Editing Mithraism (section)

===Later history===
The first important expansion of the mysteries in the Empire seems to have happened quite quickly, late in the reign of [[Antoninus Pius]] (b.&nbsp;121&nbsp;CE, d.&nbsp;161&nbsp;CE) and under [[Marcus Aurelius]]. By this time all the key elements of the mysteries were in place.{{efn|
"The first important expansion of the mysteries in the Empire seems to have occurred relatively rapidly late in the reign of Antoninus Pius and under Marcus Aurelius&nbsp;(9). By that date, it is clear, the mysteries were fully institutionalised and capable of relatively stereotyped self-reproduction through the medium of an agreed, and highly complex, symbolic system reduced in iconography and architecture to a readable set of 'signs'. Yet we have good reason to believe that the establishment of at least some of those signs is to be dated at least as early as the Flavian period or in the very earliest years of the second century. Beyond that we cannot go&nbsp;..."<ref>{{cite journal |last=Gordon |first=Richard L. |year=1978 |title=The date and significance of CIMRM&nbsp;593 (British Museum, Townley Collection) |journal=Journal of Mithraic Studies |volume=II |pages=148–174}}</ref>{{rp|style=ama|pp=150–151}} 
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Mithraism reached the apogee of its popularity during the 2nd and 3rd centuries, spreading at an "astonishing" rate at the same period when the worship of [[Sol Invictus]] was incorporated into the state-sponsored cults.<ref name=Beck-1987/>{{rp|style=ama|p= 299}}{{efn|
"...&nbsp;the astonishing spread of the cult in the later 2nd and early 3rd&nbsp;centuries&nbsp;AD ... This extraordinary expansion, documented by the archaeological monuments&nbsp;..."<ref name=Clauss-2000/>{{rp|style=ama|p= 25}}
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At this period a certain Pallas devoted a monograph to Mithras, and a little later Euboulus wrote a ''History of Mithras'', although both works are now lost.{{refn|
Clauss (2000),<ref name=Clauss-2000/>{{rp|style=ama|p= 25}} referring to Porphyry, ''De Abstinentia'', 2.56 and 4.16.3 (for Pallas) and ''De antro nympharum''&nbsp;6 (for Euboulus and his history).
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According to the 4th&nbsp;century [[Augustan History|Historia Augusta]], the emperor [[Commodus]] participated in its mysteries<ref>{{cite book|last=Loeb|first=D. Magie|title=Scriptores Historiae Augustae: Commodus|year=1932}} pp. IX.6: ''Sacra Mithriaca homicidio vero polluit, cum illic aliquid ad speciem timoris vel dici vel fingi soleat'' "He desecrated the rites of Mithras with actual murder, although it was customary in them merely to say or pretend something that would produce an impression of terror".</ref> but it never became one of the state cults.{{efn|
"The cult of Mithras never became one of those supported by the state with public funds, and was never admitted to the official list of festivals celebrated by the state and army &ndash; at any rate as far as the latter is known to us from the ''[[Feriale Duranum]]'', the religious calendar of the units at Dura-Europos in Coele Syria;" [where there was a Mithraeum] "the same is true of all the other mystery cults too."  He adds that at the individual level, various individuals did hold roles both in the state cults and the priesthood of Mithras.<ref name=Clauss-2000/>{{rp|style=ama|p= 24}}
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The historian [[Jacob Burckhardt]] writes:{{blockquote|
Mithras is the guide of souls which he leads from the earthly life into which they had fallen back up to the light from which they issued ... It was not only from the religions and the wisdom of Orientals and Egyptians, even less from Christianity, that the notion that life on earth was merely a transition to a higher life was derived by the Romans. Their own anguish and the awareness of senescence made it plain enough that earthly existence was all hardship and bitterness. Mithras-worship became one, and perhaps the most significant, of the religions of redemption in declining paganism.<ref>
{{cite book|last1=Burckhardt |first1=Jacob |date=1852 |title=The Age of Constantine the Great |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-04680-1 |page=[https://archive.org/details/ageofconstantine00burc/page/176 176] |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/ageofconstantine00burc/page/176}}
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