Radiate crown

A radiate crown, also known as a solar crown, sun crown, Eastern crown, or tyrant's crown, is a crown, wreath, diadem, or other headgear symbolizing the Sun or more generally powers associated with the Sun. It comprises a number of narrowing bands going outwards from the wearer's head, to represent the rays of the Sun. These may be represented either as flat, on the same plane as the circlet of the crown, or rising at right angles to it.

Egyptian

In the iconography of ancient Egypt, the solar crown is taken as a disc framed by the horns of a ram or cow. It is worn by deities such as Horus in his solar or hawk-headed form, Hathor, and Isis. It may also be worn by pharaohs.

In Ptolemaic Egypt, the solar crown could also be a radiate diadem, modeled after the type worn by Alexander the Great (as identified with the sun god Helios) in art from the mid-2nd century BC onward. It was perhaps influenced by contact with the Shunga Empire, and a Greco-Bactrian example is depicted at the great stupa of Bharhut. The first ruler of Egypt shown wearing this version of a solar crown was Ptolemy III Euergetes (246–222 BC).

Roman Empire

In the Roman Empire, the solar crown was worn by Roman emperors, especially in association with the cult of Sol Invictus, influenced also by radiate depictions of Alexander. Although a radiate crown is shown on Augustus in a posthumous coin issued after his deification, and on Nero on at least one coin while he was alive, it only became common, and sometimes usual, on coins in the 3rd century. Histories record that Gallienus, at least, wore an actual crown in public. The solar crown worn by Constantine, the first emperor to convert to Christianity, was reinterpreted as representing the "Holy Nails".

The radiate crown was used by the Roman Emperors, whose shape recalled the rays of the sun, as often appears in the coinage of the period. Augustus was already depicted with this crown in some Cameos. We then find it attested with Caligula, Trajan, Marcus Aurelius, and others. It was alternated with the laurel crown (used especially in the Republican era).

This kind of crown will be used especially during the period of military anarchy. In the 3rd century, perhaps because of its military, symbolic and later religious significance (it was attributed to the Sun), it was very successful. In the coinage of the period we find it in the Antoniniani, following Diocletian 's reform of 305 only in the double follis. The radiated crown was very successful especially under Gallienus, Claudius Gothicus and Aurelian, who among other things wanted to bring the cult of the sun to Rome by building a sumptuous temple.

Up until Diocletian, the radiate crown was still present in coinage, but after the tetrarchy, the evidence diminished. With Constantine in the 4th century AD, it seems to have gradually fallen into disuse in favor of the diadem of gems, a new symbol of royalty that would last until the end of the 5th century, replaced in the East by a diademed crown with pendants.

In the Historia Augusta the use of the radiate crown is attributed to Gallienus:

«[ Gallienus ] sprinkled his hair with gold dust, often proceeded in public with a golden crown.»

(Historia Augusta - Two Gallieni, 16.4.)

Later use

From the Renaissance onward, the ancient Colossus of Rhodes, which was a statue of Helios, was often depicted with a radiate crown, although the statue's actual appearance is not known. The radiate crown became associated with Liberty personified, usually in a form of a circular disc with rays in different directions. The first appearance of Liberty in this guise may be in the Great Seal of France of 1848 and under subsequent French republics, and is best known from the Statue of Liberty (formally Liberty Enlightening the World), a gift from France to the United States of America.

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