The Mysteries of Mithra: The Definitive Account of a Crucial Historical Moment when a Colorful Oriental Religion Swept over the Roman Empire - Paperbackby Franz Cumont (Author) First published in 1956, this seminal study, by the great Belgian scholar Franz Cumont, remains the definitive coverage of a great ideological struggle between the West and the Orient in the first centuries of the Christian era. Mithraism, a mystery religion originating in Persia, spread rapidly through the Roman Empire, and achieved such strength that Europe almost became Mithraic. Dr. Cumont, the world's' greatest authority