Sol Invictus (, "Invincible Sun" or "Unconquered Sun") was the official sun god of the late Roman Empire and a later aspect of, or replacement for, the old Latin god Sol. The emperor Aurelian revived his cult in AD 274 and promoted Sol Invictus as the chief god of the empire. 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. The last known inscription referring to Sol Invictus dates to AD 387, although there were enough devotees in the fifth century that the Christian theologian Augustine found it necessary to preach against them.
In recent years, the scholarly community has become divided on Sol between traditionalists and a growing group of revisionists. 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 AD. 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 AD, Aurelian established the cult of Sol Invictus as an official religion. There has never been consensus on which Syrian sun god he might have been: some scholars opted for the sky god of Emesa, Elagabal, while others preferred Malakbel of Palmyra.]]
("unconquered, invincible") was an epithet utilized for several Roman deities, including Jupiter, Mars, Hercules, Apollo, and Silvanus. While this has been seen as an attempt to import the Syrian sun god to Rome, the Roman cult of Sol had existed in Rome at least since the early Republic. and brought the total number of temples for the god in Rome to (at least) four. He also instituted games in honor of the sun god, held every four years from 274 onwards.
The identity of Aurelian's Sol Invictus has long been a subject of scholarly debate. Based on the Augustan History, some scholars have argued that it was based on Sol Elagablus (or Elagabla) of Emesa. Others, basing their argument on Zosimus, suggest that it was based on Malakbel, the solar god of Palmyra on the grounds that Aurelian placed and consecrated a cult statue of the sun god looted from Palmyra in the temple of Sol Invictus.
Constantine's triumphal arch was carefully positioned to align with the colossal statue of Sol by the Colosseum, so that Sol formed the dominant backdrop when seen from the direction of the main approach towards the arch.
Festival of Dies Natalis Solis Invicti
thumb|Coin depicting Sol / crescent moon and seven stars
According to some scholars, the emperor Aurelian instituted in AD 274 the festival ('birthday of the Invincible Sun') on 25 December, the date of the winter solstice in the Roman calendar. In Rome, this yearly festival was celebrated with thirty chariot races. Around AD 238, Censorinus had written in De Die Natali that the winter solstice was the "birth of the Sun".
The festival of Natalis Invicti on December 25 is marked in the Chronograph of 354 (or Calendar of Filocalus). Historians generally agree that this part of the text was written in Rome in AD 336, The inscription
Aurelian also instituted the Agon Solis (sacred contest for Sol), held every fourth year, as St Jerome's Chronicon attests. Julian says it is dedicated to Helios and the "Invincible Sun". Most scholars therefore date the festival to December 25 and associate it with the Natalis Solis Invicti. Dissenting from this view, Hijmans argues that Julian never said the Agon Solis was held on that date, but believes Julian celebrated a different festival of Sol at the winter solstice.
Legacy
Christianity
thumb|Mosaic in the [[Tomb of the Julii, Vatican Necropolis]]
A widely-held hypothesis is that the early Church chose December 25 as Jesus Christ's birthday () to appropriate the festival of Sol Invictus's birthday (), held on the same date. The Calendar of Filocalus (336 AD) is the earliest record of both the Natalis Invicti and Christ's birthday being marked on December 25. Steven Hijmans argues that the earliest certain evidence for a festival of Sol Invictus on December 25 is from Julian, thirty years later; he suggests that the pagan feast might have been a reaction to the Christian one rather than vice versa.
The early Church linked Jesus Christ to the Sun and referred to him as the 'true Sun' (), or the 'Sun of Righteousness' () prophesied by Malachi.
In a late fourth century Christmas sermon, Augustine of Hippo said:
The hypothesis is mentioned in an annotation of uncertain date added to a manuscript by 12th-century Syrian bishop Jacob Bar-Salibi. The scribe wrote:
Another hypothesis is that Christmas was calculated as nine months after a date chosen as Christ's conception (the Annunciation): March 25, the Roman date of the spring equinox. This hypothesis was first proposed by French priest and historian Louis Duchesne in 1889. or Apollo. Steven Hijmans suggests that it is simply a representation of Sol, or a figure representing the Sun.
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