Sol Invictus

This article is about the Roman sun god. For other uses of Sol Invictus, see Sol Invictus (disambiguation).
Sol Invictus
God of the sun
A relief of Sol from Roman Lugdunum, 2nd–3rd century CE
Other namesElagabalus
Major cult centerTemple of the Sun
AbodeThe sky
PlanetSun
SymbolsSunburst, halo, radiate crown
DaySunday
GenderMale
FestivalsDies Natalis Solis Invicti (25th December)
Equivalents
GreekHelios
PalmyranUtu

Sol Invictus (Classical Latin: [ˈsoːɫ ɪnˈwɪktʊs], "Invincible Sun" or "Unconquered Sun") was the official sun god of the late Roman Empire and a later version of the god Sol. The emperor Aurelian revived his cult in 274 CE and promoted Sol Invictus as the chief god of the empire.[1][2] From Aurelian onward, Sol Invictus often appeared on imperial coinage, usually shown wearing a sun crown and driving a horse-drawn chariot through the sky. His prominence lasted until the emperor Constantine I legalized Christianity and restricted paganism.[a] The last known inscription referring to Sol Invictus dates to CE 387,[4] although there were enough devotees in the fifth century that the Christian theologian Augustine found it necessary to preach against them.[5]

In recent years, the scholarly community has become divided on Sol between traditionalists and a growing group of revisionists.[6] In the traditional view, Sol Invictus was the second of two different sun gods in Rome. The first of these, Sol Indiges, or Sol, was believed to be an early Roman god of minor importance whose cult had petered out by the first century CE. Sol Invictus, on the other hand, was believed to be a Syrian sun god whose cult was first promoted in Rome under Elagabalus, without success. Some fifty years later, in 274 CE, Aurelian established the cult of Sol Invictus as an official religion.[7] There has never been consensus on which Syrian sun god he might have been: some scholars opted for the sky god of Emesa, Elagabal,[3] while others preferred Malakbel of Palmyra.[8][9] In the revisionist view, there was only one cult of Sol in Rome, continuous from the monarchy to the end of antiquity. There were at least three temples of Sol in Rome, all active during the Empire and all dating from the earlier Republic.[10][11][12][13]

  1. ^ "Sol | Roman god | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 2022-12-12.
  2. ^ "Sol - Roman God". Mythology.net. 2016-10-21. Retrieved 2022-12-12.
  3. ^ a b c d e Cite error: The named reference Halsberghe-1972 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ "Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum CIL VI, 1778 dates from 387 CE"[3]: 170, n.3 
  5. ^ Augustine, Sermones, XII;[3]: 170, n.4  also in Ennaratio in Psalmum XXV; Ennaratio II, 3.
  6. ^ Hijmans, Steven (1996). "The sun that did not rise in the east". Babesch. 71: 115–150.
  7. ^ "Sol Invictus and Christmas". penelope.uchicago.edu. Retrieved 2023-12-11.
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference Oxford-Classical-2012 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference Wissowa-1912 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ Cite error: The named reference Hijmans-2010 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  11. ^ Cite error: The named reference Matern-2002 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  12. ^ Cite error: The named reference Berrens-2004 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  13. ^ Cite error: The named reference Hijmans-2009 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).


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