The trajectory of the transformation of the cult of the god Mithras in the Roman Empire

The subject of this study is the ways and routes through which the cult of the god Mithras penetrated the Roman Empire, as well as the chronological framework of the spread of Mithraism in Rome. The article examines the issues surrounding the spread of the cult of Mithras in Iran and how this religious cult entered the territory of the Roman Empire. This work investigates the transformation of the cult of the god Mithras among the Cilician pirates and its penetration through them into the Bosporan Kingdom during the reign of Mithridates Eupator, the emergence of a syncretic cult, and its further dissemination in the Roman Empire. The article also addresses the influence of Commagene in the formation of Roman Mithraism. Based on the analysis of epigraphic and archaeological data, the author explores various aspects of the scientific problem regarding how the cult of the ancient Iranian deity Mithras penetrated the Roman Empire. For the analysis of the material, the author employed methods of terminological and lexical analysis of historical sources, as well as historiographical research methods: interdisciplinary, periodization, and problem-chronological approaches. The main conclusion of the article is that the classical view of Kümön, which posits that the origins of Roman Mithraism should be considered through the ancient Iranian tradition, finds confirmation in contemporary historical science. Thus, the process of the establishment of the Roman cult of Mithras can be regarded as a discrete development, where the Iranian component of Mithraism gradually transforms into a completely new religious tradition, incorporating various cultural and religious traditions from other cultures. The novelty of the work lies in the fact that the chronological framework for the emergence of the Roman cult of Mithras has been pushed to a later time in the 1st century BC. Possible locations for this transformation could include the Kingdom of Commagene, Cilicia, and the Bosporan state. The Bosporus, as a potential center for the transformation of the cult of the god Mithras, is also considered because at the turn of the 2nd-1st centuries BC, there emerges not only the syncretic ancient Iranian cult of the god Mithras but also other Eastern gods of Thracian and Egyptian origin. For the most part, all these eastern deities penetrate from the territory of Asia Minor, as during this period, the Bosporan state is included in the Pontic Kingdom of Mithridates Eupator VI.