<!--QuoteBegin-Husky+Dec 23 2008, 02:14 PM-->QUOTE(Husky @ Dec 23 2008, 02:14 PM)<!--QuoteEBegin-->It was in the second half of the 3rd century when Emperor Aurelian caused all of Rome to celebrate the birthday of Sol: 25 December became a holy-day. He elevated a religion that was already becoming rather popular into a religion with imperial patronage.[right][snapback]92131[/snapback][/right]<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->Some more about the existing worship of Sol before Aurelian elevated Sol to imperial God as Sol Invictus (after which, the imported Mithras and indigenous Sol would eventually get identified with each other):
http://www.christianism.com/articles/13.html
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->from: <b>The Cult of Sol Invictus</b>, Gaston H. Halsberghe, Brill, 1972.
"Once the arguments for and against an <b>autochthonous sun cult in Rome</b>Â have been weighed, it can only be concluded that the Romans worshipped and prayed to Sol as one of their Di indigites [(provisional) "local gods"]....There is no difficulty in placing the worship of the sun god in the earliest times, when it slowly took on a natural pattern and form determined by observation of the solar cycle....this was certainly the case for most of the groups that inhabited the Italian peninsula. Although it is the sun chariot and the solar disc that are most often found on rocks and in caves, the first traces of an anthropomorphic representation of the sun deity have also been found there. "
[...]
<b>"When mention is made of Sol Indiges [(provisional) "local sun god"], therefore, a sun god is meant who was worshipped in Rome as early as the fourth century B.C.</b>
Apart from this calendar ["oldiest [sic] calendar"], <b>[A] the oldest known evidence for formal worship of the sun god is provided by the representation on a Roman bigatus [coin with biga (two-horsed chariot)] dating from the Second Punic War [218 - 202 B.C.]3. [B] The figure of Sol in a chariot drawn by four horses [quadriga], as he was later usually portrayed, is found on a denarius of the gens Manlia struck in 135 B.C.4. " [27].</b>
(So the older depictions of Sol in Rome tended to be with 2 horses? And it was later that Sol got portrayed with 4 horses?)
[See: Greek Coins, Colin M. Kraay, Abrams, "[1966?]". Roman Coins, J.P.C. Kent, 1978 (1973 German). Etc.].
[See: #2, 20-22, 38-39 (numismatics)].<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
http://www.christianism.com/articles/13.html
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->from: <b>The Cult of Sol Invictus</b>, Gaston H. Halsberghe, Brill, 1972.
"Once the arguments for and against an <b>autochthonous sun cult in Rome</b>Â have been weighed, it can only be concluded that the Romans worshipped and prayed to Sol as one of their Di indigites [(provisional) "local gods"]....There is no difficulty in placing the worship of the sun god in the earliest times, when it slowly took on a natural pattern and form determined by observation of the solar cycle....this was certainly the case for most of the groups that inhabited the Italian peninsula. Although it is the sun chariot and the solar disc that are most often found on rocks and in caves, the first traces of an anthropomorphic representation of the sun deity have also been found there. "
[...]
<b>"When mention is made of Sol Indiges [(provisional) "local sun god"], therefore, a sun god is meant who was worshipped in Rome as early as the fourth century B.C.</b>
Apart from this calendar ["oldiest [sic] calendar"], <b>[A] the oldest known evidence for formal worship of the sun god is provided by the representation on a Roman bigatus [coin with biga (two-horsed chariot)] dating from the Second Punic War [218 - 202 B.C.]3. [B] The figure of Sol in a chariot drawn by four horses [quadriga], as he was later usually portrayed, is found on a denarius of the gens Manlia struck in 135 B.C.4. " [27].</b>
(So the older depictions of Sol in Rome tended to be with 2 horses? And it was later that Sol got portrayed with 4 horses?)
[See: Greek Coins, Colin M. Kraay, Abrams, "[1966?]". Roman Coins, J.P.C. Kent, 1978 (1973 German). Etc.].
[See: #2, 20-22, 38-39 (numismatics)].<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->