CIMRM Supplement - Inscription of Dioscorus from Apulum. Alba Iulia, Romania.

A new Mithraic inscription was recovered by the police in Romania in 2015. Csaba Szabo has published the inscription at Academia.edu.

The inscription is on a half-column, and reads:

Invicto Mythrae Diosco rus ° Marci (s. or f.) v(otum) ° s(olvit) ° l(ibens) ° m(erito)

I.e. "To the unconquered Mithras, Dioscorus of Marcus willingly and deservedly fulfilled his vow." The “of Marcus” probably indicates servus (i.e. slave of Marcus) but possibly filius (i.e. son of Marcus).

The text is identical with that of an altar found at Apulum in 1852 (CIMRM 1942), and even the paleographic features.

Invicto / Mythrae / Diosco/rus Marci (servus) / v(otum) s(olvit) l(ibens) m(erito)

So there can’t be much doubt that they were erected by the same person, and perhaps at the same place. Unfortunately the find-spot of the new inscription was not disclosed by – or perhaps known by – the collector.

Bibliography

• Csaba Szabó, Imola Boda, Victor Bunoiu, Călin Timoc, “Notes on a new Mithraic inscription from Dacia”, in: Mensa rotunda epigraphica Napocensis, Cluj-Napoca 2016, p. 91–104. Online here.