[817] Ovid, Fasti, i. 163 ‘bruma novi prima est veterisque novissima solis.’
[818] Cf. p. 112.
[819] Preller, ii. 408; P. Allard, Julien l’Apostat, i. 16; J. Réville, La Religion à Rome sous les Sévères (1885); Wissowa, 306. An earlier cult of the same type introduced by Elagabalus did not survive its founder.
[820] The earliest reference is probably that in the calendar of the Greek astronomer, of uncertain date, Antiochus, Ἡλίου γενέθλιον· αὔξει φῶς (Cumont, i. 342, from Cod. Monac. gr. 287, f. 132). The Fasti of Furius Dionysius Philocalus (A.D. 354) have ‘VIII. KAL. IAN. N[atalis] INVICTI C[ircenses] M[issus] XXX’ (C. I. L. i2. 278, 338). Cf. Julian, Orat. 4 (p. 156 ed. Spanheim) εὐθέως μετὰ τὸν τελευταῖον τοῦ Κρόνου μῆνα ποιοῦμεν ἡλίῳ τὸν περιφανέστατον ἀγῶνα, τὴν ἑορτὴν Ἡλίῳ καταφημίσαντες Ἀνικήτῳ; Corippus, de laud. Iust. min. i. 314 ‘Solis honore novi grati spectacula circi’; cf. the Christian references on p. 242. Mommsen’s Scriptor Syrus quoted C. I. L. i2. 338 tells us that lights were used; ‘accenderunt lumina festivitatis causa.’
[821] Preller, ii. 410; Gibbon, ii. 446.
[822] On Mithraicism, cf. F. Cumont, Textes et Monuments relatifs aux Mystères de Mithra (1896-9); also the art. by the same writer in Roscher’s Lexicon, ii. 3028, and A. Gasquet, Le Culte de Mithra (Revue des Deux Mondes for April 1, 1899); J. Réville, La Religion à Rome sous les Sévères, 77; Wissowa, 307; Preller, ii. 410; A. Gardner, Julian the Apostate, 175; P. Allard, Julien l’Apostat, i. 18; ii. 232; G. Zippel, Le Taurobolium, in Festschrift f. L. Friedländer (1895), 498. Mithra was originally a form of the Aryan Sun-god, who though subordinated in the Mazdean system to Ahoura Mazda continued to be worshipped by the Persian folk. His cult made its appearance in Rome about 70 B.C., and was developed during the third and fourth centuries A.D. under philosophic influences. Mithra was regarded as the fount of all life, and the yearly obscuration of the sun’s forces in winter became a hint and promise of immortality to his worshippers: cf. Carm. adv. paganos, 47 ‘qui hibernum docuit sub terra quaerere solem.’ Mithraic votive stones have been found in all parts of the empire, Britain included. They are inscribed ‘Soli Invicto,’ ‘Deo Soli Invicto Mithrae,’ ‘Numini Invicto Soli Mithrae,’ and the like.
[823] Cumont, Textes et Mon. i. 325; ii. 66, and in Roscher’s Lexicon, ii. 3065; Lichtenberger, Encycl. des Sciences religieuses, s. v. Mithra.
[824] Preller, R. M. ii. 15; Mommsen, in C. I. L. i2. 337; Marquardt and Mommsen, Handbuch der römischen Alterthümer, vi. 562; Dict. of Cl. A. s. v. Saturnalia; Tille, Y. and C. 85; Frazer, iii. 138; W. W. Fowler, 268; C. Dezobry, Rome au Siècle d’Auguste (ed. 4, 1875), iii. 140.
[825] Horace, Satires, ii. 7. 4:
‘age, libertate Decembri,