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The Assyrians call Aphrodite Mylitta, the Arabians Alilat [Greek spelling: Ἀλιλάτ], and the Persians Mithra.In addition that deity is associated with the Indian deity Mitra. This passage is linguistically significant as the first clear attestation of an Arabic word, with the diagnostically Arabic article al-.The Persian and Indian deities were developed from the Proto-Indo-Iranian deity known as Mitra. According to Herodotus, the ancient Arabians believed in only two gods:They believe in no other gods except Dionysus and the Heavenly Aphrodite; and they say that they wear their hair as Dionysus does his, cutting it round the head and shaving the temples. They call Dionysus, Orotalt; and Aphrodite, Alilat.Sanskrit uṣas is derived from the Sanskrit word uṣa which means "dawn". This root is related to Indo-European root for dawn, and is related to "héōs" in Greek, "ušā" in Avestan, "aušrà" in Lithuanian, and the basis for the word "east" in Indo-European traditions, state Mallory and Adams.Mithra's slaying of the bull was a popular subject of Hellenic art and became the prototype for a bull-slaying ritual of fertility in the Mithraic cult. As god of light, Mithra was associated with the Greek sun god, Helios, and the Roman Sol Invictus. He is often paired with Anahita, goddess of the fertilizing waters.Uṣas is an s-stem, i.e. the genitive case is uṣásas, whereby it connotes "dawn goddess" in Indo-European languages.God of universe mithraspraying in movie -The EagleMarcus Aquila: [praying] Mithras, lord of light, please help me, father of our fathers. Help me lead my men well. Do not let me dishonor my legion. Please help me regain my family's honor.Ushas is related to the Proto-Indo-European goddess*h₂ausos-. Her cognates in other Indo-European pantheons include the Greek goddess Eos, the Roman goddess Aurora, the Lithuanian goddess Austrine, and the English goddess Ēostre (OE: ēastre), whose name is probably the root of the modern English word "EasterUsha is described to be drawn by golden red horses or cows in Vedic texts, a beautiful maiden dressed up in jewels, smiling and irresistibly attractive who cheers up those who gaze at her.She dispels darkness, reveals the treasures and truths hidden, illuminating the world as it is.Hymn 6.64 associates her with wealth and light, while hymn 1.92 calls her the "mother of cows" and who like a cow gives to the benefit of all people.Hymn 1.113 calls her "mother of the gods", while hymn 7.81 states her to be the mother of all living beings who petition her.She is the goddess of the hearth, states hymn 6.64.She symbolizes reality, is a marker of time and a reminder to all that "life is limited on earth".She sees everything as it is, and she is the eye of the gods, according to hymns 7.75–77.She is variously mentioned as the sister of Ratri (night),Aditya and one who goes about her ways closely with deities Savitri and Surya.She is also associated with Varuna (sky, water) and Agni (fire)This characteristics is part of Mithra's Indo inheritance since the Indic Rigveda have solar divinities that are not distinct from Mithra/Mitra, and in the Atharvaveda, Mitra is associated with sunrise, Sun Salutation is a daily yogic activity worldwide even in current times and is preceded by chanting 'OM Mitraya ...Mithra. Mithra, also spelled Mithras, Sanskrit Mitra, in ancient Indo-Iranian mythology, the god of light, whose cult spread from India in the east to as far west as Spain, Great Britain, and Germany. (See Mithraism.) The first written mention of the Vedic Mitra dates to 1400 bc.The religion was inspired by Persian worship of the god Mithra (proto-Indo-Iranian Mitra), though the Greek Mithras was linked to a new and distinctive imagery, and the level of continuity between Persian and Greco-Roman practice is debated. The mysteries were popular in the Roman military.The largest near-eastern Mithraeum was built in western Persia at Kangavar, dedicated to 'Anahita, the Immaculate Virgin Mother of the Lord Mithras'.Other Mithraic temples were built in Khuzestan and in Central Iran near present-day Mahallat, where at the temple of Khorheh a few tall columns still stand. Excavations in Nisa, later renamed Mithradatkirt, have uncovered Mithraic mausoleums and shrines. Mithraic sanctuaries and mausoleums were built in the city of Hatra in upper Mesopotamia. West of Hatra at Dura Europos, Mithraeums were found with figures of Mithras on horseback.Persian Mithraism was more a collection of traditions and rites than a body of doctrines. However, once the Babylonians took the Mithraic rituals and mythology from the Persians, they thoroughly refined its theology. The Babylonian clergy assimilated Ahura-Mazda to the god Baal, Anahita to the goddess Ishtar, and Mithras to Shamash, their god of justice, victory and protection (and the sun god from whom King Hammurabi received his code of laws in the 18th century B.C.) As a result of the solar and astronomical associations of the Babylonians, Mithras later was referred to by Roman worshippers as 'Sol invictus', or the invincible sun. The sun itself was considered to be "the eye of Mithras". The Persian crown, from which all present day crowns are derived, was designed to represent the golden sun-disc sacred to Mithras.As a deity connected with the sun and its life-giving powers, Mithras was known as 'The Lord of the Wide Pastures' who was believed to cause the plants to spring forth from the ground. In the time of Cyrus and Darius the Great, the rulers of Persia received the first fruits of the fall harvest at the festival of Mehragan. At this time they wore their most brilliant clothing and drank wine. In the Persian calendar, the seventh month and the sixteenth day of each month were also dedicated to Mithras.The Babylonians also incorporated their belief in destiny into the Mithraic worship of Zurvan, the Persian god of infinite time and father of the gods Ahura-Mazda and Ahriman. They superimposed astrology, the use of the zodiac, and the deification of the four seasons onto the Persian rites of Mithraism.Aryans Mitra and Varuna symbol..Mithra (Avestan: Miθra, Old Persian: Miça) is the Zoroastrian angelic Divinity (yazata) of Covenant, Light, and Oath. In addition to being the Divinity of Contracts, Mithra is also a judicial figure, an all-seeing Protector of Truth, and the Guardian of Cattle, the Harvest, and of The Waters.Hi“Spirit of Spirit, if it be your will,give me over to immortal birth so that I maybe born again - and the sacredspirit may breathe in me.”Prayer to MithrasIf Mithras was in fact believed to be capable of moving the entire universe, then he must have been understood as in some sense residing outside of the cosmos. This idea may help us to understand another very common Mithraic iconographical motif: namely, the so-called "rock-birth" of Mithras. This scene shows Mithras emerging from the top of a roughly spherical or egg-shaped rock, which is usually depicted with a snake entwined around it.Rock-Birth of MithrasAs I mentioned previously, the tauroctony depicts the bull-slaying as taking place inside a cave, and the Mithraic temples were built in imitation of caves. But caves are precisely hollows within the rocky earth, which suggests that the rock from which Mithras is born is meant to represent the Mithraic cave as seen from the outside. Now as we saw earlier, the ancient author Porphyry records the tradition that the Mithraic cave was intended to be "an image of the cosmos." Of course, the hollow cave would have to be an image of the cosmos as seen from the inside, looking out at the enclosing, cave-like sphere of the stars. But if the cave symbolizes the cosmos as seen from the inside, it follows that the rock out of which Mithras is born must ultimately be a symbol for the cosmos as seen from the outside. This idea is not as abstract as might first appear, for artistic representations of the cosmos as seen from the outside were in fact very common in antiquity. A famous example is the "Atlas Farnese" statue, showing Atlas bearing on his shoulder the cosmic globe, on which are depicted the constellations as they would appear from an imaginary vantage point outside of the universe.Atlas Farnese statue, 2nd century A.D.That the rock from which Mithras is born does indeed represent the cosmos is proven by the snake that entwines it: for this image evokes unmistakeably the famous Orphic myth of the snake-entwined "cosmic egg" out of which the universe was formed when the creator-god Phanes emerged from it at the beginning of time.Indeed, the Mithraists themselves explicitly identified Mithras with Phanes, as we know from an inscription found in Rome and from the iconography of a Mithraic monument located in England.The birth of Mithras from the rock, therefore, would appear to represent the idea that he is in some sense greater than the cosmos. Capable of moving the entire universe, he cannot be contained within the cosmic sphere, and is therefore depicted in the rock-birth as bursting out of the enclosing cave of the universe, and establishing his presence in the transcendent space beyond the cosmos.This imaginary "place beyond the universe" had been described vividly by Plato several centuries before the origins of Mithraism. In his dialogue Phaedrus (247B-C) Plato envisions a journey by a soul to the outermost boundary of the cosmos, and then gives us a glimpse of what the soul would see if for a brief moment it were able to "look upon the regions without." "Of that place beyond the heavens," says Plato,none of our earthly poets has yet sung, and none shall sing worthily. But this is the manner of it, for assuredly we must be bold to speak what is true, above all when our discourse is upon truth. It is there that true being dwells, without colour or shape, that cannot be touched; reason alone, the soul's pilot, can behold it, and all true knowledge is knowledge thereof.Beyond the heavensI would suggest that the awe-inspiring quality of Plato's vision of what is beyond the outermost boundary of the cosmos also lies behind the appeal of Mithras as a divine being whose proper domain is outside of the universe. As the text from Plato shows, the establishment by ancient astronomers of the sphere of the stars as the absolute boundary of the cosmos only encouraged the human imagination to project itself beyond that boundary in an exhilarating leap into an infinite mystery. There beyond the cosmos dwelled the ultimate divine forces, and Mithras's ability to move the entire universe made him one with those forces.Here in the end we may sense a profound kinship between Mithraism and Christianity. For early Christianity also contained at its core an ideology of cosmic transcendence. Nowhere is this better expressed than in the opening of the earliest gospel, Mark.There, at the beginning of the foundation story of Christianity, we find Jesus, at the moment of his baptism, having a vision of "the heavens torn open." Just as Mithras is revealed as a being from beyond the universe capable of altering the cosmic spheres, so here we find Jesus linked with a rupture of the heavens, an opening into the numinous realms beyond the furthest cosmic boundaries. Perhaps, then, the figures of Jesus and Mithras are to some extent both manifestations of a single deep longing in the human spirit for a sense of contact with the ultimate mystery.According to the New Unger’s Bible Dictionary says: “The word Easter is of Saxon origin, Eastra, the goddess of spring, in whose honour sacrifices were offered about Passover time each year. By the eighth century Anglo–Saxons had adopted the name to designate the celebration of Christ’s resurrection.” However, even among those who maintain that Easter has pagan roots, there is some disagreement over which pagan tradition the festival emerged from. Here we will explore some of those perspectives.Resurrection as a symbol of rebirthOne theory that has been put forward is that the Easter story of crucifixion and resurrection is symbolic of rebirth and renewal and retells the cycle of the seasons, the death and return of the sun.According to some scholars, such as Dr. Tony Nugent, teacher of Theology and Religious Studies at Seattle University, and Presbyterian minister, the Easter story comes from the Sumerian legend of Damuzi (Tammuz) and his wife Inanna (Ishtar), an epic myth called “The Descent of Inanna” found inscribed on cuneiform clay tablets dating back to 2100 BC. When Tammuz dies, Ishtar is grief–stricken and follows him to the underworld. In the underworld, she enters through seven gates, and her worldly attire is removed. “Naked and bowed low” she is judged, killed, and then hung on display. In her absence, the earth loses its fertility, crops cease to grow and animals stop reproducing. Unless something is done, all life on earth will end.After Inanna has been missing for three days her assistant goes to other gods for help. Finally one of them Enki, creates two creatures who carry the plant of life and water of life down to the Underworld, sprinkling them on Inanna and Damuzi, resurrecting them, and giving them the power to return to the earth as the light of the sun for six months. After the six months are up, Tammuz returns to the underworld of the dead, remaining there for another six months, and Ishtar pursues him, prompting the water god to rescue them both. Thus were the cycles of winter death and spring life.Dr Nugent is quick to point out that drawing parallels between the story of Jesus and the epic of Inanna “doesn’t necessarily mean that there wasn’t a real person, Jesus, who was crucified, but rather that, if there was, the story about it is structured and embellished in accordance with a pattern that was very ancient and widespread.”The Sumerian goddess Inanna is known outside of Mesopotamia by her Babylonian name, “Ishtar”. In ancient Canaan Ishtar is known as Astarte, and her counterparts in the Greek and Roman pantheons are known as Aphrodite and Venus. In the 4th Century, when Christians identified the exact site in Jerusalem where the empty tomb of Jesus had been located, they selected the spot where a temple of Aphrodite (Astarte/Ishtar/Inanna) stood. The temple was torn down and the So Church of the Holy Sepulchre was built, the holiest church in the Christian world. Orphic speculation influenced the cult of Mithras at times.In Orphism, Phanes emerged from the world egg at the beginning of time, bringing the universe into existence.There is some literary evidence of the syncretism of Mithras and Phanes. A list of the eight elements of creation appears in Zenobius and Theon of Smyrna; most of the elements are the same, but in Zenobius the seventh element is 'Mithras', in Theon it is 'Phanes'.A Greek inscription on a statue base from a Mithraeum in Rome reads "to Deus Sol Mithras Phanes". A relief from Vercovium (Housesteads) on Hadrian's Wall shows Mithras emerging from the cosmic egg, which is represented both as such and by the shape of the zodiacal ring."The identification between Mithras and Phanes indicated by CIMRM 860 is also explicitly attested by an inscription found in Rome dedicated to 'Zeus-Helios-Mithras-Phanes' and another inscription dedicated to 'Helios-Mithras-Phanes'."Another syncretistic relief is in Modena. This shows Phanes coming from an egg with flames shooting out around him, surrounded by the twelve signs of the zodiac, in an image very similar to that at Newcastle.Further references also exist.A petra genetrix (Latin for "fecund rock") is a depiction of the "born from a rock" (r(upe) n(ato)) scene in the cosmological myth of the Roman Mithraic Mysteries. While most rock-birth depictions show the figure emerging from the rock, there are also a few petra genetrix depictions of a (yet-"unborn") figure "inside" a rock.Helios/Sol/Sol invictusMithras stock epithet is sol invictus, "invincible sun". However, Mithras is distinct from both Sol and Sol Invictus, and they are separate entitites on Mithraic statuary and artwork such as the tauroctony scenes, in Mithras hunting scenes, and in the Mithraic banquet scenes in which Mithras dines with Sol.Other scenes feature Mithras ascending behind Sol in the latter's chariot, the deities shaking hands and the two gods at an altar with pieces of meat on a spit or spits.One peculiar scene shows Sol kneeling before Mithras, who holds an object, interpreted either as a Phrygian cap or the haunch of the bull, in his hand.[ ] Further references also existDr Nugent points out that the story of Inanna and Damuzi is just one of a number of accounts of dying and rising gods that represent the cycle of the seasons and the stars. For example, the resurrection of Egyptian Horus; the story of Mithras, who was worshipped at Springtime; and the tale of Dionysus, resurrected by his grandmother. Among these stories are prevailing themes of fertility, conception, renewal, descent into darkness, and the triumph of light over darkness or good over evil.Dionysus was born on Mount Pramnos in the island of Ikaria, where Zeus went to release the now-fully-grown baby from his thigh. In this version, Dionysus is born by two "mothers" (Semele and Zeus) before his birth, hence the epithet dimētōr (of two mothers) associated with his being "twice-born"..Is 25th December the correct date for celebrating Christmas"If Christianity was somehow stopped at its birth, whole world would be following Mithraism today." - Ernest Renan (1823-1892) was an important French theorist who wrote about a variety of topics. His famous essay "What is a Nation?" (Qu'est-ce qu'une nation?) was first delivered as a lecture at the Sorbonne in 1882.Is 25th December the correct date for celebrating Christmas ?Most of the Christians celebrate Christmas, birth date of Jesus Christ, on 25 December. But why "Most", why not all ? Because few Christians still celebrate Christmas on 06 January, believed to be the correct date. In 354 some Western churches, including those of Rome, commemorated the birth of Christ on December 25th. But why was Dec 25th chosen as a date for celebrations. Actually, Christianity borrowed and then replaced Mithraism, which was the main religion in Persia and Rome.Followers of Mithraism used to worship the Sun-god "Mitra" or "Mithra". It was the birthday of Mithra, 25 December (winter solstice), that was taken by the early Christians as the birthday of Jesus as a need and urgency by the early Christians to compromise with existing traditions. The real birthday of Christ was abandoned in favor of the birthday of Mithra. The worshippers of Mithra were called "Soldiers of Mithra" which is the origin of the term "Soldiers of Christ."But how and why was Mithraism abandoned? To understand that we need to study the origin and spreading of Mithraism from India to Persia to Rome. Origins of Mithraism.The festival that is now known as Christmas was actually a celebration for the Vedic Solar Deity Mitra. This Hindu deity Mitra was also worshiped by the Persians as Mithra, which later was adopted by Rome and remained even after the conversion to Christianity.In India, Mitra was recognized as 'God of Heavenly Light' as a form of the sun and an ally of Indra, King of Heaven. Mitra was often prayed to and invoked along with Varuna, the Hindu god of moral law and true speech. Jointly known as 'Mitra-Varuna', it was believed that together they would uphold order in the world while travelling in a shining chariot and living in a golden mansion with a thousand pillars and a thousands doors."These two are the Almighty of the Gods, they are noble.They will make our people full of vigor.May we attain you, Mitra and Varuna, wherever Heaven and the days overflow."- Rig Veda vii.65 ( Mitra and Varuna are in all hymns to the Sun as the Divine Lord and Friend)Mitra was praised in the Vedic hymns as 'God of Light', 'Protector of Truth', and 'Enemy of Falsehood'. The worship of Mitra extended westwards to Persia (Iran) and eastwards towards China.The god Mitra or Mithra was originally a Persian deity considered to be the mediator .... Elohim - translated as 'gods' or ' powers' refers to the law and order of reality.One final fact about the celestial equator is crucial: namely, that it does not remain fixed, but rather possesses a slow movement known as the "precession of the equinoxes." This movement, we know today, is caused by a wobble in the earth's rotation on its axis. As a result of this wobble, the celestial equator appears to change its position over the course of thousands of years. This movement is known as the precession of the equinoxes because its most easily observable effect is a change in the positions of the equinoxes, the places where the celestial equator crosses the zodiac. In particular, the precession results in the equinoxes moving slowly backward along the zodiac, passing through one zodiacal constellation every 2,160 years and through the entire zodiac every 25,920 years. Thus, for example, today the spring equinox is in the constellation of Pisces, but in a few hundred years it will be moving into Aquarius (the so-called "dawning of the Age of Aquarius"). More to our point here, in Greco-Roman times the spring equinox was in the constellation Aries, which it had entered around 2,000 B.C.It is this phenomenon of the precession of the equinoxes that provides the key to unlocking the secret of the astronomical symbolism of the Mithraic tauroctony. For the constellations pictured in the standard tauroctony have one thing in common: namely, they all lay on the celestial equator as it was positioned during the epoch immediately preceeding the Greco-Roman "Age of Aries." During that earlier age, which we may call the "Age of Taurus," lasting from around 4,000 to 2,000 B.C., the celestial equator passed through Taurus the Bull (the spring equinox of that epoch), Canis Minor the Dog, Hydra the Snake, Corvus the Raven, and Scorpio the Scorpion (the autumn equinox): that is, precisely the constellations represented in the Mithraic tauroctony.How mitra became mithras video form British museumThere was a picture in the Mithraic Temples of a naked lion-headed human figure (or ‘Leontocephaline’):He is entwined by a serpent, (or two serpents, like a caduceus) with the snake’s head often resting on the lion’s head.He is usually represented having four wings, two keys (sometimes a single key) and a scepter in his hand.Sometimes the figure is standing on a globe inscribed with a diagonal cross.In the figure shown here, the four wings carry the symbols of the four seasons and a thunderbolt is engraved on the breast.At the base of the statue are the hammer and tongs of Vulcan, as well as the rooster and the wand of Mercury.The serpent is related to another symbol of the ancient mysteries which we also see in the Bible, the tempting serpent of Eden who caused the ‘fall’ of Adam and Eve, as well as the bronze serpent which healed the Israelites in the desert.[Note: The Nehushtan (or Nehustan, Hebrew: נחושתן or נחש הנחושת), in the Hebrew Bible, was a sacred object in the form of a snake of bronze upon a pole. The priestly source of the Torah says that Moses used a ‘fiery serpent’ to cure the Israelites from snakebites.The four wings correspond to the 4 elements, the keys correspond to the “esoteric keys” of the mysteries and the scepter is the ‘staff of the patriarchs’, that corresponds to the spinal column. But the most relevant symbol for us is the Lion head because (as we have seen in the previous class) the lion corresponds to fire, symbolizing that this person has succeeded in converting the earth (or bull) or physical matter into the fire (or lion) or spiritual substance.lion-headed figurine found in Germany, dating to the Upper Paleolithic of about 35,000 to 40,000 years agoLion-headed god standing on globe with crossed circlesWith the rapid expansion of the Persian Empire, the worship of Mitra (or Mithra) spread westwards. The Persian version of Mithra was called the "Light of the World". The "Mithra" also appears in the Zoroastrian Avesta, the most holy scripture of Zorashtrians, which is influenced by Rigved, another Hindu Scripture. The followers of Mithraism explained the world in terms of two ultimate and opposing principles, one good (depicted as light) and the other evil (darkness). Human beings must choose which side they will fight for; they are trapped in the conflict between light and darkness. Mithra came to be regarded as the most powerful mediator who could help humans ward off attacks from demonic forces.Mithra is still venerated today by the Parsis, the descendants of the Persian Zorasthrians, now living mainly in India after been driven out by Muslims. Their temples to Mithra are now called 'dar-i Mihr' (The Court of Mithra). In Iran, until 1979, traditional Mithraic holidays and customs were practiced. The Iranian New Year celebration called 'Nou-Ruz' which takes place during the spring and continues for thirteen days. During this time Mehr (Mithra) was extolled as ancient god of the sun. The 'Mihragan' festival in honor of Mithra, Judge of Iran, also ran for a period of 5 days with great rejoicing and in a spirit of deep devotion.Here the cosmic axis has wobbled, so that the celestial equator intersects the zodiac in Taurus-- the situation during the "Age of Taurus." The sun is here pictured (in Taurus) as it was located on the day of the spring equinox in that age. In this "Age of Taurus" the celestial equator passed through Taurus, Canis Minor, Hydra, Corvus, and Scorpio: precisely the constellations pictured in the Mithraic bull-slaying icon.Mithraism was also practised in the western provinces of China. In Chinese mythology, Mithra came to be known as 'The Friend'. To this day, Mithra is represented as a military General in Chinese statues, and is considered to be the friend of man in this life and his protector against evil in the next. Interestingly, in few of the North and Central Indian languages, the meaning of Mitra is "a friend".The Expansion of the Faith from India to Persia to Rome.The worship of Mithra spread from northern India into the western provinces of China and also westerwards to Persia.Mithraism also traveled farther north-westward and became the State religion of Armenia. Its rulers, anxious to claim descent from the glorious kings of the past, adopted Mithradates as their royal name (so five kings of Georgia, and Eupator of the Bosporus). Mithraism then entered Asia Minor, especially Pontus and Cappadocia. Here it came into contact with the Phrygian cult of Attis and Cybele from which it adopted a number of ideas and practices. This religion came after Alexander's conquest, in touch with the Western World. When finally the Romans took possession of the Kingdom of Pergamum, occupied Asia Minor and stationed two legions of soldiers on the Euphrates, the success of Mithraism in the West was secured. It spread rapidly from the Bosporus to the Atlantic, from Illyria to Britain. Its foremost apostles were the legionaries; hence it spread first to the frontier stations of the Roman army. Mithraism was emphatically a soldier religion: Mithra, its hero, was especially a divinity of fidelity, manliness, and bravery; the stress it laid on good fellowship and brotherliness, its exclusion of women, and the secret bond amongst its members have suggested the idea that Mithraism was Masonry amongst the Roman soldiery. Mithraism in its Romanised form Sol Invictus – was the first ‘universal religion’ of the Greco-Roman world.The Romans and Persians were arch enemies. But it history tells us that Romans ended up worshipping the god of their chief political enemy, the Persians. The Roman historian Quintus Rufus recorded in his book History of Alexander that before going into battle against the 'anti-Mithraean country' of Rome, the Persian soldiers would pray to Mithra for victory. However, after the two enemy civilizations had been in contact for more than a thousand years, the worship of Mithra finally spread from the Persians through the Phrygians of Turkey to the Romans. The Romans viewed Persia as a land of wisdom and mystery, and Persian religious teachings appealed to those Romans who found the established state religion uninspiring. It peaked around the year 300 AD when it became the official religion of the empire. At that time, in every town and city, in every military garrison and outpost from Syria to the Scottish frontier, was to be found a Mithraeum and officiating priests of the religion. Adapted for Roman taste, the most popular Romanised form of Mithraism was Sol Invictus, the Unconquerable Sun, whose re-birth was celebrated as the climax of the mid-winter Saturnalia, on 25th DecemberDecline of Mithraism after Constantine got converted to Christianity.Mithraism lacked a professional clergy; it had no hierarchical organisation disciplined by common rules. Though popular throughout the empire, the religion's ceremonials had remained heavily dependent upon state patronage and support. After Constantine, Emperor from 306-337 C.E., converted on the eve of a battle in 312 C.E., Christianity was made the state religion. When state funding was transferred to the Church by Constantine and his successors, Mithraism's fate was sealed.All emperors following Constantine were openly hostile towards Mithraism. The religion was persecuted on the grounds that it was the religion of Persians, the arch-enemies of the Romans. Fatally, during the reign of Emperor Gratian (367-383 AD), its sanctuaries were sacked of their wealth and closed. Thirty years later, Theodosius made worship of Mithras punishable by death. The god had fallen – but the imagery and iconography of Mithras were expropriated wholesale by the more comprehensive and favoured cult of ChristAnswer to Who is Allah? Ashish Moudgil's answer to Who is Allah?