Winter Solstice 274 CE: Roman Temple to Sol Invictus ("the Unconquerable Sun") is dedicated by Emperor Aurelian

Temple of the Sun (Rome)

The Temple of the Sun was a temple in the Campus Agrippae in Rome. It was dedicated to Sol Invictus on December 25, 274,^[1] by the emperor Aurelian^[2] and funded by spoils from his campaign against Palmyra. It was the fourth temple dedicated to the god in Rome – the other three were in the Circus Maximus, on the Quirinal Hill and in Trastevere.^[3] If still in use by the 4th-century, it would have been closed during the persecution of pagans in the late Roman Empire.

It is believed that the temple was already in ruins by the sixth century, as eight of its porphyry columns were apparently sent to Constantinople at some point to be used in either the construction or the rebuilding of Hagia Sophia during the emperor Justinian's reign.

 

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This temple was dedicated when the noonday sun was first observed to begin its return northward. The date of this dedication was later used by Christians as the date for Christmas.

 

Sol Invictus

 

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