Slab of Sol Invictus

TNMM 249 ↔ CIMRM 373

Dedication slab representing the Sun god crowned by solar rays, the Moon goddess bearing a crescent on her hair, and an old man, perhaps Jupiter Dolichenus. From the area of the barracks of the Equites Singulares, via Tasso, Rome.

L.H.0.013.

The dedicators are mentioned also in CIL VI 31187. The monument was found together with another dedication to Jupiter Dolichenus (CIL VI 31172; Kan, o.c., No. 198). Therefore it is not likely that the monument was dedicated to Mithras. About the connections between the both gods: Vermaseren, Mithrasdienst in Rome, 106f.

On a beautiful relief from the end of the second century three persons have been depicted. On the left we see a beardless young man with a haloed head. He is Sol Invictus, the Unconquered Sun. The cult of Sol reached the height of its popularity in the third century. In the year 274 the emperor Aurelianus consecrated a temple to this deity in Rome. According to tradition he did this on 25 December, a date that according to the calendar of Philocalus was the NATALIS INVICTI, the birthday of the Invictus. The much smaller head of a woman in the centre represents Luna, the goddess of the moon. She can be identified by the diadem with the lunar disc. And then we have the bearded man on the right, who is the most problematic. The inscription on the relief basically offers three options as to his identity. A liberal translation of the inscription would be:

“To the unconquered Sol for the wellbeing of the emperors and the spirit of their elite horse guards Marcus Ulpius Chresimus, priest of Jupiter Dolichenus (has dedicated this). In doing so he fulfilled his promise, happily and willingly.”

The first option is that we are looking at the spirit (genius) of the equites singulares, the emperor’s mounted guards. Both the genius and the horsemen are not only mentioned in the inscription, the relief was also found in a sanctuary at the horsemen’s barracks, which was levelled under the emperor Constantine the Great (306-337) to make way for the cathedral of Rome, the San Giovanni in Laterano. On the other hand, the bearded man does not look much like a soldier, which brings us to the second and third option: the man is either the Marcus Ulpius Chresimus mentioned in the text, so the priest of Jupiter Dolichenus, or he is Jupiter Dolichenus himself.

Doliche was a city in Roman Syria. Via the Roman army the deity was introduced in Rome as well. It should be noted that the cult of Jupiter Dolichenus was a mystery cult, so only those who had been initiated could participate. The usual attributes of Jupiter Dolichenus are a double axe and lightning bolts. As these are wholly absent, I think the most plausible interpretation is that the bearded man is Marcus Ulpius Chresimus.