It's the ancients on History Hit. I'm Tristan Hughes your host and it's Day's podcast.

Well, first of all, Merry Christmas. It's Christmas Eve. I guess we could say that we've

got a Christmas C topic for today's podcast because we are talking about the worship of

Mithras in antiquity because there's been a lot of talk, especially around this time

of year trying to link the worship of Mithras in antiquity with Christianity. This idea that

Christianity supplanted Mithras, the worship of Mithras as a religion in the ancient world.

Well, to sort the fact from the fiction, I was delighted to get on the show Professor Matthew

McCarty from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. Matthew is a leading expert on the

worship of Mithras in antiquity. He's conducted archaeological excavations in Romania at a site

where we have found Mithrayim, one of these eerie cave-like temples to Mithras so it was great

to get him on the show to sort the fact from the fiction about the worship of Mithras in antiquity.

Without further ado, here's Matthew.

Matt, it's a pleasure to have you on the show. Thanks so much for having me.

Now, not to or not to, Mithras, it seems pretty popular this time of year and an ancient cult

shrouded in mystery, in darkness that seized all corners of the Roman Empire.

Absolutely, this is a cult that spread probably from Rome all the way to the edges of Britain,

to the frontiers of Syria, to the very southern bit of the Empire along the Sahara,

and drew in worshipers of almost every social status. It was a big thing if you were living

in the Roman Empire in the second century CE in the third century CE.

And we're talking just before Christmas and as mentioned that this time of year there's a lot

of talk about this cult and its relationship with Christianity. Matt, what's the story, what's the

truth, what's the myth behind that? So if you go online and you google the origins of Christmas,

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