Mithras
Mithras was another eastern deity whose cult was very popular among the army because of its structure and organization. Mithras’ origins come from Persia and he originally was worshipped by pirates and brigands whom the Romans tried to remove from the Mediterranean in the first century BC. His worship was accepted by the army during the first century AD and spread throughout the empire. There were seven stages that a worshipper of Mithras had to progress through to obtain enlightenment.
The army was the main supporter of this deity and his temples were found all through the Roman Empire including Hadrian’s Wall. In Roman Britain, Mithras’ altars usually had the epithet of invictus (unconquerable) inscribed on them.
Mithras was a deity of light and in his fight against evil or the darkness was portrayed as a bull. Mithras was also equated with the Roman god Apollo as well as with the eastern deity Sol who was later invented by emperor Aurelian in the 4th century AD. Mithras and Isis competed with the new religion of Christianity for followers but the downfall of Mithraism was that it did not allow women or slaves to become followers to the religion.
