Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
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.
Sol is the personification of the Sun and a god in ancient Roman religion.It was long thought that Rome actually had two different, consecutive sun gods: The first, Sol Indiges (Latin: the deified sun), was thought to have been unimportant, disappearing altogether at an early period.
The Temple of the Sun was a temple in the Campus Agrippae in Rome. It was dedicated to Sol Invictus on 25 December 274 [1] by the emperor Aurelian [2] to fulfill a vow he made following his successful campaign against Palmyra in 272 and funded by spoils from that campaign.
A priest in the cult of Elagabalus was called a sacerdos Solis, while Elagabalus's cult was called the Sol Invictus Elagabal. The priesthood of Balbillus began at an unknown date before the end of the second century. From the surviving inscriptions, it is revealed that Balbillus enjoyed imperial favour from the Severan dynasty.
Early coin of Constantine commemorating the pagan cult of Sol Invictus. On 8 November 324, Constantine consecrated Byzantium as his new residence, Constantinoupolis – "city of Constantine" – with the local pagan priests, astrologers, and augurs, though he still went back to Rome to celebrate his Vicennalia: his twenty-year jubilee. [56]
Pope Leo the Great also denounced astrolatry and the cult of Sol Invictus, which he contrasted with the Christian nativity. [citation needed] Jesus Christ holds a significant place in the context of Christian astrology. His birth is associated with an astronomical event, symbolized by the star of the king of the Jews.
In Syria, the cult of Elagabalus was popular and well established. In Rome, it was a foreign and (according to some ancient sources) disgusting Eastern novelty. In 220 AD, the priest Elagabalus replaced Jupiter with the god Elagabalus as sol invictus (the unconquered Sun) and thereafter neglected his Imperial role as pontifex maximus.
Tiberius Julius Balbillus also known as Julius Balbillus and Aurelius Julius Balbillus (flourished second half of the 2nd century and the first half of the 3rd century) was an Emesene aristocrat from the Emesene dynasty in Roman Syria who served as a priest of the cult of Elagabalus (Latinized Aramaic name for the Syrian Sun God) in Rome during ...