The Roman cult of Mithras has since Antiquity been shrouded in mystery, and there are still many unanswered questions regarding Mithraism. Amongst them is the questions of who are the culprits behind the many damaged and destroyed cult images, and why they were damaged. These are questions which are still hotly debated by scholars investigating them. In my opinion, the focus must be led back to the material to be able to identify the culprits. After comparing a selection of damaged Mithraic images to a better documented tradition of damaging images, namely that of damnatio memoriae - memory sanctions in a political context, it is my conclusion that they are part of the same tradition of damaging images, a tradition shared between the political and religious spheres of Roman society
