CUMONT, FRANZ-VALÉRY-MARIE. — Archaeologist and historian of religions, born at Alost (Belgium) on 3 Jan. 1868, died at Woluwe (Brussels) on 20 Aug. 1947. He began his scientific career as a scholar of Roman institutions and antiquities, which he taught at Ghent until 1910; he was also, until 1913, curator of the Brussels museum.
He undertook exploratory journeys in Anatolia and Syria and, having taken up permanent residence in Rome, continued in that city of his choice to elaborate the immense body of material collected during his extraordinarily productive life. Before his death he donated his library to the Belgian Academy in Rome. He always respected religious ideals: his death was consoled by the gifts of the Church.
The list of his publications comprises over 600 items; the principal ones are grouped here by subject.
Early works: *Alexander d'Abonutichos* (in Mém. Ac. Belgique, 40 [1887]), translation of Philo’s *De aeternitate mundi* (1801).
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 syriennes* (Paris 1917); *Fouilles de Doura-Europos* (ibid. 1926).
Astrology: *Catalogus codicum astrologicorum Graecorum* (ibid. 1898); *Astrology and religion among Greeks and Romans* (New York 1912); *L'Égypte des astrologues* (Brussels 1937).
Religious influence of Hellenistic Orient on the West: *Les religions orientales dans le paganisme romain* (Paris 1905; Italian trans., Bari 1912; important is the 4th ed., Paris 1928, with extensive notes, additions and illustrations); this work is the synthesis of all his scientific endeavour directed to studying Hellenistic religiosity, especially in its ancient aspect of the soul’s happy destiny; *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], pp. 180 ff.); *Homélies manichéennes* (ibid., 111 [1935], pp. 118 ff.).
Julian the Apostate: *Iuliani imp. epistulae, leges, etc.* (in collaboration with J. Bidez, Paris 1922).
Life beyond the grave, 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* (ibid. 1948), posthumous.