[10]. Mon. myst. Mithra, I, pp. 9 ff., pp. 231 ff.
[11]. Lactantius, De mort. persec., 21, 2; cf. Seeck, Gesch. des Untergangs der antiken Welt, II, pp. 7 ff.
[12]. Cf. Strzygowski, Mschatta (Jahrb. preuss. Kunstsammlungen, XXV), Berlin, 1904, pp. 324 ff., 371 ff.—From a communication made to the Congress of Orientalists at Copenhagen (1908) by Father Lammens, it would appear that the façade of Mschatta is the work of an Omaiyad kalif of Damascus, and Strzygowski's conclusions would, therefore, have to be modified considerably; but the influence of Sassanid art in Syria is nevertheless certain; see Dussaud, Les Arabes en Syrie avant l'Islam, 1907, pp. 33, 51 ff.
[14]. Plutarch, V. Pompei, 24:
Ξενὰς δὲ θυσίας ἔθυον αὐτοὶ τὰς ἐν Ὀλύμπῳ καὶ τελετάς τινας ἀπορρήτους ἐτέλουν, ὤν ἡ τοῦ Μίθρου καὶ μέχρι δεῦρο διασώζεται καταδειχθεῖσα πρῶτον ὑπ' ἐκείνων.
[15]. Lactantius Placidus ad Stat., Theb. IV, 717: "Quae sacra primum Persae habuerunt, a Persis Phryges, a Phrygibus Romani."
[16]. In the Studio Pontica, p. 368, I have described a grotto located near Trapezus and formerly dedicated to Mithra, but now transformed into a church. We know of no other Mithreum. A bilingual dedication to Mithra, in Greek and Aramaic, is engraved upon a rock in a wild pass near Farasha (Rhodandos) in Cappadocia. Recently it has been republished
with excellent notes by Henri Grégoire (Comptes Rendus Acad. des Inscr., 1908, pp. 434 ff.), but the commentator has mentioned no trace of a temple. The text says that a strategus from Ariaramneia ἐμάγευσε Μίθρῃ. Perhaps these words must be translated according to a frequent meaning of the aorist, by "became a magus of Mithra" or "began to serve Mithra as a magus." This would lead to the conclusion that the inscription was made on the occasion of an initiation. The magus dignity was originally hereditary in the sacred caste; strangers could acquire it after the cult had assumed the form of mysteries. If the interpretation offered by us is correct the Cappadocian inscription would furnish interesting evidence of that transformation in the Orient. Moreover, we know that Tiridates of Armenia initiated Nero; see Mon. myst. Mithra, I, p. 239.
[17]. Strabo, XI, 14, § 9. On the studs of Cappadocia, cf. Grégoire, Saints jumeaux et dieux cavaliers, 1905, pp. 56 ff.