Editing Mithraism (section)

===Membership===
[[File:Mithraic Low Relief - Setif, Algeria.png|thumb|Another dedication to Mithras by legionaries of [[Legio II Herculia]] has been excavated at Sitifis (modern [[Setif]] in [[Algeria]]), so the unit or a subunit must have been transferred at least once.]]

Only male names appear in surviving inscribed membership lists. Historians including Cumont and Richard Gordon have concluded that the cult was for men only.{{efn|
Whilst the majority of the Oriental cults accorded to women a considerable role in their churches, and sometimes even a preponderating one, finding in them ardent supporters of the faith, Mithra forbade their participation in his Mysteries and so deprived himself of the incalculable assistance of these propagandists. The rude discipline of the order did not permit them to take the degrees in the sacred cohorts, and, as among the Mazdeans of the Orient, they occupied only a secondary place in the society of the faithful. Among the hundreds of inscriptions that have come down to us, not one mentions either a priestess, a woman initiate, or even a donatress.<ref>{{cite book |last=Cumont |first=Franz |author-link=Franz Cumont |year=1903 |title=The Mysteries of Mithras |page=173 |url=https://archive.org/stream/mysteriesofmythr00cumouoft#page/n193/mode/2up |access-date=6 July 2011}}</ref>
}}{{efn|
... Moreover, not a single woman is listed: The repeated attempts to show that women might belong to the cult are wishful thinking (Piccottini, 1994).<ref>cited in {{cite encyclopedia |author = Gordon, Richard |year = 2005 |title = Mithraism |editor = Jones, Lindsay |encyclopedia = Encyclopedia Of Religion |edition = 2nd |publisher = Thomas Gale, Macmillan Reference USA |volume = 9 |page = 6090}}</ref>
}}

The ancient scholar [[Porphyry (philosopher)|Porphyry]] refers to female initiates in Mithraic rites.{{efn|
Porphyry moreover seems to be the only writer who makes reference to women initiates into the service and rites of Mithra, and his allusion is perhaps due to a misunderstanding.... The participation of women in the ritual was not unknown in the Eastern cults, but the predominant military influence in Mithraism seems to render it unlikely in this instance.<ref name=Geden-1925-2004>
{{cite book
 |author=Geden, A.S.
 |date=15 October 2004  |orig-year=1925
 |title=Select Passages Illustrating Mithraism
 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z4sQkWdh-7oC&pg=PA51
 |access-date=28 March 2011
 |publisher=Kessinger Publishing
 |isbn=978-1-4179-8229-5
 |page=51ff
}}
</ref>}}
The early 20th-century historian A.S. Geden wrote that this may be due to a misunderstanding.<ref name=Geden-1925-2004/> According to Geden, while the participation of women in the ritual was not unknown in the Eastern cults, the predominant military influence in Mithraism makes it unlikely in this instance.<ref name=Geden-1925-2004/> It has recently been suggested by David Jonathan that "Women were involved with Mithraic groups in at least some locations of the empire."<ref name=David_2000>{{cite journal |last=David |first=Jonathan |year=2000 |title=The Exclusion of women in the Mithraic Mysteries: Ancient or modern? |journal=Numen |volume=47 |issue=2 |pages=121–141 |doi=10.1163/156852700511469}}</ref>{{rp|style=ama|p= 121}}

Soldiers were strongly represented amongst Mithraists, and also merchants, customs officials and minor bureaucrats. Few, if any, initiates came from leading aristocratic or senatorial families until the 'pagan revival' of the mid-4th century; but there were always considerable numbers of freedmen and slaves.<ref name=Clauss-2000/>{{rp|style=ama|p= 39}}