<Tr> <Td> <Ul> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> </Ul> </Td> </Tr> <Ul> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> </Ul> <P> Sol was the solar deity in Ancient Roman religion . It was long thought that Rome actually had two different, consecutive sun gods . The first, Sol Indiges, was thought to have been unimportant, disappearing altogether at an early period . Only in the late Roman Empire, scholars argued, did solar cult re-appear with the arrival in Rome of the Syrian Sol Invictus, perhaps under the influence of the Mithraic mysteries . Recent publications have challenged the notion of two different sun gods in Rome, pointing to the abundant evidence for the continuity of the cult of Sol, and the lack of any clear differentiation - either in name or depiction - between the "early" and "late" Roman sun god . </P> <P> The Latin sol for "Sun" is the continuation of the PIE heteroclitic * Seh ul - / * Sh2 - en -, cognate to Germanic Sol, Sanskrit Surya, Greek Helios, Lithuanian Saulė . Also compare Latin sol to Etruscan usil . Today, sol (or variations of it, such as Italian sole or French soleil) is still the main word for "sun" in Romance languages . Sol is used in contemporary English by astronomers and many science fiction authors as the proper name of the Sun to distinguish it from other stars which may be suns for their own planetary systems . </P>

What is the roman god of the sun