Editing Mithraism (section)

===Persecution and Christianization===
The religion and its followers faced persecution in the 4th century from [[Christianization]], and Mithraism came to an end at some point between its last decade and the 5th century. Ulansey states that "Mithraism declined with the rise to power of Christianity, until the beginning of the fifth century, when Christianity became strong enough to exterminate by force rival religions such as Mithraism."{{efn|
"Mithraism declined with the rise to power of Christianity, until the beginning of the fifth century, when Christianity became strong enough to exterminate by force rival religions such as Mithraism."<ref>{{cite web | last = Ulansey | first = David | title = The Cosmic Mysteries of Mithras | access-date = 2011-03-20 | df = dmy-all | url = http://www.well.com/user/davidu/mithras.html | archive-date = 15 April 2008 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080415054733/http://www.well.com/user/davidu/mithras.html | url-status = live }}</ref>
}}
According to Speidel, Christians fought fiercely with this feared enemy and suppressed it during the late 4th&nbsp;century. Mithraic sanctuaries were destroyed and religion was no longer a matter of personal choice.{{efn|
"As a mystery religion it engulfed the Roman empire during the first four centuries of our era. Mithraic sanctuaries are found from Roman Arabia to Britain, from the Danube to the Sahara, wherever the Roman soldier went. Christian apologetics fiercely fought the cult they feared., and during the late 4th&nbsp;century&nbsp;CE, as a victim of the Judaeo-Christian spirit of intolerance, Roman Mithraism was suppressed, its sanctuaries destroyed together with the last vestiges of religious freedom in the empire."<ref>
{{cite book
 |author=Speidel, Michael 
 |title=Mithras-Orion: Greek hero and Roman army god
 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7-YUAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA1
 |access-date=27 March 2011
 |year=1980
 |publisher=Brill
 |isbn=978-90-04-06055-5
 |page=1
}}
</ref>
}}{{efn|
Michael Speidel, who specializes in military history, associates Mithras with [[Orion (constellation)|Orion]].<ref name=Speidel-1997/>
}}
According to L.H. Martin, Roman Mithraism came to an end with the [[Persecution of pagans under Theodosius I|anti-pagan decrees]] of the Christian emperor [[Theodosius I|Theodosius]] during the last decade of the 4th&nbsp;century.{{efn|
The cult was vigorously opposed by Christian polemicists, especially by Justin and Tertullian, because of perceived similarities between it and early Christianity. And with the anti-pagan decrees of the Christian emperor Theodosius during the final decade of the fourth century, Mithraism disappeared from the history of religions as a viable religious practice.<ref name=collectedworks>{{cite book |last=Martin |first=Luther H. |date=30 December 2004 |section=Foreword |title=Beck on Mithraism: Collected works with new essays |publisher=Ashgate Publishing |page=xiii |isbn=978-0-7546-4081-3}}</ref>
}}

Clauss states that inscriptions show Mithras as one of the cults listed on inscriptions by [[Roman senate|Roman senators]] who had not converted to Christianity, as part of the "pagan revival" among the elite in the second half of the 4th century.{{efn|
"Mithras also found a place in the 'pagan revival' that occurred, particularly in the western empire, in the latter half of the 4th&nbsp;century&nbsp;CE. For a brief period, especially in Rome, the cult enjoyed, along with others, a last efflorescence, for which we have evidence from among the highest circles of the senatorial order. One of these senators was Rufius Caeionius Sabinus, who in 377&nbsp;CE dedicated an altar" to a long list of gods that includes Mithras.<ref name=Clauss-2000/>{{rp|style=ama|pp= 29–30}}
}}
Beck states that "Quite early in the [fourth] century the religion was as good as dead throughout the empire."<ref name=Beck-1987/>{{rp|style=ama|p= 299}} Archaeological evidence indicates the continuance of the cult of Mithras up until the end of the 4th&nbsp;century. In particular, large numbers of votive coins deposited by worshippers have been recovered at the Mithraeum at Pons Sarravi (Sarrebourg) in Gallia Belgica, in a series that runs from [[Gallienus]] (r. 253–268) to [[Theodosius I]] (r. 379–395). These were scattered over the floor when the mithraeum was destroyed, as Christians apparently regarded the coins as polluted; therefore, providing reliable dates for the functioning of the mithraeum up until near the end of the century.<ref name=Clauss-2000/>{{rp|style=ama|pp= 31–32}}

Franz Cumont states that Mithraism may have survived in certain remote cantons of the Alps and Vosges into the 5th&nbsp;century.<ref name="Cumont_Mysteries">{{cite book |last=Cumont|first=Franz|title=The Mysteries of Mithra|editor=McCormack, Thomas J. (trans.)|year=1903|location=Chicago|publisher=Open Court|isbn=0-486-20323-9}} [http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/mom/mom09.htm pp. 206] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171006112321/http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/mom/mom09.htm |date=6 October 2017 }}: "A few clandestine conventicles may, with stubborn persistence, have been held in the subterranean retreats of the palaces. The cult of the Persian god possibly existed as late as the fifth century in certain remote cantons of the Alps and the Vosges. For example, devotion to the Mithraic rites long persisted in the tribe of the Anauni, masters of a flourishing valley, of which a narrow defile closed the mouth." This is unreferenced; but the French text in ''Textes et monuments figurés relatifs aux mystères de Mithra'' tom.&nbsp;1, p.&nbsp;348 has a footnote.</ref> According to Mark Humphries, the deliberate concealment of Mithraic cult objects in some areas suggests that precautions were being taken against Christian attacks. In areas like the [[Rhine]] frontier, barbarian invasions may have also played a role in the end of Mithraism.<ref name="HarveyHunter2008">{{cite book
|last=humphries
|first=mark
|editor=Susan Ashbrook Harvey, David G. Hunter
|title=The Oxford handbook of early Christian studies
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0-ovhYLJkRYC&pg=PA95
|access-date=3 April 2011
|date=10 December 2008
|publisher=Oxford University Press
|isbn=978-0-19-927156-6
|pages=95–
|quote=In some instances, the deliberate concealment of Mithraic cult objects could suggest precautions were being taken against Christian attacks; but elsewhere, such as along the Rhine frontier, coin sequences suggest that Mithraic shrines were abandoned in the context of upheavals resulting from barbarian invasions, and that purely religious considerations cannot explain the end of Mithraism in that region (Sauer 1996).}}</ref>

At some of the mithraeums that have been found below churches, such as the Santa Prisca Mithraeum and the [[Basilica of San Clemente al Laterano|San Clemente]] Mithraeum, the ground plan of the church above was made in a way to symbolize Christianity's domination of Mithraism.<ref name="churchmithraeum">{{cite book
|last=Vermaseren
|first=M. J.
|title=The Excavations in the Mithraeum of the Church of Santa Pricsa in Rome
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iskUAAAAIAAJ&q=%22The%20Excavations%20in%20the%20Mithraeum%20of%20the%20Church%20of%20Santa%20Pricsa%20in%20Rome%22&pg=PA115
|access-date=3 April 2011
|publisher=Brill
|page=115
|quote=The ground-plan ... shows clearly that the presbytery of the Church lies over the ante-Room&nbsp;V of the Mithraeum and that the apse covers the first part of the main hall W, including the niches of Cautes and Cautopates. One cannot fail to see the symbolism of this arrangement, which expresses in concrete terms that Christ keeps Mithras "under". The same also applies at S. Clemente.|year=1965
}}</ref>  The cult disappeared earlier than that of [[Isis]]. Isis was still remembered in the Middle Ages as a pagan deity, but Mithras was already forgotten in [[late antiquity]].<ref name=Clauss-2000/>{{rp|style=ama|p= 171}}