The final part of my Gods of Rome series.





Sol Invictus:

The invincible Sun-God made it big in the 3rd century AD. He was very popular with the "soldier emperors" and especially emperor Aurelian credited Sol with his victory over Zenobia. On coins of this time emperors would often wear a sun-crown symbolizing the protection of Sol and he soon rose (no pun intended) to be the chief god of the roman empire. His cult was made a state religion and his birthday on the 25th of December was an important holiday.







Jesus Christus:

Christianity started out pretty much as a Jewish Mystery Religion from the east, it shared many of the characteristics and Jesus was often idetified with similar deities like Mithras. Christianity however had an important advantage - its adaptability which made it very popular with a lot of people. In 312 Christianity was made legal and from there on the majority of roman emperors were Christians themselve. In 392 it was made state religion. From there on Christianity and Roman culture were pretty much synonymous, and after the collapse of the empire it was often Christian officials who kept things running. Contrary to modern popular belief Christianity kept roman culture alive and it was rather the arrival of pagan cultures (for example the slavs in Noricum) that caused the loss of writing and organization. Even to this day the catholic church can be seen as a "living fossil" of roman culture.

