The central figure of Mithraism, a cult popular among Roman soldiers of the later empire. Scholars are divided as to whether there is real continuity between this cult and the reverence for ‘Mithra’, an Indo-Iranian creator Sun-god, shown in much earlier scriptures of Hinduism and Zoroastrianism. The Roman cult focused on secret rituals in cave sanctuaries devoted to sculptures of Mithras killing a cosmic bull. Initiates underwent severe tests, which demonstrated the cult’s concern with the soldierly virtues of courage and fortitude. Women were excluded. Mithraism flourished along the empire’s frontiers–the rivers Danube, and Rhine, and in Britain–but finally succumbed to the challenge of Christianity.