CUMONT, FRANZ-VALÉRY-MARIE. - Archaeologist and historian of religions, b. at Alost (Belgium) on 3 Jan. 1868, d. at Woluwe (Brussels) on 20 Aug. 1947. He began his scholarly career as a student of Roman institutions and antiquities, which he taught at Ghent until 1910; he was also, until 1913, curator of the museum of Brussels.
He made exploratory journeys in Anatolia and Syria and, having taken up permanent residence in Rome, he continued in this city of his adoption to elaborate the immense body of study material gathered during his exceedingly industrious life. Before his death he donated his library to the Belgian Academy in Rome. He was always respectful of religious ideals: his death was comforted by the sacraments of the Church.
The list of his publications comprises more than 600 items; the principal ones are recalled here, grouped according to 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 (ibid. 1900).
Exploratory journeys: Voyage d'exploration archéologique dans le Pont et la Petite Arménie ([*Studia Pontica, 2], ibid. 1906); Recueil des inscriptions grecques et latines du Pont et de l'Arménie ([Studia Pontica, 3], ibid. 1910); Etudes syricennes (Paris 1917); Fouilles de Dura-Europos* (ibid. 1926).
Astrology: Catalogus codicum astrologicarum Graecorum (ibid. 1898); Astrology and religion among Greek and Romans (New York 1912); L'Égypte des astrologues (Brussels 1937).
Religious influence of the Hellenistic East on the West: Les religions orientales dans le paganisme romain (Paris 1905; Italian trans., Bari 1912; the fourth edition, Paris 1928, with extensive notes, complements and illustrations, is important); this work is the synthesis of all his scholarly activity directed toward studying Hellenistic religiosity, especially in its yearning for the happy destiny of the soul; Les mages hellénisés (ibid. 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 last phase of his life as a scholar: Afterlife in Roman Paganism (New Haven 1922); Recherches sur le symbolisme funéraire des Romains (Paris 1945); Lux perpetua (ibid. 1948), posthumous.