Editing Mithraism (section)

====Plutarch====
The Greek biographer [[Plutarch]] (46–127&nbsp;CE) says that "secret mysteries ... of Mithras" were practiced by the pirates of [[Cilicia]], the coastal province in the southeast of [[Anatolia]], who were active in the 1st&nbsp;century&nbsp;BCE: "They likewise offered strange sacrifices; those of Olympus I mean; and they celebrated certain secret mysteries, among which those of Mithras continue to this day, being originally instituted by them."<ref name="Life of Pompey 24">{{cite book |author=[[Plutarch]] |section=Life of Pompey |title=Lives |at=24 |section-url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Pompey*.html#24 |via=penelope.uchicago.edu |access-date=19 February 2021 |archive-date=31 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220731043359/https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Pompey%2A.html#24 |url-status=live }} — refers to events {{circa|68&nbsp;BCE}}</ref>
He mentions that the pirates were especially active during the [[Mithridatic wars]] (between the [[Roman Republic]] and King [[Mithridates VI of Pontus]]) in which they supported the king.<ref name="Life of Pompey 24"/> The association between Mithridates and the pirates is also mentioned by the ancient historian [[Appian]].{{refn|
[[Appian]] ''Mith''&nbsp;14.92 cited in<ref name=Ulansey-1991-Origins/>{{rp|style=ama|p= 89}}
}}
The 4th&nbsp;century commentary on [[Vergil]] by [[Maurus Servius Honoratus|Servius]] says that [[Pompey]] settled some of these pirates in [[Calabria]] in southern Italy.<ref>{{cite conference
 |first=E.D. |last=Francis
 |year=1971
 |title=Plutarch's Mithraic pirates: An appendix to the article by Franz Cummont "The Dura Mithraeum"
 |editor-first=John R. |editor-last=Hinnells
 |publication-date=1975
 |book-title=Mithraic Studies
 |conference=The First International Congress of Mithraic Studies
 |volume=1 |pages=207–210
 |publisher=Manchester University Press
}}
:The reference to ''Servius'' is in a 
{{cite book | title=lengthy footnote for page&nbsp;208 | isbn=9780719005367 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xRy8AAAAIAAJ&dq=Servius+Plutarch+Cumont&pg=PA208 | via=Google Books | last1=Hinnells | first1=John R. | year=1975 | publisher=Manchester University Press | access-date=23 February 2023 | archive-date=15 May 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230515064453/https://books.google.com/books?id=xRy8AAAAIAAJ&dq=Servius+Plutarch+Cumont&pg=PA208 | url-status=live }}.</ref>