Sol Lord of the Roman Empire

CNG 90, Lot: 1689. Estimate $5000. Sold for $6000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Aurelian. AD 270-275. Æ As (25mm, 7.68 g, 12h). Serdica mint. 7th emission, April-November AD 274. SOL DOMINVS IMPERI ROMANI, draped bust of Sol right / AVRELIANVS AVG CONS, Aurelian standing left, holding long scepter in left hand and sacrificing with patera held in right hand over lighted altar to left. RIC V 319; BN 1022-3. Good VF, dark green patina, some light smoothing. Very rare.

This intriguing type depicts Sol, the Sun god, as Lord of the Roman Empire (SOL DOMINVS IMPERI ROMANI). It was Aurelian who established the worship of Sol Invictus at Rome, not to supplant the other gods, but as a new cult added to the many already existing. Aurelian promoted Sol as the patron god of the military as well as his own patron, and the two were closely associated on the coinage. After Aurelian's death, the cult continued to flourish, with the result that Sol supplanted Jupiter as the typical god associated with the person of the emperor. The title Dominus, Lord, was used on coins for the first time during the reign of Aurelian. This trend of using Dominus as a title continued on Roman and Byzantine coins into the 8th century, when the title Basileus, King, replaced it.