Mithraism in the Territory of Today’s Herzegovina / Kult Mitre na tlu današnje Hercegovine

Abstract

The cult of Mithras has been present for three centuries in Herzegovina. Its significance for classical history and civilization is reflected through the fact that it continued to exist in the territory of today’s Herzegovina after Roman emperor Theodosius I prohibited any forms of pagan religions in 392. Numismatic findings from the temple of Mithras in Konjic can be used as a proof. In this temple, coins from the reign of the emperor Arcadius (Flavius Theodosius Augustus 395 – 408) were found. Research in this paper is mainly focused on the fact that the cult of Mithras retained longer inside the Roman province of Dalmatia than it was previously assumed in the historiography, and that its specificity can be seen through the typical local iconology and epigraphic orthography.