Franz Cumont was a Belgian historian whose pioneering scholarship illuminated the shadowy corners of ancient mystery cults, particularly Mithraism. He delves into the complex, initiatory journey of the Roman soldier-worshippers of Mithras, a syncretic divinity born from Iranian roots but transformed within the Roman Empire. Cumont’s work unravels the symbolism of the bull-slaying imagery, the secret rites, and the hidden mithraea, those subterranean sanctuaries where initiates, the *syndexioi*,…