ON the contrary, many of the beliefs we have of Mithras were probably copied from Christianity. Mithras was an ancient Indo-Iranian god, mentioned in the Rig Veda as "Mitra", the god of oaths,covenants and treaties. "The first extant record of Mitra/Mithra is in the inscribed peace treaty between Hittites and the Hurrian kingdom of the Mitanni in the area southeast of Lake Van, c. 1400 BCE. There Mitra/Mithra appears in the company of Varuna, Indra and the twin horsemen (Ashwini Twins), the Nasatyas, as the five beings invoked as witnesses and keepers of the pact, and all of whom the rulers of the Mitanni apparently worshipped. (Campbell, 1964 p 256)."http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mithra As such, he appears to be related to the Indian god of wisdom and justice, Yama, and also to Varuna, who is also an oath keeping god. Indian parallels of these five Iranian gods turn up as the fathers of the Pandawa in the famous story, the Mahabharata. If Yama and Mitra are related in cosmology, then there is nothing similar in the original form of Mitra to the later form which turns up in the Roman empire via Persia. However, we do see a development of Mithra/Mitra during the ancient Persian empirical religion of Zoroastrianism. There, he is demoted (as most of the ancient Iranian deities were) and remade into an "immortal" created by the supreme god, Ahuru Mazda. He is given the jog as Judge of souls, and does have an important role in the destruction of evil and in ruling over the world. So we can see, that, when these beliefs arrived in Rome, where Christianity was beginning to assert itself as a major religion, that devotees of Mithra would seize upon similarities to attract converts to their belief system. In fact, both Christianity and Mithraism began to rise around the same time, as what the Romans called "mystery religions" (religions which involved personal relationships to a deity as opposed to worship of the emperor and the state gods). Both were illegal. But, Christianity began winning its converts from the ground up- from the slaves, the working classes and the oppressed. Christians mostly refused to serve in the army, and this is precisely where Mithraism began to make its stand. By melding the Persian beliefs with some of the Christian ones, and adding things dear to the hearts of the military, Mithraism became popular in the Roman army. That took it across Europe rapidly. However, its base in the Roman army was also its undoing. For those outside the army, Mithraism held little interest. Christianity spread quicker and to a wider cross section of Romanised European and North AFrican society. When the legions began to be withdrawn to defend Rome in the 4th and 5th centuries, the Mithraic temples were abandoned. I have seen many sites try to justify that Christianity took from Mithraism, but their historical proof is lacking, or completely wrong. eg "The Vatican was built upon the grounds previously devoted to the worship of Mithra (600 B.C.)" www.near-death.com/experiences/origen048.html Mithraism was unknown in Rome in 600 BC. There may have been a Mithras temple somewhere on the land now owned by the Vatican, but have you seen how big that place is? It is a city within a city. It was also built on the location of the Circus Maximus, a huge arena with links to the legions of ancient Rome. As I just wrote, it would be unlikely that you would NOT find something concerning Mithras somewhere under the Vatican. To sum things up: when we think of ancient religions, we often think of them as united sets of beliefs that stayed unchanged for centuries. Most did not, unless they had holy books. Mithraism did not have a holy book, and underwent huge changes in theology and practice as it collided with other sets of beliefs held within the Roman Empire. It was derived from even older religious beliefs, where Mitra was only one of many deities, and had no clear link to soldiers, as he would come to have between the 2nd and 5th centuries. I have even just come across an interesting article, which goes into the topic in depth. http://www.tektonics.org/copycat/mithra.html

Actually, there was a number of people just like Jesus...you know the whole "Messiah" kick, and they had pretty much the same story, all at around the same time. It was, like, the hip thing to do back then.