don 1996a). It had been deliberately hidden in antiquity, but unfortunately
not in its proper mithraeum. Though Virunum is fairly rich in Mithraic
finds, the sites of its mithraea have not yet been discovered.^2
The plaque, dedicated to Mithras (in the formula D[eo] I[nvicto]
M[ithrae]) and for the well-being (pro salute) of the emperor Commodus
(the name was erased at his damnatio memoriae), lists the names of thirty-
four men, “qui templum vii (sic) conlapsum impendio suo restituerunt,” i.e.,
those who at their own expense restored the mithraeum, which had col-
lapsed in some (probably natural) catastrophe. As the inscription across the
bottom records, one of these men, Ti. Claudius Quintilianus, donated the
plaque for the dedication of the mithraeum and “embellished the ceiling
with paintings” (et camaram picturis exornavit).
The names fill the first one and one-third columns of a space that
potentially held four columns. In other words, twice as much space as was
filled was left for future names. It is unlikely that this space was reserved,
optimistically, for an influx of after-the-event contributors to the building
fund, so one must assume that it was intended for the names of future
initiates and thus to serve as the albumof the mithraeum in the coming
years. That is indeed the use to which it was put.
From Commodus’s title, the terminus postfor the dedication can be
deduced to be early in the year 183 CE(Piccottini 1994, 15). Within a year
and a half at most, two lines of preamble were added to the right of the top
of the second column where, otherwise, the third and fourth column of
names would in due course have commenced. These two most unusual
lines tell us that the original group, or what was left of it, “came together
because of the mortality” (et mortalitat[is] causa convener[unt]) on a date
which translates as June 26, 184 CE.(Marullo et Aeliano co[n]s[ulibus] VI
K[alendas] Iulias). The “mortality,” whatever it was, appears to have carried
off five of the original thirty-four, for the Greek letter theta(forthanôn,=
‘deceased’) has been set against their names. Piccottini (1994, 22–25) rea-
sonably suggests the plague as the cause, and a commemoration of their
deceased fellow initiates as the event for which the Mithraists assembled.
184 PART II •MISSION?
2 The Mithraic finds of Virunum are nos. 1430–1440 in Vermaseren 1956–1960 (in the
province of Noricum as a whole, nos. 1401–1461). Hereafter, Mithraic monuments, etc.,
in Vermaseren’s corpus will be cited by number prefixed by “V.” In Schön 1988, the
Virunum Mithraic finds are nos. 165–175 (in Noricum as a whole nos. 131–176); see also
Alföldy 1974, 195–97. V1438 and 1431 both record the rebuilding of a mithraeum, in
239 and 311 CE, respectively. There is no reason why those two dedications and the bronze
plaque should not all belong to the same mithraeum at different dates in its institu-
tional life, although, as we shall see below (A New Mithraeum?), at least one other
Virunum mithraeum is probable.