Translated from French (please notify us of errors)
At the end of the third century after our era, the Roman Empire was a mosaic of peoples with diverse traditions, increasingly prone to fragmentation, while imperial power itself was in crisis. In an attempt to restore unity, Emperor Aurelian (270–275) came up with an idea: he promoted a new unifying deity, the Unconquered Sun (Sol Invictus). The Sun, after all, shines on everyone, at every latitude.
The writer Aurelius Victor relates that Aurelian, after defeating the Persians, the Alamanni, and the Germanic tribes of Gaul, and after suppressing several internal revolts, “erected in Rome a magnificent temple dedicated to the Sun, which he adorned with the richest gifts.”[1]
Dies Natalis Solis Invicti
This new cult, drawing on elements of the mythology of Apollo and the Indo-Iranian cult of Mithras, was far from exclusive: it overlapped with other deities of the Roman pantheon as well as with foreign cults. It was nevertheless conceived as universal, intended to supersede an imperial cult that had gradually fallen into disuse. Aurelian instituted an official festival known as the “day of the birth of the Sun” (dies natalis Solis Invicti). This celebration was naturally placed at the winter solstice, when the days begin to lengthen.[2]
A few decades later, Emperor Constantine I, a devoted worshipper of Sol at the beginning of his reign, made the “Day of the Sun”, corresponding to Sunday, the weekly day of rest (a memory preserved in the English Sunday and the German Sonntag).
Sol’s twilight
According to Christian tradition, Constantine converted in 312 after a battle against a rival. What is certain is that a year later he granted freedom of worship by signing the Edict of Milan with his co-emperor (and future enemy) Licinius, thus bringing an end to the persecution of the followers of Jesus. Yet in 330, Constantine was still portrayed as Sol Invictus atop a column commemorating the foundation of his new capital, Constantinople.
Early Christians attached far greater importance to commemorating the death of Jesus than to celebrating his birth. Around 296, the Christian apologist Arnobius[2] mocked pagans for celebrating the birthdays of their gods. When the time came to determine a date for the birth of Christ, numerous hypotheses circulated. In De Pascha Computus, a text dating to 243, the Nativity is placed on 28 March. Other symbolic calculations proposed dates such as 19 April or 20 May. From the 3rd century onward, several Eastern Churches celebrated Christmas on 6 January. But in Rome, the attraction of the Sun proved too strong. And was not Christ the “Sun of Righteousness” foretold by the prophet Malachi?[3] In the end, the date of 25 December prevailed.
For Sol, twilight was inevitable. Step by step, the cult of Jesus Christ eclipsed the gods of the traditional religions. In 391, Emperor Theodosius I extinguished the last institutional radiance of the Sun: the laws promulgated that year prohibited the rites of the traditional cults and closed the temples.
Some more adventurous interpreters may note that this proscription coincides with the end of the so-called “Roman climatic optimum”, a period of several centuries characterised by relatively mild and warm conditions. It is as though the Sun had taken offence at its demotion.
Yet, as we know, the festival and the symbolic power of 25 December were not destined to disappear.
Happy Dies Natalis Solis to all!
[1] Aurelius Victor (v.320-v.390), De Caesaribus, XXXV, 7 : His tot tantisque prospere gestis fanum Romae Soli magnificum constituit donariis ornans opulentis.
[2] The Chronograph of 354 (also known as the Calendar of Philocalus), a Roman calendar compiled in Rome in 354 after our era, records under the date VIII kal. Ian. (25 December) the entry “N·INVICTI·CM·XXX”, generally interpreted as the Natalis Invicti (chariot races in honour of the Unconquered Sun). This is the only explicit ancient attestation linking the Dies Natalis Solis Invicti to 25 December. No earlier surviving source allows this date to be assigned to the reign of Aurelian.
[3] Arnobius, Adversus nationes VII, 2.
[4] Malachi, IV, 2.
Other articles in English from the Nunc est bibendum blog
