The material evidence of the Roman cult of Mithras in Dacia – one of the shortest existing provinces of the Roman Empire – is significant: almost 300 stone monuments and several important sites are known. The material was first collected by Franz Cumont, later by Maarten Vermaseren and a recent catalogue was published by Gabriel Sicoe in 2014. The new volume published by Csaba Szabó as part of our research group is the first English monograph on the cult in Dacia and the first one which is focusing on religious glocality, social and detailed historiographic aspects of the research. It gives an updated list of the cultores Mithrae and an addendum to Sicoe’s catalogue as well.
The book was published at the Cambridge Scholars Publishing and will be presented in autumn.
Description of the book on the website of the publisher:
„The Roman cult of Mithras ranks among the ancient religious traditions that have left some of the most striking archaeological remains in Central and Eastern Europe. This volume examines the epigraphic and figurative evidence of the Roman cult of Mithras from the territory of the Roman province of Dacia (modern Romania) through a new and innovative methodology grounded in an interdisciplinary approach. Particular attention is devoted to the centuries-long historiographical tradition of Mithraic scholarship, contemporary developments in the archaeology of religion, and the phenomenon of religious glocalism. Within this framework, Mithras is analysed not merely as a universal and global deity within the religious landscape of the Roman Empire, but also as a glocal divinity actively shaped by local individuals and communities of Dacia.”
There are countless syntheses and handbooks on Roman religion. The most popular ones are those written by John Scheid, Beard-North-Price and Jörg Rüpke. In Hungarian scholarship, there were two publications used in higher education (universities, BA, MA and PhD studies in classics, archaeology or religious studies): the small book on Roman religion published by István Hahn in 1975 and the introduction on Roman myth and religion by Thomas Köves-Zulauf in 1995.
The new volume published by Csaba Szabó as part of our research group is an introduction focusing not only on the literary sources, but shortly mentions some of the new trends and research topics in Roman religious studies and introduce in the Hungarian literature an interdisciplinary approach, where materiality of religion, sociology of religion and religious studies works together with classics, epigraphy and Roman provincial archaeology.
The volume is open access and can be downloaded here and here.
In January 2026 the edited volume by Csaba Szabó (MTA-SZTE Lendület Mithras Research Group) and Christian Gugl (ÖAI-ÖAW) focusing on the interdisciplinary studies of archaeology of religion and sanctuaries in the Danubian provinces was published at the Monumenta Graeca et Romana series of the prestigious BRILL publishing house. The content of the volume you can read it here.
As in every year over the last twelve years, I have tried to keep up with recent publications on Roman religion. Since 2013, our discipline has produced at least 350 monographs on Roman religion, magic, the archaeology of Roman religion, and Late Antique polytheism in the Roman Empire (monographs on early Christianity are not included here). This abundance has become increasingly difficult for individual scholars to follow, yet the number of books published continues to grow steadily. In a well-received article published in 2024, I summarized the historiography of Roman religious studies over the past decade, and I will publish a monograph on this topic in the near future.
Books on Roman religion published in 2025 focus on various aspects of religion in domestic contexts, ancient magic, the archaeology of religion, and the contribution of Roman provincial archaeology to religious studies, with particular attention to Central and Eastern Europe, Eleusis, and Asia Minor. Few studies are devoted to individual divinities; however, some important works in this classical genre have also appeared (for example, a monograph on Jupiter in Rome, Magna Mater or the so-called Danubian Rider).
The list of the most recent books can be found here (the last twelve slides present the latest publications).
The international congress of the International Association of the History of Religions (IAHR) is one of the most important events for scholars researching history of religions, among many, also ancient Roman religion. As there are no regular conference on Roman religion, the IAHR and the EASR are usually the regular meetings for those researching various forms and manifestations of Roman religious communication.
The 2025 IAHR Congress was organised in beautiful Kraków at the Jagellonian University and had several sessions, panels and individual lectures on Roman religion or generally, on antiquity (see the program here). The most interesting for me was obviously the panel organised by Giorgio Ferri from the Sapienza University, Rome. The panel entitled “What is “Roman religion” today? The terms of recent and contemporary debate” focused on several papers, presenting new insights on Roman religous research. Case studies were focusing on the origin of Roman priesthood (Rüpke), the historiography and conteporary research on materiality of Roman religion (Szabó), viewing Roman gods (Benedetti), Roman religion in rhetorics and education (Lietz), theories on Roman “religio” (Taetti), sacred landscapes and epigraphy in NW Hispania (Yarza-Rando) and new studies on childhood and religion (Kallunki).
Another panel organised by Elisa Manzo was focusing on “Seditio in urbe: Religious Competition and Social Order in the Late Antique Mediterranean” while another organised by Jörg Rüpke and Elisa Uusimaki on “Mobility, Monumentality and Urban Religion in the Ancient World”. A particular paper was focusing on the interplay between religion and politics in antiquity: the construction and rejection of the religion of the Eastern Other (Darja Erker).
Happy to announce, that from autumn 2025 a research team of young scholars (archaeologists, historians of religions, philologists, museologists, librarians and IT specialists) will work five years on the Roman cult of Mithras in the Danubian provinces (Pannonia Inf-Sup, Moesia Inf-Sup, Dacia) and its modern and contemporary reception.
The MTA-SZTE Momentum Mithras Research Group is financed by the Hungarian Academy (Lendület Program) and will be hosted by the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Szeged.
Principal investigator: Csaba Szabó.
Website of the project: https://roman-mithras.hu/
I am very honored, that my webpage was selected as one of the best blogs on Rome.
This page is now the most visited webpage on ancient Roman religion. I wish to have time to post more often. The most visited posts are those related to Mithraic Studies and my annual summary of bibliography of Roman Religion cited recently also in an article.
Many aspects of an ancient Roman cult are unknown for us, especially if this cult had sometimes (or always?) initiations and mystery aspects. We are not sure, how often the members of a Mithaic group performed initiations. How often they met? How and where they prepared their food? How they transported all the statues, reliefs and their “secret” iconographies within the sanctuary? How loud were they? Did the others in the neighburhood hear anything? In urban context, these sanctuaries are certainly not secret, but discreet. The details of the events within a Mithras sanctuary remains unknown for us. What we have are few literary passages, exeptional graffitis from the Capua Vetere Mithraeum or the Mainz krater and the large amount of new data from the archaeology of mithraea especially from the last 2-3 decades.
Yet still, the details remain hidden. For this, we can use our imagination and being concious that this is just a play with our sources and imagination in the use of heritage studies, public archaeology, open science and museology. In this category, AI can be a very useful tool to imagine the unknown or less known aspects of an ancient cult.
Here are some AI generated photos depicting scenes of initiation, an urban mithareum and a spelaeum too:
Mithras was worshipped in various places: big cities of the Empire (Rome, Ostia), extra- and intra-muros insulae of large towns (Apulum, Carnuntum, Poetovio, Sarmizegetusa), civilian vici (Güglingen), military vici (Marosdécs), along busy roads in the countryside (Fertőrákos) and in the hidden places of natural environments (forests). There is no evidence for large, public temples and we know very little about the private, domestic cult of Mithras.
Mithras sanctuaries in the Danubian provinces were discovered in various sizes and dimensions in almost all of the above mentioned settings. There are around 43 Mithraic sanctuaries excavated and many more presumed in Raetia, Noricum, Pannonia, Moesia and Dacia. Some of them have bizzare, unique plan, mostly those in natural settings (caves, forests). Others in urban settings have usually a well known plan, however all of them are unique and non-repetitive, formed and shaped by and for the community which created them. Some of them are very small and used by few individuals (4-5 m long), others are monumental and probably were used by dozens, such as the one in Carnuntum, Poetovio or perhaps, Sarmizgetusa (25-30 m long). Many of them have annexes, other buildings, fountains, water-reservoirs, channels, domestic contexts reused and reshaped. They are like the synagogues of antiquty and today: different in size, shape and communities, but they do share some of the basics, the central “theology” of a cult created in the second half of the 1st century AD.
Here are some plans of the most well-known mithraea from the Danubian provinces: Konjic, Fertőrákos, Aquincum V (Laticlavii), Aquincum II (Victorinus), Carnuntum, Poetovio I, Poetovio II, Linz, Poetovio III, Marosdécse, Sarmizegetusa, Künzig, Apulum, Aquincum IV (Symphorus)
Manfred Clauss was one of the most important scholars of antiquity in the last decades of the 20th century. His extraordinary workpower, institution-like ability of organisation and his talent to write big syntheses for the fgreater public and his fellow colleagues as well elevated him into this prestigious position. In his almost six decades long career, Clauss worked in several universities (his last and longest position was in Frankfurt between 1993-2006) and published almost 30 volumes and hundreds of studies (for his list of publication see his own website).
For the study of Roman religion, Clauss remains in historiography especially as the author of several studies and books on the cult of Roman Mithras. His 1990 book on Roman Mithras published in German was followed by his 1992 volume on the Cultores Mithrae, both publications became essential readings for students and young scholars of antiquity. The historiographic importance of his volumes are debatable, as both are published after two intensive decades of the new renaissance of “Mithraic studies” (the 1970s and 1980s marked by the paradigmatic work of Roger Beck and Richard L. Gordon). However, what Clauss did in his synthesis and summary is indeed, extraordinary: a clear, logic and material-based summary of the cult, focusing on local appropriations and archaeology of religion, epigraphy (a longer and more detailed analysis of his paradigmatic book will be published soon by the author of these lines). He became an “authority” in Mithras study after his German book was translated (and probably, commented) by the doyen of Mithraic studies, Richard L. Gordon in 2000. His english monograph is still considered one of the most popular books on the cult after 25 years and dozens of new books on this topic. This is proved also by the fact, that the book was translated in 2019 in Estonian and in 2021 in French.
Manfred Clauss contributed also enormously to the study of Roman inscriptions: his enormous database of inscriptions (Clauss Slaby Epigraphic Database) is the largest ever database, an addendum or competitive tool for the EDH and other online sources. He had several other studies on Roman religion (rare votive inscriptions) and had an extraordinary collection of tablets and plaques of the so-called Danubian Riders.
His work and heritage will endure and will be indispensible for the comming generations as well.
S T T L
Major publications on Roman Mithras by Manfred Clauss:
- Mithras und Christus, HZ 243, 1986, 265-285
- Omnipotens Mithras, Epigraphica 50, 1988, 151-161
- Rez. R. Merkelbach, Mithras (1984), AfKG 71, 1989, 230-231
- Mithras. Kult und Mysterien, München 1990
- Die sieben Grade des Mithras-Kultes, ZPE 82, 1990, 183-194
- Sol Invictus Mithras, Athenaeum 68, 1990, 423-450
- Mithras als Gott der Zeit, in: Die Welt der Religionen. Ein Lesebuch, München 1991, 50-53 (Nachdruck)
- Cultores Mithrae. Die Anhängerschaft des Mithras-Kultes (HABES 10), Stuttgart 1992
- Miles Mithrae, Klio 74, 1992, 269-274
- Die Verbreitung des Mithras-Kultes in den nordafrikanischen Provinzen, in: L’Afrique, la Gaule, la Religion à l’époque romaine. Mélanges à la mémoire de Marcel Le Glay (Collection Latomus 226), Brüssel 1994, 165-173
- Rez. W.M. Brashear, A Mithraic Catechism from Egypt (1992), Klio 76, 1994, 523-524
- Rez. G. Piccottini, Mithrastempel in Virunum, Klagenfurt (1994), Klio 77, 1995, 524-526
- Rez. J.R. Hinnells (Hg.), Studies in Mithraism (1994), Klio 78, 1996, 545-547
- The Roman Cult of Mithras. The god and his mysteries, translated by R. Gordon, Edinburgh 2000 (second edition in 2001)
- Mithras und die Präzession, Klio 83,1, 2001, 219-225
- Rez. B. Jacobs, Die Herkunft und Entstehung der römischen Mithrasmysterien. Überlegungen zur Rolle des Stifters und zu den astronomischen Hintergründen der Kultlegende (1999), HZ 272, 2001, 428
- Der “Eiskeller” von Bliesdalheim – ein Mithräum? (zus. mit A. Hensen), in: Roman Mithraism: the evidence of the small finds, hrsg. v. M. Martens -G. de Boe, Brüssel 2004, 355-358
- Mithras. Kult und Mysterium, Darmstadt 2012
- Die Mobilität religiöser Vorstellungen. Verbreitungsmuster zum Mithras-Kult und Christentum, in: D. Schmitz – M. Sieler (Hgg.), Überall zu Hause und doch fremd. Römer unterwegs, Petersberg 2013, 126-137
- Mithras und Christus. Der Streit um das wahre Brot, in: Imperium der Götter. Isis, Mithras, Christus. Kulte und Religionen im römischen Reich, Darmstadt 2013, 243-249
- Rez. Attilio Mastrocinque, The Mysteries of Mithras. A Different Account (2017), BJ 217, 2017, 592-594
- Mithras. Kultus ja müsteeriumid. Tallinn 2019
- Les mystères de Mithras. Texte traduit par Élise Harrer, Gutenberg 2021
Roman religion 