CIMRM 76 - Tauroctony statuette, Sidon. In the Louvre.
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76. Statue of Parian marble (H. 0.79 Br. 0.B7).
de Ridder, 59f No. 47 and Pl. XX (see fig. 27).
Mithras in Eastern attire, girded with a sheath, kills with a large dagger the bull. The dog with collar, the snake and the scorpion on the. usual place. On the bottom border an inscription:
Φλ. Γερόντιος, πατὴρ νόμιμος τῶν τελετῶν τοῦ θεοῦ εὐχαριστῶν αφιερωσάτω τῷ φ̕ ἔτει.
According to E. Will: 389 A.D.; but according to the Seleucid era the Sidon sculptures are dated to the year 188 A.D. Cf. Le Roy Campbell in Berytus XI, 1954.26 n.1.
Notes.
[I,] Fl. Gerontios, pater nominos of the rites of initiation of the god, in thanks I have consecrated [this statue] in the year 500.
(J. Humphrey, Excavations at Carthage, vol. 6, p.145 states:'E.Will, "La date du Mithraeum de Sidon," Syria 27 (1950) 261-69, firmly establishes that the year 500 of Sidon mentioned in the three Mithraeum inscriptions of Fl. Gerontios is based on the local calendar of the city ...'.
The "year 500" is uncertain. If it is the 500th year of the Seleucid Era (AS), then 500 AS = 188 A.D. If it is following a local Sidon year-table, it is 398 A.D.1
Another monument from the Sidon Mithraeum also has a similar dated inscription, CIMRM 78-79.
| 1 | See also CIMRM 78. C.f. E. Will, "La date du Mithraeum de Sidon," Syria 27 (1950) 261-69; Le Roy Campbell in Berytus XI, 1954.26 n.1. |
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