraeum III; Altar A; Statue Base B - Transitus; Statue Base C - Cautopates; Statue Base D - Cautes?; Fragment of inscription E;
A votive altar made of limestone, found on its face with the back roughly chiselled off, presumably for building material in the medieval period. It weighs ca. 600 kg. From Egri &c:
Dimensions: 120 × 52.8 × 38.8 cm
Epigraphic field dimensions: 78.5 × 41.4 cm
Letter height: 5.2–4.9 cm.Soli | Invicto | Mitrhae | pro salut(e) | P(ublii) Ael(ii) Ma|ri flam(inis) col(oniae) | Vitalis ark(arius) | v(otum) l(ibens) s(olvit)
“To Sol Invictus Mithras, for the wellbeing of Publius Aelius Marus, flamen of the colony, Vitalis the treasurer freely fulfilled his vow.”
Vitalis was probably a slave, as he had only one name, but one involved in administration of funds as an Arcarius.
Publius Aelius Marus is attested in four other inscriptions from Dacia; he served as conductor pascui et salinarum, a role of uncertain function probably connected to the imperial estates.1
| 1 | M. Egri &c, "A new Mithraic community at Apulum (Alba Iulia, Romania)", in: Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 205 (2018) 268–276 |
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