Mithraism was one of the most prominent mystery cults that flourished in the Roman world. Its followers worshipped the Iranian deity Mithras as the god of friendship, contract, and order. The cult, which included secrete rites of initiation (“mysteries) first appeared in the late first century CE and, at an extraordinary pace, spread from the Italian Peninsula and the border regions of the limes across the whole Roman empire.

The seminar aims to explore historical, social, and cultural aspects of Mithraism through the interpretation of the primary sources (first and foremost the iconographic and archaeological evidence) and the reading of the most relevant scholarly literature. The historiographical issues that will be discussed include the methodological problems raising from the paucity of the extant Mithraic literary corpus; the questionability of the supposed continuity between Persian religious tradition and Roman Mithraism; and the (im)plausibility of the Mithraic influence on the development of Christianity.