08-05-2009, 10:03 AM
Quote:They know of no other Roman fort in Britain (or elsewhere for that matter) that's revealed a pagan religious shrine from the height of the Empire within the walls. (Except of course the Shrine of the Standards found in all principiae.) If someone knows of another for certain, I'd love a cite or Web link.
Well there are parallels, such as the mithraeum and the Temple of the Palmyrene Gods within the military encampment area at Dura-Europos (the famous fresco of the Tribune Terentius coming from the latter). It can be argued that both pre-date the military occupation (all the figures in the mithraeum wear 'Parthian' costume), but the fact that the occupying unit was cohors XX Palmyrenorum and that the people of Palmyra had long aped Parthian dress styles (you only have to see all the reliefs and frescoes at Palmyra to appreciate that), together with a suggested foundation date of AD 168-71 (although Hopkins felt the cult was a Parthian introduction to the site), hint that whilst the TofPG was pre-Roman, the mithraeum itself was a Roman military addition. There is also the whole business of military genii (nicely summed up in a paper by Speidel and Dimitrova-Milceva*) and in particular the altar to the genius armamentarii found 'in a building on the via sagularis along the southern wall' (ibid., 1551). The paper does ride with the assumption that armamentarii were part of the principia (not proven, m'lud), but is worth a read nonetheless.
Mike Bishop
* Speidel, M.P. and Dimitrova-Milceva, A. 'The cult of the genii in the Roman army', Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt II, 16.2, 1541-55
