The
Mithraic Mysteries were a
mystery religion practised in the
Roman Empire from about the 1st to 4th centuries AD. The name of the
Persian god
Mithra (
proto-Indo-Iranian Mitra), adapted into
Greek as
Mithras, was linked to a new and distinctive imagery. Writers of the Roman Empire period referred to this mystery religion by phrases which can be anglicized as
Mysteries of Mithras or
Mysteries of the Persians; modern historians refer to it as
Mithraism, or sometimes
Roman Mithraism. The mysteries were popular in the
Roman military.