Gaius Valerius Heracles

From the Mitreo Fagan, Ostia, we know of his activity. He was a priest who achieved the highest grade of initiation.

The dedication of an excellent marble leontocephalic statue shows that he flourished at 190 A.C. In another of his inscriptions he professes himself Pater et Antistes Dei Iv(b)enis Inconrupti so(l)is invicti Mithra(e). Pater and priest of the God, the Uncorrupted Youth, the Unconquered Sun Mihtras. Here Incorruptus Juvenis provides a striking variation to the usual formula Deus Sol Invictus Mithras. I would seem that G. Valerius sought to honour his god with inscriptions that departed somewhat from the hackneyed formulas, for we also have a unique epithet on the third remaining monument erected by him, a sculpture of the turoctonic Mithras. The inscription reads: Sig indeprehensivilis dei, statue of the Unsurprisable God.

It would not be unreasonable to assume that this clergyman introduced into his inscriptions epithets familiar from the Latin Mithraic liturgy. Mithras as Indeprehensibilis, lit. 'he who cannot be caught off guard', is nicely paralleled in the Av. Yast to Mithra (It I0), for example verse 45 'Protecting in front, protecting behind, a watcher and scanner, undeceivable (adaoyamnō)... with fore-knowing mind, lord of ten thousand spies, omniscient, undeceivable', or verse 141, 'Victorious, equipped with a well fashioned weapon, watching in darkness, undeceivable; the strongest of the strongest, mightiest of the mighty, most insightful among the divinities; victorious, accompanied by Fortune; he who has a thousand ears, ten thousand eyes, the lord of ten thousand spies, omniscient, undeceivable.' Indeprehensibilis would correspond most closely to Av. adaoyamna- 'undeceivable', occurring six times as a standing epithet of Mithra.

—Mithraic Studies: Proceedings of the First International Congress of Mithraic Studies, Volumen 1