Note 27: — V.—RELIGION AND SUPERSTITION. (Wall-Cases 98-106.)

Near this tablet are several Roman dedications. Three curious silver-gilt plaques, probably of the second century after Christ (Nos. 133-135), found at Heddernheim, near Frankfurt-on-Main, were dedicated to Jupiter Dolichenus. At first merely a local god, originating in the town of Doliche in Commagene, near the Euphrates, he later acquired considerable popularity throughout the Roman Empire, and his worship was carried far and wide by the Roman legionaries, who were largely instrumental in conveying these Oriental worships to the West. The silver tablet illustrated (No. 133; fig. 44) shows Jupiter Dolichenus in a shrine, holding thunderbolt and sceptre, with the eagle at his feet. The inscription, written in somewhat defective Latin,27 runs: "To Jupiter, best and greatest, of Doliche, where iron has its birth. Dedicated by Flavius Fidelis and Q. Julius Posstimus by command of the god on behalf of themselves and their families." As often in late Latin inscriptions, E is written | |. Another tablet (very fragmentary) shows the god in trappings of war, holding double-axe and thunderbolt, and standing on a bull (No. 135). He is being crowned by Victory. The presence of mines in North Syria will account for the recurring phrase, "Where iron has its birth." A series of similar dedications to Mars and Vulcan, which were found at Barkway in Hertfordshire, is exhibited in the Room of Roman Britain. Examples are shown in Case 104 of a third series (No. 136, fig. 45), part of a great hoard found at Bala Hissar (Pessinus) in Galatia. These have figures of Helios, Selene, and Mithras. The last-named deity was the Persian god of light. He did not thoroughly win his way into the Roman world until the second century after Christ. But, once established, he proved himself of far-reaching power. Mithraism had in its ritual many points of resemblance to that of Christianity, and in the third and fourth centuries after Christ proved a most formidable rival to the spread of Christian doctrines. A memorial of Mithras is seen in the large bronze tablet (No. 137) in Case 105. Its top is decorated with knife and libation-bowl. The inscription, of about the third century after Christ, tells us that it was dedicated to Sextus Pompeius Maximus by priests of Mithras. He had held offices in the Mithraic priesthood.