Abstract

The late third-century emperor Aurelian’s fashioning of Sol Invictus worship was both innovative and influential for the religion and “topography of devotion” of the city of Rome. As I demonstrate in this paper, Aurelian’s placement of a monumental templum of Sol Invictus in the Campus Agrippae Region of the city linked Aurelian’s cult and his victory over the Eastern queen Zenobia of Palmyra with the monuments and victories of Augustus over Cleopatra, still physically visible in the nearby Campus Martius across the nearby Via Lata. This new topography of Solar devotion also spoke to the military ties of its worshipers, for it was lodged near to the preexisting camps of the urban cohorts whose newly built - or rebuilt - barracks were located closeby within the recently constructed Aurelianic walls. Aurelian also ushered in new rites and expanded the body of Solar worshippers to incorporate senatorial elites through the establishment of a new priestly college to Sol in Rome. By including multiple levels of society into his reformed Sol Invictus cult and by connecting his patronage to topographical traditions in the city of Rome, Aurelian demonstrated how a universalizing religious impulse supported by a new emperor could unite a city and its society. He also changed the religious identity of the city which, by the midfourth century, was known for its devotion not just to Jupiter, but to Sol. Later emperors would strive to build support for their rule by following Aurelian and appealing to a universalizing cult that built upon pre-existing topographical associations in the city of Rome.