The reliefs of the »Danubian Riders«
»The reliefs of the ›Danubian Riders‹ Images of an anonymous cult in the Danubian provinces of the Roman Empire«
Sorin Nemeti | Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca
The spatial distribution of the main types of votives for the cult of the so-called Danubian Riders indicates the area where this cult has appeared: Moesia Inferior and Superior (the area close to the Danube) and Dacia. These reliefs were initially manufactured in the region where the icons of the Thracian Rider have their origin. The myth depicted on the reliefs sculptured or mould in lead is a local myth about two knights and a goddess of the Moesian populations, a variant of the one represented on about 3000 reliefs discovered in the South-Danubian provinces. But the development of the two local cults differs: while the cult of the Thracian Riders remained linked to the local centres and sanctuaries, that of the »Danubian Riders«, which a mythical episode approximates to the dei in vicenda of mysteries, was »universalized« by the intrusion into the military environment. The soldiers from the garrisons on the Danubian limes have placed in the centre of a new cult, partly inspired by the Hellenistic mysteries and especially by mithraism, some local divinities kindred to the Thracian Rider. In the beginning, the cult was made popular by soldiers and it developed in the periphery of the mithraic communities. The reliefs of the »Danubian Riders« were produced by the same workshops as the mithraic »danubian« stelae with two or three registers, which explains the iconographic borrowings between the two groups.
Starting from the cult reliefs we will try to explain their chronology in the Roman era as well as their artistic evolution. The images seriation on the reliefs talks about an unknown mythology, but also about cult rituals. In the absence of written texts and votive epigraphy, all cult contents must be read from the reliefs, which are currently the main source for understanding this ancient cult.