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Portrayals of the walled cities of Alexandria
and Memphis appear on mosaics of the churches
of St. John the Baptist and St. Peter and Paul in
Gerasa (Kraeling 1938: 241-244; Biebel 1938:
341-351, pls. 67b, 69a, 75a; Avi-Yonah 1972:
119, pls. 21-23; Alföldi-Rosenbaum & Ward-Perkins
1980: 49; Duval 1986; Piccirillo 1986: 213,
see also 220; Piccirillo 1993: 34, figs. 535, 556).
The formula of the walled city in these mosaics
is much richer in detail. The development is
described by Biebel (1938: 342-349), who maintains
that they are based on a landscape tradition
and were introduced to the pavement to add to
the beauty of the mosaic floors. The church of St.
John at Khirbat al-Samra likewise has Alexandria
and Memphis, preserved on the mosaic floor with
some lotus flowers (Piccirillo 1993: 34, fig. 592).
Cities are also represented on Jordanian mosaic
floors of the 7th -8th centuries in Ma‘in, and on
the border mosaic of the nave in the church of
St. Stephen at Umm al-Rasas, where the cities
are accompanied by boats, fishes, and plants (Piccirillo
1993: 35-37, figs. 345, 358). The motif of
the walled city shows its evolution in the mosaics
of Jordan were it appears on floors from the
6th to the 8th century Piccirillo further suggests
that the city representations followed a formula
borrowed from the Classical tradition. However,
cities characterized by their landmarks might have
been in pattern books from which these motifs
were copied.
The Crocodile and Animal Combat
The crocodile and the hippopotamus are the
two most characteristic animals of Egypt and
they appear frequently in the Nilotic scenes
(pl. V.6a,b). The hippopotamus is the animal evidently
connected with the personification of the
river (Meyboom 1995: 255-6, note 114). In Egypt
the crocodile could be perceived as the sacred
animal at the temples in the cult of a crocodile
god, but its religious aspects is not reflected in
the Nilotic scenes.
Animal combat consists of a crocodile trying
to devour a buffalo. 5 At Beth She"an a buffalo
seized by a crocodile (a tiger? a lion?) is shown.
Another suggestion is a lion trying to devour a
bull (Hamarneh 1999: 186). At Haditha a naked
5 The earliest representation of the combat scene is
in a painting from Herculanum (Alföldi-Rosenbaum &
Ward-Perkins 1980: 46, Pl. 86,2).
chapter five
man waving a stick is shown beside an animal
(destroyed—probably a crocodile) trying to seize
a steer, which the herdsman is trying to save
(pl. V.6c,d).
Comparable scenes of combat are portrayed
on 6th-century Cyrenaic church mosaics: the one
in the southeast chapel of the Cathedral of Qasr
el-Lebia shows on the right a boat with two men
fishing and bird-catching; characteristic plants fill
the space (Alföldi-Rosenbaum & Ward-Perkins
1980: 46, pls. 56-57, 85,1). The scene on the left
of the panel is a crocodile attacking a cow, with
a cowman grasping the cow’s tail in an attempt
to save the animal. A similar scene (with two
cowmen) is depicted on the 2nd-century Roman
North African El-Alia mosaic (Foucher 1965:
figs. 4, 9). The north aisle of the Cyrene cathedral
depicts the combat of the cow and crocodile
(Alföldi-Rosenbaum & Ward-Perkins 1980: 45,
pl. 84,2). The south-east chapel of the cathedral
depicts the combat of the cow and crocodile,
with a cowman present (Alföldi-Rosenbaum &
Ward-Perkins 1980: 45, pls. 64, 85,2). However,
the crocodile in these Cyrenaican mosaics is portrayed
differently from the Sepphoris examples;
it has long legs, a small head with snapping jaws,
and its upper hide is depicted like a tortoise-shell
(Whitehouse 1979: 28).
The scene of a crocodile trying to devour a cow
or a donkey is suggested to derive from a motif
by the painter Nealkes, described by pliny (N.H.
36,142) (Alföldi-Rosenbaum and Ward-Perkins
1980: 46; Meyboom 1995: 100, notes 18,19 on
pp. 371-72). Nonetheless, the scene is clearly a
reflection of the real hazard to life along the Nile
in Egypt. Such a representation also identifies it as
a Nilotic scene (Whitehouse 1979: 32; Meyboom
1995: 371, n. 19).
Other episodes portray a crocodile in various
activities. In the House of Dionysos at Sepphoris,
a youth (hunter?) holding a stone seems to
be in the process of throwing it at the crocodile,
rendered with its mouth open (pl. V.6b); another
youth holds a shield, and a spear which he aims
at a heron (Netzer and Weiss 1994: 37; Talgam
and Weiss 2004: 87-88). A crocodile attacking a
fish appears in the left part of the flowing Nile
on the Sepphoris Nile Festival mosaic (pl. V.6a).
The somewhat similar crocodile in both mosaics is
portrayed, unrealistically and schematically, with
a long tail, a dog-like head with long ears, a large
eye, and small legs.