AURELIAN 270AD Ancient Roman Coin Nude Sol Sun Possibly Unpublished i29981

Aurelian – Roman Emperor: 270-275 A.D. –
Silvered Bronze Antoninianus 21mm (3.17 grams) Struck circa 270-275 A.D.
Reference: Possibly Unpublished
IMP AVRELIANVS AVG, radiate, cuirassed bust right
 ORIENS AVG, Sol standing right, head turned back, holding right hand 
raised & a globe,
bound captive a feet left, S in ex.

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Royal/Imperial 
symbols of power

Ruling dynasties often exploit pomp and ceremony with the use of
regalia
:
crowns
,
robes,
orb (globe) and sceptres
, some of which are reflections 
of formerly practical objects. The use of language mechanisms also support this 
differentiation with subjects talking of “the crown” and/or of “the
throne
” rather than referring directly to 
personal names and items.

Monarchies
provide the most explicit 
demonstration of tools to strengthen the elevation of leaders. Thrones sit high 
on daises
leading to subjects lifting their gaze 
(if they have permission) to contemplate the ruler. Architecture in general can 
set leaders apart: note the symbolism inherent in the very name of the Chinese 
imperial
Forbidden City
.

Sol Invictus (“Unconquered Sun”) was the official
sun god
of the later
Roman Empire
and a patron of soldiers. In 274 
the Roman emperor
Aurelian
made it an official
cult alongside the traditional Roman cults. Scholars disagree whether 
the new deity was a refoundation of the ancient
Latin
cult of
Sol
,
a revival of the cult of
Elagabalus
or completely new.The god was 
favored by emperors after Aurelian and appeared on their coins until
Constantine
.The last inscription referring to Sol Invictus dates to 387 AD 
and there were enough devotees in the 5th century that
Augustine
found it necessary to preach against 
them.
It is commonly claimed that the date of 25 December for
Christmas
was selected in order to correspond 
with the Roman festival of Dies Natalis Solis Invicti, or “Birthday of 
the Unconquered Sun”, but this view is challenged

Invictus as 
epithet

Invictus
(“Unconquered, Invincible”) was an
epithet
for
several deities
of
classical Roman religion
, including the supreme 
deity
Jupiter
, the war god
Mars
,
Hercules
,
Apollo
and
Silvanus
.^[8]
Invictus was in use from the 3rd century BC, 
and was well-established as a
cult
title when applied to
Mithras
from the 2nd century onwards. It has a 
clear association^[vague] 
with solar deities and solar monism; as such, it became the preferred epithet of 
Rome’s traditional
Sol
and the novel, short-lived Roman state cult 
to
Elagabalus
, an
Emesan
solar deity who headed Rome’s official 
pantheon under his
namesake emperor
.

The earliest dated use of Sol invictus is in a dedication from Rome, 
AD 158. 
Another, stylistically dated to the 2nd century AD, is inscribed on a Roman
phalera
: “inventori lucis soli invicto 
augusto” (to the contriver of light, sol invictus augustus ). 
Here “augustus” is most likely a further epithet of Sol as “august” (an elevated 
being, divine or close to divinity), though the association of Sol with the 
Imperial house would have been unmistakable and was already established in 
iconography and stoic monism. 
These are the earliest attested examples of Sol as invictus, but in AD 
102 a certain Anicetus
restored a shrine of Sol; Hijmans 
(2009, 486, n. 22) is tempted “to link Anicetus’ predilection for Sol with his 
name, the
Latinized
form of the Greek word ἀνίκητος, 
which means invictus“.

Elagabalus

The first sun god consistently termed invictus was the
provincial Syrian
god
Elagabalus
. According to the
Historia Augusta
, the
teenaged Severan heir
adopted the name of his 
deity and brought his cult image from Emesa to Rome. Once installed as emperor, 
he neglected Rome’s traditional State deities and promoted his own as Rome’s 
most powerful deity. This ended with his murder in 222.

The Historia Augusta refers to the deity Elagabalus as “also called 
Jupiter and Sol” (fuit autem Heliogabali vel Iovis vel Solis).This has been seen as an abortive attempt to impose the Syrian sun god on 
Rome;
but because it is now clear that the Roman cult of Sol remained firmly 
established in Rome throughout the Roman period,this Syrian
Sol Elagabalus
has become no more relevant to 
our understanding of the Roman
Sol
than, for example, the Syrian
Jupiter Dolichenus
is for our understanding of 
the Roman Jupiter.

 

Sol Invictus

Aurelian

The Roman gens
Aurelian was associated with the cult 
of Sol. 
After his victories in the East, the Emperor
Aurelian
thoroughly reformed the Roman cult of 
Sol, elevating the sun-god to one of the premier divinities of the Empire. Where 
previously priests of Sol had been simply
sacerdotes
and tended to belong to lower 
ranks of Roman society, 
they were now pontifices and members of the new
college of pontifices
instituted by 
Aurelian. 
Every pontifex of Sol was a member of the senatorial elite, indicating 
that the 
priesthood of Sol was now highly prestigious. Almost all these senators 
held 
other priesthoods as well, however, and some of these other priesthoods 
take 
precedence in the inscriptions in which they are listed, suggesting that
they 
were considered more prestigious than the priesthood of Sol.Aurelian 
also built a new temple for Sol, bringing the total number of temples 
for the god in Rome to (at least) four^[21] 
He also instituted games in honor of the sun god, held every four years from AD 
274 onwards.

The identity of Aurelian’s Sol Invictus has long been a subject of scholarly 
debate. Based on the
Historia Augusta
, some scholars have argued 
that it was based on
Sol Elagablus
(or Elagabla) of
Emesa
. Others, basing their argument on
Zosimus
, suggest that it was based on the
Helios
, the solar god of
Palmyra
on the grounds that Aurelian placed and 
consecrated a cult statue of Helios looted from Palmyra in the temple of Sol 
Invictus. Professor Gary Forsythe discusses these arguments and add a third more 
recent one based on the work of Steven Hijmans. Hijmans argues that Aurelian’s 
solar deity was simply the traditional Greco-Roman Sol Invictus.

Constantine

Emperors portrayed Sol Invictus on their official coinage, with a wide range 
of legends, only a few of which incorporated the epithet invictus, such 
as the legend SOLI INVICTO COMITI, claiming the Unconquered Sun 
as a companion to the Emperor, used with particular frequency by Constantine.
Statuettes of Sol Invictus, carried by the standard-bearers, appear in three 
places in reliefs on the
Arch of Constantine
. Constantine’s official 
coinage continues to bear images of Sol until 325/6. A
solidus
of Constantine as well as a gold 
medallion from his reign depict the Emperor’s bust in profile twinned (“jugate”) 
with Sol Invictus, with the legend INVICTUS CONSTANTINUS

Constantine decreed (March 7, 321) dies Solis-day of the sun, “Sunday”-as 
the Roman day of rest [CJ3.12.2]:

On the venerable day of the Sun let the magistrates and people residing 
in cities rest, and let all workshops be closed. In the country however 
persons engaged in agriculture may freely and lawfully continue their 
pursuits because it often happens that another day is not suitable for 
grain-sowing or vine planting; lest by neglecting the proper moment for such 
operations the bounty of heaven should be lost.

Constantine’s triumphal arch was carefully positioned to align with the
colossal statue of Sol
by the
Colosseum
, so that Sol formed the dominant 
backdrop when seen from the direction of the main approach towards the arch.^[26]

Sol and the 
other Roman Emperors

Berrens
deals with coin-evidence of Imperial connection to the Solar cult. Sol is 
depicted sporadically on imperial coins in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD, then 
more frequently from
Septimius Severus
onwards until AD 325/6.
Sol invictus appears on coin legends from AD 261, well before the reign of 
Aurelian.
Connections between the imperial radiate crown and the cult of Sol are 
postulated. Augustus
was posthumously depicted with radiate 
crown, as were living emperors from
Nero (after AD 65) to
Constantine
. Some modern scholarship interprets 
the imperial radiate crown as a divine, solar association rather than an overt 
symbol of Sol; Bergmann calls it a pseudo-object designed to disguise the divine 
and solar connotations that would otherwise be politically controversial
 but there is broad agreement that coin-images showing the imperial radiate crown 
are stylistically distinct from those of the solar crown of rays; the imperial 
radiate crown is depicted as a real object rather than as symbolic light. 
Hijmans argues that the Imperial radiate crown represents the honorary wreath 
awarded to Augustus
, perhaps posthumously, to commemorate 
his victory at the
battle of Actium
; he points out that 
henceforth, living emperors were depicted with radiate crowns, but state divi 
were not. To Hijmans this implies the radiate crown of living emperors as a link 
to Augustus. His successors automatically inherited (or sometimes acquired) the 
same offices and honours due to Octavian as “saviour of the Republic” through 
his victory at Actium, piously attributed to Apollo-Helios. Wreaths awarded to 
victors at the Actian Games were radiate.

Sol 
Invictus and Christianity and Judaism

Mosaic of Christ as
Sol
or
Apollo-Helios
in Mausoleum M in the 
pre-4th-century necropolis beneath^[33]
St. Peter’s in the Vatican
, which 
many interpret as representing Christ

The
Philocalian calendar
of AD 354 gives a festival 
of “Natalis Invicti” on 25 December. There is limited evidence that this 
festival was celebrated before the mid-4th century.
The idea that Christians chose to celebrate the birth of Jesus on 25 December 
because this was the date of an already existing festival of the Sol Invictus 
was expressed in an annotation to a manuscript of a work by 12th-century Syrian 
bishop
Jacob Bar-Salibi
. The scribe who added it 
wrote: “It was a custom of the Pagans to celebrate on the same 25 December the 
birthday of the Sun, at which they kindled lights in token of festivity. In 
these solemnities and revelries the Christians also took part. Accordingly when 
the doctors of the Church perceived that the Christians had a leaning to this 
festival, they took counsel and resolved that the true Nativity should be 
solemnised on that day.”

This idea became popular especially in the 18th and 19th centuries
 and is still widely accepted.

In the judgement of the Church of England Liturgical Commission, this view 
has been seriously challenged
 by a view based on an old tradition, according to which the date of Christmas 
was fixed at nine months after 25 March, the date of the vernal equinox, on 
which the
Annunciation
was celebrated.
 The Jewish calendar date of 14 Nisan was believed to be that of the beginning of 
creation, as well as of the Exodus and so of Passover, and Christians held that 
the new creation, both the death of Jesus and the beginning of his human life, 
occurred on the same date, which some put at 25 March in the Julian calendar.^[40][42][43] 
It was a traditional Jewish belief that great men lived a whole number of years, 
without fractions, so that Jesus was considered to have been conceived on 25 
March, as he died on 25 March, which was calculated to have coincided with 14 
Nisan.^[44]
Sextus Julius Africanus
(c.160 – c.240) gave 25 
March as the day of creation and of the conception of Jesus.
 The tractate De solstitia et aequinoctia conceptionis et nativitatis Domini 
nostri Iesu Christi et Iohannis Baptistae falsely attributed to
John Chrysostom
also argued that Jesus was 
conceived and crucified on the same day of the year and calculated this as 25 
March.
A passage of the Commentary on the prophet Daniel by
Hippolytus of Rome
, written in about 204, has 
also been appealed to.

Among those who have put forward this view are Louis Duchesne,Thomas J. Talley, 
David J. Rothenberg, 
J. Neil Alexander, and Hugh Wybrew.

Not all scholars who view the celebration of the birth of Jesus on 25 
December as motivated by the choice of the winter solstice rather than 
calculated on the basis of the belief that he was conceived and died on 25 March 
agree that it constituted a deliberate Christianization of a festival of the 
Birthday of the Unconquered Sun. Michael Alan Anderson writes:

Both the sun and Christ were said to be born anew on December 25. But 
while the solar associations with the birth of Christ created powerful 
metaphors, the surviving evidence does not support such a direct association 
with the Roman solar festivals. The earliest documentary evidence for the 
feast of Christmas makes no mention of the coincidence with the winter 
solstice. Thomas Talley has shown that, although the Emperor Aurelian’s 
dedication of a temple to the sun god in the Campus Martius (C.E. 274) 
probably took place on the ‘Birthday of the Invincible Sun’ on December 25, 
the cult of the sun in pagan Rome ironically did not celebrate the winter 
solstice nor any of the other quarter-tense days, as one might expect. The 
origins of Christmas, then, may not be expressly rooted in the Roman 
festival.

The same point is made by Hijmans: “It is cosmic symbolism…which inspired 
the Church leadership in Rome to elect the southern solstice, December 25, as 
the birthday of Christ … While they were aware that pagans called this day the 
‘birthday’ of Sol Invictus, this did not concern them and it did not play any 
role in their choice of date for Christmas.” 
He also states that, “while the winter solstice on or around December 25 was 
well established in the Roman imperial calendar, there is no evidence that a 
religious celebration of Sol on that day antedated the celebration of 
Christmas”.

The Oxford Companion to Christian Thought also remarks on the 
uncertainty about the order of precedence between the celebrations of the 
Birthday of the Unconquered Sun and the birthday of Jesus: “This ‘calculations’ 
hypothesis potentially establishes 25 December as a Christian festival before 
Aurelian’s decree, which, when promulgated, might have provided for the 
Christian feast both opportunity and challenge.”

Susan K. Roll also calls “most extreme” the unproven hypothesis that “would 
call Christmas point-blank a ‘christianization’ of Natalis Solis Invicti, a 
direct conscious appropriation of the pre-Christian feast, arbitrarily placed on 
the same calendar date, assimilating and adapting some of its cosmic symbolism 
and abruptly usurping any lingering habitual loyalty that newly-converted 
Christians might feel to the feasts of the state gods”.
The comparison of Christ with the astronomical
Sun 
is common in ancient Christian writings.
 In the 5th century,
Pope Leo I
(the Great) spoke in several sermons 
on the Feast of the Nativity of how the celebration of Christ’s birth coincided 
with increase of the sun’s position in the sky. An example is: “But this 
Nativity which is to be adored in heaven and on earth is suggested to us by no 
day more than this when, with the early light still shedding its rays on nature, 
there is borne in upon our senses the brightness of this wondrous mystery.

Mosaic in the
Beth Alpha
synagogue, with the sun 
in the centre, surrounded by the twelve zodiac constellations and 
with the four seasons associated inaccurately with the 
constellations

A study of
Augustine of Hippo
remarks that his exhortation 
in a Christmas sermon, “Let us celebrate this day as a feast not for the sake of 
this sun, which is beheld by believers as much as by ourselves, but for the sake 
of him who created the sun”, shows that he was aware of the coincidence of the 
celebration of Christmas and the Birthday of the Unconquered Sun, although this 
pagan festival was celebrated at only a few places and was originally a 
peculiarity of the Roman city calendar. It adds: “He also believes, however, 
that there is a reliable tradition which gives 25 December as the actual date of 
the birth of our Lord.”
By “the sun of righteousness” in
Malachi 4:2
“the
fathers
, from
Justin
downward, and nearly all the earlier 
commentators understand Christ, who is supposed to be described as the 
rising sun”.
 The New Testament
itself contains a hymn fragment: 
“Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”

Clement of Alexandria
wrote of “the Sun of the 
Resurrection, he who was born before the dawn, whose beams give light”.

Christians adopted the image of the Sun (Helios 
or Sol Invictus) to represent Christ. In this portrayal he is a beardless figure 
with a flowing cloak in a chariot drawn by four white horses, as in the mosaic 
in Mausoleum M discovered under
Saint Peter’s Basilica
and in an 
early-4th-century catacomb fresco.
 Clement of Alexandria had spoken of Christ driving his chariot in this way 
across the sky. 
The nimbus of the figure under Saint Peter’s Basilica is described by some as
rayed,
as in traditional pre-Christian representations, but another has said: “Only the
cross-shaped nimbus makes the Christian significance apparent” (emphasis 
added). 
Yet another has interpreted the figure as a representation of the sun with no 
explicit religious reference whatever, pagan or Christian.

The traditional image of the sun is used also in Jewish art. A mosaic floor 
in Hamat Tiberias
presents
David
as Helios surrounded by a ring with the 
signs of the zodiac
.As well as in Hamat Tiberias, figures of Helios or Sol Invictus also appear in 
several of the very few surviving schemes of decoration surviving from Late 
Antique synagogues
, including
Beth Alpha
,
Husefah
(Husefa) and
Naaran
, all now in
Israel
. He is shown in floor mosaics, with the 
usual radiate halo, and sometimes in a
quadriga
, in the central roundel of a circular 
representation of the zodiac or the seasons. These combinations “may have 
represented to an agricultural Jewish community the perpetuation of the annual 
cycle of the universe or … the central part of a calendar”.

Lucius Domitius Aurelianus 
(September 
9, 214
 
or 215 -September or October 275), known in English as
Aurelian,
Roman 
Emperorr
(270-275), was the second of several highly successful 
“soldier-emperors” who helped the
Roman 
Empire
regain its power during the latter part of the third century and the 
beginning of the fourth.

During his reign, the Empire was reunited in its 
entirety, following fifteen years of rebellion, the loss of two-thirds of its 
territory to break-away empires (the
Palmyrene Empire
in the east and the
Gallic Empire
in the west) and devastating barbarian invasions. His 
successes started the end of the empire’s
Crisis of the Third Century
.
//
Aurelian was an upwardly-mobile soldier who was eventually appointed 
commander of the cavalry by Claudius II. With the aid of a sympathetic army he 
revolted against the accession of Quintillus and a civil war was avoided when 
the latter committed suicide following the growing popularity of his rival. 
Aurelian was then hailed as emperor by the Senate and the rest of the legions 
alike. His first mission was to strengthen the army by the introduction of the 
strictest reforms and discipline as well as quelling the various uprisings that 
had broken out over the last two decades. He thus spent the next five years 
until cut down by his own Praetorian Guard at the height of his glory. It seems 
Aurelian’s personal secretary, after being reprimanded by the emperor for 
attempted extortion, felt an execution would follow. To guard against this 
possibility, he concocted a story about Aurelian intending to execute his 
personal guard and then rushed to share with them this manufactured evidence. 
Naturally, afraid for their lives, they entered the emperor’s quarters and 
effected a preemptive strike. Somehow or other it was soon afterward found out 
that the formerly beloved emperor had no such motives and his secretary himself 
was swiftly executed for treason. When news reached Rome of what had happened 
Aurelian’s wife seems to have actually been left nominally in power while a new 
emperor was selected, a period that may have lasted several months. Although 
history is a little hazy in this matter, it would mark the first and only time a 
Roman empress explicitly ruled the empire.

Rise to power

Aurelian was born in
Dacia ripensis
or 
Sirmium
(now
Sremska Mitrovica
,
Serbia
), 
to an obscure provincial family; his father was tenant to a senator named 
Aurelius, who gave his name to the family. 
Aurelian served as a general in several wars, and his success ultimately made 
him the right-hand man and dux equitum (cavalry commander) of the army of 
Emperor Gallienus
. In 268, his cavalry routed the powerful cavalry force of the
Goths
at the
Battle of Naissus
and broke the back of the most fearsome invasion of Roman 
territory since Hannibal
. According to one source, Aurelian participated in the 
assassination of Gallienus (268), and supported
Claudius II
for the purple.

Two years later, when Claudius died his brother
Quintillus
seized power with support of the Senate. With an act typical of the
Crisis of the Third Century
, the army refused to recognize the new emperor, 
preferring to support one of its own commanders: Aurelian was proclaimed emperor 
in September 270 by the
legions
in Sirmium. Aurelian defeated Quintillus’ troops, and was recognized emperor by 
the Senate after Quintillus’ death. The claim that Aurelian was chosen by 
Claudius on his death bed 
can be dismissed as propaganda; later, probably in 272, Aurelian put his own
dies imperii the day of Claudius’ death, thus implicitly considering 
Quintillus a
usurper
.

With his base of power secure, he now turned his attention to Rome’s greatest 
problems – recovering the vast territories lost over the previous two decades, 
and reforming the res publica.

Conqueror and reformer

In 248, Emperor 
Philipp
had celebrated the millennium of the city of Rome with great and 
expensive ceremonies and games, and the empire had given a tremendous proof of 
self-confidence. In the following years, however, the empire had to face a huge 
pressure from external enemies, while, at the same time, dangerous civil wars 
threatened the empire from within, with a large number of usurpers weakening the 
strength of the state. Also the economical substrate of the state, the 
agriculture and the commerce, suffered from the disruption caused by the 
instability. On top of this an epidemic swept through the Empire around 250, 
greatly diminishing manpower both for the army and for agriculture. The end 
result was that the empire could not endure the blow of the capture of Emperor
Valerian
in 260: the eastern provinces found their protectors in the rulers 
of the city of Palmyra
, in
Syria
Palmyrene Empire
, a separate entity from the Roman Empire, successful 
against the Persian threat; the western provinces, those facing the
limes
of the
Rhine
seceded, 
forming a third, autonomous state within the territories of the Roman Empire, 
which is now known as
Gallic Empire
; the emperor, in Rome, was occupied with the internal menaces 
to his power and with the defence of
Italia
and the Balkans. This was the situation faced by Gallienus and 
Claudius, and the problems Aurelian had to deal with at the beginning of his 
rule.

Reunification of the empire

The first actions of the new emperor were aimed at strengthening his own 
position in his territories. Late in 270, Aurelian campaigned in northern
Italia
against the
Vandals
,
Juthungi
, 
and Sarmatians
, expelling them from Roman territory. To celebrate these 
victories, Aurelian was granted the title of Germanicus Maximus. 
The authority of the emperor was challenged by several
usurpers
–
Septimius
,
Urbanus
,
Domitianus
, and the rebellion of
Felicissimus
– who tried to exploit the sense of insecurity of the empire 
and the overwhelming influence of the armies in Roman politics. Aurelian, being 
an experienced commander, was aware of the importance of the army, and his 
propaganda, known through his coinage, shows he wanted the support of the 
legions.

Defeat of the Alamanni

The burden of the northern barbarians was not yet over, however. In 271, the 
Alamanni
moved towards Italia, entering the Po plain and sacking the villages; they 
passed the
Po River
, occupied
Placentia
and moved towards Fano
. 
Aurelian, who was in Pannonia to control
Vandals
‘ 
withdrawal, quickly entered Italia, but his army was defeated in an
ambush near Placentia
(January 271). When the news of the defeat arrived in 
Rome, it caused great fear for the arrival of the barbarians. But Aurelian 
attacked the Alamanni camping near the
Metaurus River
, 
defeating them in the
Battle of Fano
, and forcing them to re-cross the Po river; Aurelian finally 
routed them at
Pavia
. For this, he received the title Germanicus Maximus. However, 
the menace of the German people remained high as perceived by the Romans, so 
Aurelian resolved to build the walls that became known as the
Aurelian Walls
around 
Rome.<=”” a=””>

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<=”” a=””>The emperor led his legions to the Balkans, where he defeated and routed the 
Goths beyond the Danube, killing the Gothic leader
Cannabaudes
, and assuming the title of Gothicus Maximus. However, he 
decided to abandon the province of
Dacia
, 
on the exposed north bank of the Danube, as too difficult and expensive to 
defend. He reorganised a new province of Dacia south of the Danube, inside the 
former Moesia
, 
called Dacia Ripensis, with
Serdica
as the capital.

Conquest of the Palmyrene Empire

In 272, Aurelian turned his attention to the lost eastern provinces of the 
empire, the so-called “Palmyrene 
Empire” ruled by Queen 
Zenobia
from 
the city of Palmyra
. 
Zenobia had carved out her own empire, encompassing
Syria
, Palestine
, Egypt
and large parts of
Asia Minor
. In the beginning, Aurelian had been recognized as emperor, while
Vaballathus
, the son of Zenobia, hold the title of rex and
imperator (“king” and “supreme military commander”), but Aurelian decided to 
invade the eastern provinces as soon as he felt strong enough.

Asia Minor was recovered easily; every city but 
Byzantium
Tyana 
surrendered to him with little resistance. The fall of Tyana lent itself to a 
legend; Aurelian to that point had destroyed every city that resisted him, but 
he spared Tyana after having a vision of the great 1st century philosopher
Apollonius of Tyana
, whom he respected greatly, in a dream. Apollonius 
implored him, stating: “Aurelian, if you desire to rule, abstain from the blood 
of the innocent! Aurelian, if you will conquer, be merciful!” Whatever the 
reason, Aurelian spared Tyana. It paid off; many more cities submitted to him 
upon seeing that the emperor would not exact revenge upon them. Within six 
months, his armies stood at the gates of Palmyra, which surrendered when Zenobia 
tried to flee to the
Sassanid Empire
. The “Palmyrene Empire” was no more. Eventually Zenobia and 
her son were captured and forced to walk on the streets of Rome in his triumph. 
After a brief clash with the Persians and another in Egypt against usurper
Firmus
, he was 
forced to return to Palmyra in 273 when that city rebelled once more. This time, 
Aurelian allowed his soldiers to sack the city, and Palmyra never recovered from 
this. More honors came his way; he was now known as Parthicus Maximus and
Restitutor Orientis (“Restorer of the East”).

Conquest of the Gallic Empire

In 274, the victorious emperor turned his attention to the west, and the “Gallic 
EmpireeTetricus 
was willing to abandon his throne and allow Gaul and Britain to return to the 
empire, but could not openly submit to Aurelian. Instead, the two seem to have 
conspired so that when the armies met at
Châlons-en-Champagne
that autumn, Tetricus simply deserted to the Roman camp 
and Aurelian easily defeated the Gallic army facing him. Tetricus was rewarded 
for his part in the conspiracy with a high-ranking position in Italy itself.

Aurelian returned to Rome and won his last honorific from the Senate –
Restitutor Orbis (“Restorer of the World”). In four years, he had secured 
the frontiers of the empire and reunified it, effectively giving the empire a 
new lease on life that lasted 200 years.

Reformations

Aurelian was a reformer, and settled many important functions of the imperial 
apparatus, including the economy and the religion. He also restored many public 
buildings, re-organized the management of the food reserves, set fixed prices 
for the most important goods, and prosecuted misconduct by the public officers.

Religious reform

Aurelian strengthened the position of the Sun god,
Sol
(invictus) 
or Oriens, as the main divinity of the Roman pantheon. His intention was to give 
to all the peoples of the Empire, civilian or soldiers, easterners or 
westerners, a single god they could believe in without betraying their own gods. 
The center of the cult was a new temple, built in 271 in
Campus Agrippae
in Rome, with great decorations financed by the spoils 
of the Palmyrene Empire. Aurelian did not persecute other religions. However, 
during his short rule, he seemed to follow the principle of “one god, one 
empire”, that was later adopted to a full extent by
Constantine
. On some coins, he appears with the title deus et dominus 
natus (“God and born ruler”), also later adopted by Diocletian.
Lactantius
argued that Aurelian would have outlawed all the other gods if he had had enough 
time.

Felicissimus’ rebellion and coinage reform

Aurelian’s reign records the only uprising of mint workers. The
rationalis

Felicissimus
, mintmaster at Rome, revolted against Aurelian. The revolt 
seems to have been caused by the fact that the mint workers, and Felicissimus 
first, were accustomed to stealing the silver used for the coins and producing 
coins of inferior quality. Aurelian wanted to erase this practice, and put 
Felicissimus under trial. The rationalis incited the mintworkers to 
revolt: the rebellion spread in the streets, even if it seems that Felicissimus 
was killed immediately, possibly executed. The Palmirene rebellion in Egypt had 
probably reduced the
grain supply to Rome
, thus disaffecting the population with respect to the 
emperor. This rebellion also had the support of some senators, probably those 
who had supported the election of
Quintillus
, 
and thus had something to fear from Aurelian. Aurelian ordered the urban 
cohorts, reinforced by some regular troops of the imperial army, to attack the 
rebelling mob: the resulting battle, fought on the
Caelian hill
, marked the end of the revolt, 
even if at a high price (some sources give the figure, probably exaggerated, of 
7,000 casualties). Many of the rebels were executed; also some of the rebelling 
senators were put to death. The mint of Rome was closed temporarily, and the 
institution of several other mints caused the main mint of the empire to lose 
its hegemony.

antoninianii
containing 5% silver. They bore the mark XXI 
(or its Greek numerals form KA), which meant that twenty of such 
coins would contain the same silver quantity of an old silver
denarius
. 
Considering that this was an improvement over the previous situation gives an 
idea of the severity of the economic situation Aurelian faced. The emperor 
struggled to introduce the new “good” coin by recalling all the old “bad” coins 
prior to their introduction.

Death

In 275, Aurelian marched towards Asia Minor, preparing another campaign 
against the Sassanids: the deaths of Kings
Shapur I
(272) and Hormizd I
(273) in quick succession, and the rise to power of a weakened 
ruler (Bahram I), 
set the possibility to attack the Sassanid Empire.

On his way, the emperor suppressed a revolt in Gaul – possibly against 
Faustinus, an officer or usurper of Tetricus – and defeated barbarian marauders 
at Vindelicia
(Germany).

However, Aurelian never reached Persia, as he was murdered while waiting in 
Thrace to cross into Asia Minor. As an administrator, Aurelian had been very 
strict and handed out severe punishments to corrupt officials or soldiers. A 
secretary of Aurelian (called Eros by y
Zosimus
) had 
told a lie on a minor issue. In fear of what the emperor might do, he forged a 
document listing the names of high officials marked by the emperor for 
execution, and showed it to collaborators. The notarius Mucapor and other 
high-ranking officiers of the
Praetorian Guard
, fearing punishment from the Emperor, murdered him in 
September of 275, in Caenophrurium
, Thrace (modern Turkey).

Aurelian’s enemies in the Senate briefly succeeded in passing
damnatio memoriae
on the emperor, but this was reversed before the end 
of the year and Aurelian, like his predecessor Claudius II, was deified as
Divus Aurelianus.

Ulpia Severina, wife of Aurelian and
Augusta
since 274, is said to have held the imperial role during the 
short interregnum before the election of
Marcus Claudius Tacitus
to the purple.