1 64 ROMAN PAVEMENTS AND INTRECCI. 



was continued till the time of Julian, A.D. 360. It competed 

 with Christianity by using similar symbols, rites and festivals. 

 In the reign of Septimius Severus this worship was widely 

 diffused and highly popular in the western part of the Empire. 

 Elagabalus, who became ruler of Rome A.D. 218, and his first 

 cousin Alexander Severus, by whom he was succeeded in 222, 

 were both, while almost children, made priests of the Syro- 

 Phoenician sun-god. The cremated remains of Severus were 

 preserved in the " Portland Vase," upon the base of which 

 Mithras is represented adorned with a Phrygian cap. Coins of 

 Elagabalus in apposition with the sun-god have been found at 

 Uriconium or Wroxeter. 



A bas-relief in the Court of the Belvedere at the Vatican, 

 represents Mithras slaying the bull, with the legend SOLI INVICTO 

 DEO.* In the year of Grace 321, Constantine issued an edict 

 by which he enjoined the solemn observance of the Dies Solis 

 or Sunday, whereby he pleased both Christians and Pagans. 

 Before his formal conversion in 337, his favourite divinity had 

 been the sun-god Apollo ; but his coins of copper were stamped 

 on the reverse with the words SOLI INVICTO COMITI, a phrase 

 usually applied to Mithras, and money with a like legend was 

 struck in London. f 



At Bath was a temple to the Sun, whose head is carved on the 

 pediment ; and if Aquae Solis, be indeed Aquae Sulis, Sul is a 

 Belgic name.J 



At Vindobala or Rutchester, was an altar inscribed SOLI 

 APOLLINI ; and at Magnae or Carvoran, were two addressed to 

 Jupiter Heliopolitanus. At other stations on or near Hadrian's 

 Wall, have been found many altars to Mithras. Hiibner records 

 twelve. Indeed more altars were dedicated in Britain to the 

 Invincible Mithras than to any other single god. There was 

 one at Vindobala or Rutchester, where the Frisians were 

 quartered ; at Corstopitum or Corbridge with the Nervii ; at 



Lundy, p. 163. f Wright's Uriconium, p. 443. J Gaulish, Littre. 

 Nos. 99, 349, 434, 481, 541, 579, 645, 646, 650, 833, 890, 1,039. 



