The cult of Sol Invictus

The sun has been, over the millennia, revered by many ancient civilizations, being an occasion for cults and festivities of various kinds. In Rome we find the cult of the Sol Invictus (Invincible Sun), which originates in the East. As the Christian apologist Epiphanius of Salamis narrates, in Egypt and Syria the celebrations of the birth of the sun were solemn events and provided that the adepts retreated to special sanctuaries leaving at midnight, announcing the birth of the sun (depicted as an infant) by of a virgin. Early Christian iconography used solar symbols to allude to Christ such as the radiated crown of the Sol Invictus or, in some cases, the solar chariot. A mosaic believed to depict Christ as Apollo-Helios was discovered in the necropolis under St. Peter's Basilica and dated around 250 AD, the period of Valerian's persecutions.

The Sol Invictus among the Romans

During the Imperial period, Caesarism increasingly assumed the characteristics of an absolute monarchy that gradually began to rely on the eastern clergy and this, which had already experienced the confrontation with absolutist regimes such as those of the Achaemenids and the Pharaohs, preached doctrines oriented towards a figure of sovereign above humanity. The principle of popular sovereignty and the original form of Caesarism thus gave way to a figure of sovereign who drew his privileges from a reasoned belief in supernatural influences. The emperor then became the image of the sun on earth which like him is invincible and eternal. The sun, which in the eyes of the Babylonians was already the highest expression of the astral divinities, also in Rome continued to guarantee to its chosen ones the right to sovereignty by investing them with this virtue since their arrival on earth. The emperor was therefore the representative of the sun on earth.

These cults of oriental origin reached the peak of their popularity and diffusion with the advent of the Severan dynasty, which in 218 AD carried out a bold proclamation as emperor of a Syrian teenager: Varius Avitus Bassianus, who went down in history with the nickname of Heliogabalus. His attempt to establish a sort of solar monotheism by placing the solar deity Elagabalus, of whom he had been high priest, at the top of the Roman Pantheon failed, causing his assassination. Half a century later in 274, Aurelian, inspired by the same faith, established the cult of the Sol Invictus, to which he dedicated a splendid temple served by priests of Rome; he also dedicated magnificent games to him every four years and elevated him to the highest importance of the divine hierarchy by electing him official protector of the kings of the Empire. Then in 305, a new solar dynasty ascended to the throne, that of Constantius Chlorus, who declared his descent from Sol Invictus and considered him as his protector. Constantine was a fervent supporter of it and even if, with the definitive advent of the Christian doctrine, he officially distanced himself from the cult of the stars, we have indirect confirmation that until shortly before his death the good astrological auspices were part of the panegyrics addressed to him by public figures of undoubted fame and therefore, probably, not unwelcome.

In 274 AD the Emperor Aurelian fixed the Dies Natalis Solis Invicti (Nativity of the Invincible Sun) on December 25, erecting a grandiose temple dedicated to the shining star in Campo Marzio and subjecting the Roman Empire to his protection. This moment of the year symbolically marked the eternal rebirth of the child sun, which with its light, after the prevalence of the hours of winter darkness, returned to dominate all the cycles of nature, thus sanctioning the eternal cyclical and invincible victory of the sun over darkness and cosmic chaos. It should be emphasised that precisely by Constantine, in 321, the day of the weekly Christian rest is set - until that moment it had been Saturday - in the dies Solis (from 383 dies Dominica that is Sunday); and then, in 330, the anniversary of the birth of Jesus and that of Sol Invictus are officially made to coincide on the date of December 25 of each year, starting from then.