Archaeological and Epigraphic Evidence about the Religious Life of the Roman Garrison in Tyras

Abstract

This article offers a review of the evidence that give insight into the religious ideas and cultic practices of soldiers and officers in the garrison of Tyras. In the southern part of the citadel, two structures were discovered, identified by the researchers as temples. A votive altar dedicated by a military sailor to the god with an epithet Invicto (Mithras or Hercules) and three fragmentary votive slabs with dedicatory inscriptions were also discovered at this area. A fragment of the limestone pediment of a small building with a dedicatory inscription in honor of the emperor was found within the citadel area. In the northern part of the citadel a marble relief depicting Artemis/ Diana and a marble statuette of Priapus were discovered. A structure located outside the citadel may be associated with the religious life of the Tyras garrison. It has an apse leaning against it on the east side. This structure might have been a sanctuary, dedicated to some unofficial cults of the Roman army, probably a Mithraeum. Indirectly, this assumption is confirmed by the fragments of reliefs depicting a Thracian horseman and a Mithras Tauroctony found in the adjacent area.