CUMONT, FRANZ-VALÉRY-MARIE. — Archaeologist and historian of religions, born at Alost (Belgium) on 3 January 1868, died at Woluwe (Brussels) on 20 August 1947. He began his scholarly career as a student of Roman institutions and antiquities, which he taught at Ghent until 1910; until 1913 he was also curator of the Brussels museum.
He undertook exploratory journeys in Anatolia and Syria and, having taken up permanent residence in Rome, devoted himself in this city of his choice to working through the immense body of scholarly material gathered during his extraordinarily industrious life. Before his death he donated his library to the Belgian Academy in Rome. He always respected religious idealism; his death was consoled by the Church’s spiritual graces.
The list of his publications comprises more than 600 items; the principal ones are recalled here, grouped by subject.
Early works: Alexander d'Abonutichos (in Mém. Ac. Belgique, 40 [1887]), translation of Philo’s De aeternitate mundi (1891).
Mithraism: Textes et monuments figurés relatifs aux mystères de Mithra (2 vols., Brussels 1894–1900); and the abridged edition: Les mystères de Mithra (there 1900).
Exploratory journeys: Voyage d'exploration archéologique dans le Pont et la Petite Arménie ([*Studia Pontica, 2], there 1906); Recueil des inscriptions grecques et latines du Pont et de l'Arménie ([Studia Pontica, 3], there 1910); Etudes syricennes (Paris 1917); Fouilles de Dura-Europos* (there 1926).
Astrology: Catalogus codicum astrologicarum Graecorum (there 1898); Astrology and religion among Greek and Romans (New York 1912); L'Égypte des astrologues (Brussels 1937).
The religious influence of the Hellenistic East on the West: Les religions orientales dans le paganisme romain (Paris 1905; Italian translation, Bari 1912; important is the fourth edition, Paris 1928, with extensive notes, supplements, and illustrations); this work is the synthesis of all his scholarly activity devoted to studying Hellenistic religiosity, especially in its yearning for the soul’s blessed destiny; Les mages hellénisés (there 1938, in collaboration with J. Bidez).
Manichaeism: Recherches sur le manichéisme (Brussels 1908–12, in collaboration with M.-A. Kugener); La bibliothèque d'un Manichéen découverte en Égypte (in Revue de l'histoire des religions, 107 [1933], p. 180 ff.); Homélies manichéennes (ibid., 111 [1935], p. 118 ff.).
Julian the Apostate: Iuliani imp. epistulae, leges, etc. (in collaboration with J. Bidez, Paris 1922).
The afterlife, a subject that occupied the final phase of his scholarly life: Afterlife in Roman Paganism (New-Haven 1922); Recherches sur le symbolisme funéraire des Romains (Paris 1945); Lux perpetua (there 1948), posthumous.