Dr David Walsh, Lecturer in Classical & Archaeological studies in the Department of Classical & Archaeological Studies, has published a book entitled The Cult of Mithras in Late Antiquity Development: Decline and Demise ca. A.D. 270-430 (Brill, October 2018).
David has published articles on the cult of Mithras and on the fate of temples in the Roman provinces of Noricum and Pannonia and, in The Cult of Mithras in Late Antiquity, he explores how the cult of Mithras developed across the 3rd and 4th centuries A.D. and why, by the early 5th century, the cult had completely disappeared.
Contrary to the traditional narrative that the cult was violently persecuted out of existence by Christians, David Walsh demonstrates that the cult’s decline was a far more gradual process that resulted from a variety of factors. He also challenges the popular image of the cult as a monolithic entity, highlighting how by the 4th century Mithras had come to mean different things to different people in different places.
This publication is part of a supplementary series on Late Antique Archaeology.