Feasts of, in Antiquity, were celebrated amongst the Romans in honour of Mithras or the Sun. The most ancient instance of this amongst the Romans occurs in an inscription dated in the third consulate of Trajan, or about the year of our era 101. This is the dedication of an altar to the Sun under the name of Mithras, and inscribed *Deo Soli Mithrae*. But the worship of Mithras was not known in Egypt and Syria in the time of Origen, who died about the year of Christ 263; although it was common at Rome for more than a century before this time. The worship of Mithras was proscribed at Rome in the year 378, by order of Græcetus, prefect of the praetorium. According to Fréret, the feasts of Mithras were derived from Chaldea, where they had been instituted for celebrating the entrance of the Sun into the sign Taurus.

or Mithra, a god of Persia and Chaldea, supposed to be the Sun, and whose worship was introduced at Rome. He is generally represented as a young man, whose head is covered with a turban after the manner of the Persians; and he supports his knee upon a bull lying on the ground, one of the horns of which he holds in one hand, whilst with the other he plunges a dagger in his neck.