10 Facts About Sol Invictus

The first of these, Sol Invictus Indiges, or Sol Invictus, was an early Roman deity of minor importance whose cult had petered out by the first century AD.

Sol Invictus, on the other hand, was a Syrian sun god whose cult was first promoted in Rome under Elagabalus, without success.

Sol Invictus was an epithet utilized for several Roman deities, including Jupiter, Mars, Hercules, Apollo, and Silvanus.

The Roman cult to Sol Invictus is continuous from the "earliest history" of the city until the institution of Christianity as the exclusive state religion.

Sol Invictus played a prominent role in the Mithraic mysteries, and was equated with Mithras.

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Where previously priests of Sol Invictus had been simply sacerdotes and tended to belong to lower ranks of Roman society, they were now pontifices and members of the new college of pontifices instituted by Aurelian.

Every pontifex of Sol Invictus was a member of the senatorial elite, indicating that the priesthood of Sol Invictus was now highly prestigious.

Sol Invictus instituted games in honor of the sun god, held every four years from 274 onwards.

Statuettes of Sol Invictus, carried by the standard-bearers, appear in three places in reliefs on the Arch of Constantine.

Sol Invictus is shown in floor mosaics, with the usual radiate halo, and sometimes in a quadriga, in the central roundel of a circular representation of the zodiac or the seasons.