Are they?

And welcome to Emperors of Rome, a Roman history podcast from Latrobe University.

I'm your host Matt Smith and with me today is Associate Professor Kayla Davenport, head

of the Centre for Classical Studies at the Australian National University.

This is episode C-C-X-V, the Unconquered Sun.

Australian is known as a Conqueror, a General and a Restorer, and his reputation is based

on these achievements.

But in his short rule of five years, he was also an Emperor, and made efforts to leave

his mark on Rome, his Cayland Davenport.

OK, so let's talk about what Areleian was like as an Emperor.

We've talked about him as a Conqueror, a Restorer, as an all-around, great General, Roman

General.

But what was he like as an Emperor?

How did he try to influence and remake how the Empire worked?

Yes, so a key element of this was the Cult of Soul, the Cult of the Sun God.

And of course, there had been a long tradition of cults of soul in Rome.

There was a temple of soul at the Circus Maximus, for example.

So what's really interesting about Areleian is that he makes it a key part of his public

image, so both soul himself as well as Aurelian's Port from Soul.

So the Sun God features prominently on Aurelian's coinage throughout the Empire, from 273 onwards.

We have coins with the Legends Aureans Augustus, the Rising Augustus, Soli in Wicdo, to the

young conquered Sun, Sol Domino's Imperial Romani, Sol the Master of the Roman Empire,

...