1 Earliest Rome

4./ Religious space
in the nearby mountains of Persia, a cave surrounded by flowers and furnished with
springs,' in honour or Mithras, the maker and father of alh The cave was for him an
image of the cosmos which Mithras created, its interior symmetrically arranged with
symbols of the elements and regions of that cosmos.' After Zoroaster it became the
custom among others to perform ceremonies of initiation in caverns and caves, either
natural or artificial. Just as they consecrated temples, shrines and altars to the Olympian
gods, sacrificial hearths to terrestrial deities and heroes, and ritual pits and trenches to the
gods of the underworld, so they dedicated caverns and caves to the cosmos, and likewise
to the nymphs too on account of the water that pours down in caves or bursts forth in
rhem.
1. Founder of Persian religion, Zoioasm.mism.
2. See 12.5d, n.2.
3. Note die basins in 4.6a above, n. 3. Water vessels were a common element in Mithrnic
iconography; see 12.5a n. 1; 12.5g n. 4.
4. For a detailed analysis ot the cosmic imagery of a Mithraic cave, see R. L. Gordon
(19 T
6), decoding the complex zodiacal and cosmic svmbolism of die Mithraeum of
Settc Sfere at Ostia.
4.7 Religious space and the Roman Forum
Religious buildings were found throughout the city of Rome. But some areas
had particularly strong religious associations. The Roman Forum, the traditional
centre of political life was also an important religious focus for the city.
Here were not only many temple buildings - from some of the most ancient
foundations of the city (such as the temple of Vesta, plan no. 11) to the later
temples of deified emperors (2, 13). There were also buildings connected with
various priesthoods (12, 14), other monuments marking out places of legendary
religious significance (6, S), as well as the senate house (7) and rostra
(speaking platform) (5) - which were both inaugurated templa (see 4.4). The
character of the whole area, and the function of some individual buildings (1,
3, 9), illustrate the overlap of'religious' and 'political' activities at Rome.
5ec further. Vol. 1, 39, 189-91, 253-9, 382; Vol 1, Map 1 no. 11; Plamer
and Ashby (1929), and Richardson (1992) (under individual monuments);
Dudley (1967) 73-119; M. Grant (1970)*; Coarelli (1983-5); Patterson
(1992) 190-4.
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