jgibson000

The triumph over Asia was held in 67?

Don't have time to check things now, but I believe Plutarch specifically tells us that Pompey settled the last of Cilician Pirates that he did not kill when he sunk their ships and destroyed their fortress near Coracesium in such places as Mallus, Adana, and Epiphaneia in Cilicia, as well as in Soli, which was renamed Pompeiopolis.

And any of the captives he might have paraded in the triumph you mentioned (do we actually know that he did?) would have been those defeated in his separate and later campaign against Mithradates and other forces in the east, since that, and not his (and Publius Servilius Vatia's) ridding the seas of pirates, was what that triumph celebrated.

Sorry, Spin. Too much speculation based on too many surmises for my taste.

Jeffrey

spin

Good point. It may be safest to stick with those his forces captured.

This seems correct from Plutarch's and Appian's points of view.

I don't need any of the discussion for what interested me, ie the presence of Mithraism in Cilicia, to which Plutarch attests by tying Mithraism to the pirates and by Cilicia's connection with Commagene with its syncretic Mithraism.


spin

jgibson000

But the problem with this is that, as Appian tells us, the Cilician pirates were on the whole not from Cilicia:

Quote:

[§92] [88] When Mithridates first went to war with the Romans and subdued the province of Asia ([Lucius Cornelius] Sulla being then in difficulties respecting Greece), he thought that he should not hold the province long, and accordingly plundered it in all sorts of ways, as I have mentioned above, and sent out pirates on the sea. In the beginning they prowled around with a few small boats worrying the inhabitants like robbers. As the war lengthened they became more numerous and navigated larger ships. Relishing their large gains, they did not desist when Mithridates was defeated, made peace, and retired. Having lost both livelihood and country by reason of the war and fallen into extreme destitution, they harvested the sea instead of the land, at first with pinnaces and hemiolii, then with two-bank and three-bank ships, sailing in squadrons under pirate chiefs, who were like generals of an army. They fell upon unfortified towns. They undermined or battered down the walls of others, or captured them by regular siege and plundered them. They carried off the wealthier citizens to their haven of refuge and held them for ransom. They scorned the name of robbers and called their takings the prize of warfare. They had artisans chained to their tasks and were continually bringing in materials of timber, brass, and iron. Being elated by their gains and determined not to change their mode of life yet, they likened themselves to kings, tyrants, and great armies, and thought that if they should all come together in the same place they would be invincible. They built ships and made all kinds of arms. Their chief seat was at a place called the Crags in Cilicia, which they had chosen as their common anchorage and encampment. They had castles and towers and desert islands and retreats everywhere. They chose for their principal rendezvous the coast of Cilicia where it was rough and harborless and rose in high mountain peaks, for which reason they were all called by the common name of Cilicians. Perhaps this evil had its beginning among the men of the Crags of Cilicia, but thither also men of Syrian, Cyprian, Pamphylian, and Pontic origin and those of almost all the Eastern nations had congregated, who, on account of the long continuance of the Mithridatic war, preferred to do wrong rather than to suffer it, and for this purpose chose the sea instead of the land. [§93] Thus, in a very short time, they increased in number to tens of thousands. They dominated now not only the eastern waters, but the whole Mediterranean to the Pillars of Hercules. They vanquished some of the Roman praetors in naval engagements, and among others the praetor of Sicily on the Sicilian coast itself. No sea could be navigated in safety, and land remained untilled for want of commercial intercourse.

Moreover, it seems an over reading of the evidence to claim that they were full fledged Mithraists. Plutarch tells us only that they used Mithraic rites among others of other gods to desecrate the temple of Hephaestus in Lycian Olympus.

Jeffrey

spin

You certainly know how to help a guy. These are people from various parts of Asia Minor who settled in Cilicia. Mithras would then of course have been relatively widespread, one of the claims I have already made. :wave: This happily makes Mithraism a part of the milieu of the times.

It seems you are doing the over-reading here, not me, don't you think? I guess by "full fledged Mithraists" you are referring to the later forms reflected in the mithraea themselves. I'm more interested in the more Persian aspects including the eschaton and the dualism.

Sounds reasonable to me. There is no need for the whole population to be rampant Mithraists for Mithras to have been part of the general ethos and readily known to our man of Tarsus.


spin

Ratel

Is Mithraism (either Roman or Persian) thought to be monotheistic? That's what your comments seem to be suggesting. I had supposed its followers to be polytheists or something akin to however Zoroastrians were classified.

Anyway, what do you suppose a full-fledge Mithraist to be?

jgibson000

No.

How so?

I think -- and this is speaking just off the top of my head -- that Zoroastrians were functional monotheists (henotheists), recognizing the existence of at least two gods, but giving their allegiance to only one.

[/QUOTE]

One who actually shows devotion to Mithras and does not use his rites. mixed with rites to other gods, to desecrate sanctuaries dedicated to Olympian gods.

JG

Clivedurdle

Does this help?

http://www.livius.org/caa-can/caesar/caesar_t01.htm

So this "minor" group of pirates are acting in consort with an important king whose name is somehow related to Mithras, threaten Rome's wheat supplies and probably are in close contact with Spartacus and the religious beliefs and practices some of them have are not known in the Roman world?

Arguably they were a major cause of the establishment of the Empire!

Clivedurdle

The Religion of the Mithras Cult in the Roman Empire: Mysteries of the Unconquered Sun (or via: amazon.co.uk)

The introductory pages and contents of Beck are on Amazon, would someone like to comment on his arguments?

Toto

The entire book is on Google books

Amedeo

Mithra
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mithra is descended, together with the Vedic deity Mitra, from a common proto-Indo-Iranian entity *mitra (pronounced the same way as Mithra).

[edit] Etymology

The proto-Indo-Iranian word *mitra- could mean either "covenant, contract, oath, or treaty", or "friend". A general meaning of "alliance" adequately explains both alternatives. The second sense tends to be emphasized in Indic sources, the first sense in Iranian. The word is from a root mi- "to bind", with the "tool suffix" -tra-. A contract is thus described as a "means of binding" .

The first extant record of Mitra/Mithra is in the inscribed peace treaty between Hittites and the Hurrian kingdom of the Mitanni in the area southeast of Lake Van, c. 1400 BCE. There Mitra/Mithra appears in the company of Varuna, Indra and the twin horsemen (Ashwini Twins), the Nasatyas, as the five beings invoked as witnesses and keepers of the pact, and all of whom the rulers of the Mitanni apparently worshipped. (Campbell, 1964 p 256).

[edit] In Zoroastrianism

The reforms of Zoroaster retained the multitudes of pre-Zoroastrian divinities, reducing them in a complex hierarchy to "immortals" who, under the supremacy of the Creator Ahura Mazda, were now either ahuras or daevas. In this scheme, Mithra is a member of the ahuric triad, protectors of asha, the order of the universe. Mithra is additionally the protector of truth and justice and the source of cosmic light. In Middle Persian Mithra came to be known as Meher.
Relief from Taq-i Bostan in Kermanshah, Iran, showing Ardashir I of Sassanid Empire at the center receiving his crown from Ahura Mazda. The two stand on a prostrate enemy. Here at the left is Mithra as a priest, wearing a crown of sun-rays, holding a priest's barsam, and standing on a sacred lotus.
Relief from Taq-i Bostan in Kermanshah, Iran, showing Ardashir I of Sassanid Empire at the center receiving his crown from Ahura Mazda. The two stand on a prostrate enemy. Here at the left is Mithra as a priest, wearing a crown of sun-rays, holding a priest's barsam, and standing on a sacred lotus.

Mithra is not present in the Gathas of Zarathustra (Zoroaster) but appears in the younger Yashts of the Avesta (Campbell p 257). There, Mithra comes to the fore among the created beings. "I created him" Ahura Mazda declares to Zoroaster, "to be as worthy of sacrifice and as worthy of prayer as myself" (Campbell, loc. cit.). In the Yashts, Mithra gains the title of "Judge of Souls" and is assigned the domain of human welfare (which he shares with the Creator). Mithra occupies an intermediate position in the Zoroastrian hierarchy as the greatest of the yazata, created by Ahura Mazda (Ormuzd in later Persian) to aid in the destruction of evil and the administration of the world. He is then the divine representative of the Creator on earth, and is directed to protect the righteous from the demonic forces of Angra Mainyu (Ahriman in later Persian).

As the protector of truth and the enemy of error, Mithra occupied an intermediate position in the Zoroastrian pantheon as the greatest of the yazatas, the beings created by Ahuramazda to aid in the destruction of evil and the administration of the world. He was thus a divinity of the realms of air and light, and, by transfer to the moral realm, the manifestation of truth and loyalty. As the enemy of darkness and evil spirits, he protected souls, accompanying them to paradise, and was thus a redeemer. Because light is accompanied by heat, he was the promoter of vegetation and increase; he rewarded the good with prosperity and annihilated the bad.

[edit] In Persian culture
Antiochus and Mithra, with radiate phrygian cap, bas-relief of the temple built by Antiochus I of Commagene, 69-31 BCE, on the Nemrood Dagh, in the Taurus Mountains.
Antiochus and Mithra, with radiate phrygian cap, bas-relief of the temple built by Antiochus I of Commagene, 69-31 BCE, on the Nemrood Dagh, in the Taurus Mountains.

While in older Zoroastrianism Mithra is seen as a creation of Ahura Mazda, in later Persian culture, Mithra evolved to be an incarnation of Ahura Mazda [1], and in his role as 'Judge of Souls' as the rewarder of good and annihilator of the bad. Mithra was seen as omniscient, undeceivable, infallible, eternally watchful, and never-resting.

Similarly, while in the Sirozeh, Mithra is also referred to as Dae-pa-Meher, or Creator of Meher, this separation between 'Meher' and the 'Creator of Meher' dissolves in later texts and the distinguishing characteristics of Mithra and Meher blend. Mithra, reincorporated as "Meher", thus also becomes the representative of truth and justice, and, by transfer to the physical realm, the divinity of air and light. As the enemy of darkness and evil spirits, he protected souls, a psychopomp accompanying them to paradise. As heat accompanying light, Mithra became associated with growth and resultant prosperity.

Mithra worship spread first with the empire of the Persians throughout Asia Minor, then throughout the empire of Alexander and his successors.

By at least the 3rd century BCE, Mithra was identified as the progeny of Anahita, a mother-entity who is not mentioned in the Gathas of the very early Avesta texts, but is described in the fifth Yasht of the newer texts as "the wide-expanding and health-giving". The largest temple with a Mithraic connection is the Seleucid temple at Kangavar in western Iran (c. 200 BC), which is dedicated to "Anahita, the Immaculate Virgin Mother of the Lord Mithras".

The Parthian princes of Armenia were hereditary priests of Mithra, and an entire district of this land was dedicated to Anahita. Many temples were erected to Mithra in Armenia, which remained one of the last strongholds of the Mazdaist cult of Mithra until it became the first officially Christian kingdom.

Royal names incorporating Mithra's (e.g. "Mithradates") appear in the dynasties of Parthia, Armenia, and in Anatolia, in Pontus and Cappadocia.

[edit] In the Vedas

Vedic Mitra is the patron divinity of honesty, friendship, contracts and meetings. He is a prominent deity of the Rigveda distinguished by a relationship to Varuna, the protector of ṛtá. Together with Varuna, he counted among the Adityas, a group of solar deities. They are the supreme keepers of order and gods of the law.

Varuna and Mitra are the gods of the oath, often twinned or identified as Mitra-Varuna (a dvandva compound). In the Vedic hymns, Mitra is often invoked together with Varuna, so that the two are combined in a dvandva as Mitra-Varuna. Varuna is lord of the cosmic rhythm of the celestial spheres, while Mitra brings forth the light at dawn, which was covered by Varuna. Mitra together with Varuna is the most prominent Asura, and the chief of the Adityas, in the Rigveda. It should be noted, however, that Mitra and Varuna are also addressed as Devas in Rigveda (e.g., RV 7.60.12), and in the only hymn dedicated to Mitra, he is referred to as a Deva (mitrasya...devasya) in RV 3.59.6.

The pairing with Varuna, a god unknown in Iranian religion, is very strong already in the Rigveda, which has few hymns where Mitra is mentioned without Varuna. RV 3.59 is the only hymn dedicated to Mitra exclusively, where he is lauded as a god of order and stability and as a giver of laws (2b, vrata), the sustainer of mankind (6a, carani-dhrt, literally "of cultivators", said also of Indra in 3.37.4c) and of all gods (8c, devān vishvān).

3.59.1 Mitra, when speaking, stirreth men to labour: Mitra sustaineth both the earth and heaven.
Mitra beholdeth men with eyes that close not. To Mitra bring, with holy oil, oblation. (trans. Griffith)

Rigvedic hymns to Mitra-Varuna are RV 1.136, 137, 151-153, RV 5.62-72, RV 6.67, RV 7.60-66, RV 8.25 and RV 10.132.

Where Mitra appears not paired with Varuna, it is often for the purpose of comparison, where other gods are lauded as being "like Mitra", without the hymn being addressed to Mitra himself (Indra 1.129.10, 10.22.1-2 etc.; Agni 1.38.13 etc.; Soma 1.91.3; Vishnu 1.156.1).

In the Shatapatha Brahmana, Mitravaruna is analyzed as "the Counsel and the Power" — Mitra being the priesthood, Varuna the royal power. As Joseph Campbell remarked, "Both are said to have a thousand eyes. Both are active foreground aspects of the light or solar force at play in time. Both renew the world by their deed."
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