The Tauroctony and the Seven Grades

The cult was long explained as a Roman import of Persian Zoroastrianism. That theory was formally rejected by scholars at a 1971 international conference — the seven grades are documented in Roman sources on their own terms and do not need a Persian origin to explain them.

The floor mosaic of the Mitreo di Felicissimo, Ostia (c. 250–300 CE); the First International Congress of Mithraic Studies, Manchester (1971), rejecting the Persian-origin thesis