Cultus deorum studia religionum ad historiam I. [antikvár]

TÖRÖK: ISTVÁN TÓTH The narrator of A !a recherche du temps perdu says farewell with this sentence to the hero of his youth, the allegorical Bergotte modeled on Anatole France, hero of the author as a young man. At the beginning of this tribute of a friend let me arrange such an angel figure from copies of, say, Mithras Pannonicns^ as the angel's body and A rómaiak Magyar-országon [The Komans in Hungarjf and juppiter Dolichenus-tanuimánjok [Studies on jiippiter Dolichenusf as his wings. Such a Proustian image of books keeping vigil over his memory cannot be inappropriate here: from the very outset, the career of István Tóth was watched over by the illuminating and illusory, purifying and distressing, beneficent and horrible power of the written word. Book-angels of this kind also keep vigil over the memory of our common youth, when, reversing the disparity of age between the two of us, by his knowledge, uncompromising exaction and enthusiasm, István became one of my most powerful professional examples. Without his encouragement, advice, reason and sense of humour, I could easily have taken a wrong way in my search for a professional identity. When in 1969 I made István Tóth's acquaintance he was already a well-known and acknowledged writer on the history of religion in Roman Pannónia. He published his first studies in the Antik Tanulmányok and the Acta Classica still while a student of Professor Lajos Balla at the University of Debrecen. There is no sign of the beginner's usual limits or reserves in these early papers. His "Megjegyzések Mithra pannóniai kultuszának történetéhez [Notes on the early history of Mithra's cult in Pannónia]",^ "Mithram esse coronam suam (Bemerkungen über den dogmatischen Hintergrund der Initiationsriten der Mithramysterien)",*^ "A pannóniai Mithras-kultusz társadalmi és ethnikai háttere [The social and ethnic backgrounds of the Pannonian Mithras cult]",^ or "Zur Frage des Ursprungs und des sozialen Hintergrundes des Silvankultes in Dazien" equally demonstrate the exceptional maturity of a young scholar who scrutinizes the accepted truths of his profession respectfully yet with the cool skepticism of an independent mind. However sketchily, these early contributions already clearly outline the objective of the coming decades: the history of the oriental cults in Pannónia in their historical and socio-historical context.^ Accordingly, ere long he extended his attention to the monuments of Juppiter Dolichenus while continuing to keep in view Mithras and Silvanus.^*^ From the 1980s he also devoted remarkable papers 2 Mithras Pannonicus. Esszék ¦ Essays. Pécs - Budapest 2003, Budapest 20072. A rómaiak Ma^yarorst^^ágon [The Romans in Hungary]. Budapest 1 975. juppiter Dolichenus-tanuimánjok [Studies on juppiter Dolichenus] (A^ Eötvös Loránd Tudományegyetem Ókori Történeti Tanszékeinek kiadványai \A). Budapest 1976. ^ AntTati 12 (1965) 86-90. ^ Acta Classica Univ. Scient. Debrecen 2 (1966) 73-79. ' Diákkori Füzetek (Debrecen) Ml (1967) 95-106. Acta Classica Univ. Sciení. Debrecen 3 (1 967) 77-84. See already A rómaiak Magyarországon [The Romans in Hungary], Budapest 1975. A savariai Juppiter Dolichenus-szentély feliratos emlékeiről [On the inscriptions from the Juppiter Dolichenus sanctuary at Savaria]. Arch. Ért. 98 (1971) 80-83; Sacerdotes Jovis Doiicheni. Studium 2 (1 971) 23-28; Ornamenta lovis Doiicheni. Acta Classica Univ. Scient. Debrecen 9 (1973) 105-109.