MITHRAS

The grand deity of the Persians, supposed to be the sun or the god of fire, to which they paid a dor a the tion as the purest emblem of the divine e ence. The Romans also raised altars to the honour of this divinity, with is the inscriptions Deo Soli Mithrm, or Soli Deo in vic to Micomthru;. As to the introduction of this Oriental worship in; Rome, see Mem. de IAc. des Inscr., vol. xvi., p. 270. It was one of those which resisted Christianity the longest. cele- See Beugnot, Destruction du Pagan is me en Occident; Milman's Hist, of Christianity. in [s. 774]