Sol Invictus- Roman GodDeity"The Unconquered Sun"
Also known as: Deus Sol Invictus and Sol
Titles & Epithets
Domains
Symbols
Description
After Aurelian defeated Zenobia and reunified a fracturing empire, he raised the Unconquered Sun above Jupiter himself. A temple rose on the Campus Agrippae and the empire's coins bore the legend SOLI INVICTO. His birthday fell on December 25, the winter solstice.
Mythology & Lore
The Black Stone
Before Sol Invictus, there was El-Gabal. The Syrian sun god at Emesa was worshipped in the form of a black stone, possibly a meteorite. In 218 CE, his teenage priest became emperor, took the god's name Elagabalus, and brought the stone to Rome. He built a massive temple on the Palatine Hill and ranked El-Gabal above Jupiter. He forced senators to witness the stone's rituals.
Elagabalus was murdered by the Praetorian Guard in 222 CE. He was eighteen. His body was thrown into the Tiber. The stone was sent back to Emesa.
Aurelian's Sun
Half a century later, the emperor Aurelian reunified an empire that had fractured into three. He defeated the breakaway Gallic Empire in the west and Queen Zenobia of Palmyra in the east. He attributed his victories to the Sun.
In 274 CE, Aurelian established Sol Invictus as the supreme god of the Roman state. He built a temple on the Campus Agrippae and founded a college of senatorial priests, the pontifices Solis Invicti. Coins bore the legend SOLI INVICTO COMITI: to the Unconquered Sun, companion of the emperor.
The Birthday
The Chronograph of 354 records December 25 as the Dies Natalis Solis Invicti: the Birthday of the Unconquered Sun. The date fell on the winter solstice in the Julian calendar, when the days began to lengthen and the sun appeared reborn after its decline.
On the empire's coins, the god appears as a young man in a radiant crown, driving a chariot drawn by four horses, a globe in one hand and a whip in the other.
Julian's Hymn
The emperor Julian took the throne in 361 CE and turned back to the old gods. He had been raised Christian but returned to paganism. He wrote a hymn to King Helios, addressing the Sun directly as the supreme divine power. He burned incense to Sol each morning.
Julian died from a wound in Persia in 363 CE, after less than two years on the throne. Theodosius closed the temples within a generation. Aurelian's temple of Sol was pulled down. But the birthday, December 25, remained in the calendar.