Franz Cumont

Franz-Valéry-Marie Cumont (1868 - 1947) was a Belgian archaeologist and historian, a philologist and student of epigraphy. Cumont was a graduate of the University of Ghent (PhD, 1887). After receiving royal travelling fellowships, he undertook archaeology in Pontus and Armenia (published in 1906) and in Syria, but he is best known for his studies on the impact of Eastern mystery religions, particularly Mithraism, on the Roman Empire.