CUMONT, FRANZ VALERY MARIE ), Belgian historian of religion, was born on Jan. 3, 1868, at Alost. After studying at Ghent, Bonn, Berlin, Vienna and Paris, he was from 1892 to 191 o professor in Ghent university, and from 1899 to 1912 curator of the Brussels Royal Museum.
His chief publications are : editions of Philo's De aeternitate mundi (1891) and of the Acts of S. Dasius (1897) ; Textes et monuments relati f s aux mysteres Mithra (1894-1901, Eng. trans. I 903) ; Les Religions orientales dans le paganisme romain (1906, Eng. trans. I 91 I) ; Recherches sur le maniclieisme (1908-12) ; Astrology and Religion among the Greeks and Romans ( 1912) ; Etudes syriennes (1917) ; After Life in Roman Paganism (19 2 2) ; Imp. Caesaris F. C. Iuliani Epistulae, Leges, Poematia, Frag menta varia (with Bidez 192 2) ; and Fouilles de Doura Europos, 1922-23, etc., (2 pts. 1926).