The lack of literary sources and the variety of material evidence inevitably place in the foreground the role of archaeology in the interpretation of Mithraism. It is a religious phenomenon that emerges in the late Republican age and takes the form of a new and autonomous religion in the unitary context of Romanisation. In the five centuries of its existence, Mithraism evolved and transformed significantly: it was a metamorphosis influenced by a dynamic society, but also marked by the moves of politics. Having gained archaeological visibility in the Flavian era, the phenomenon developed its own mythology and original liturgy. A proposal for an evolutionary interpretation of Mithraism is presented here, divided into four distinct historical phases.
