The Temple in the Iconography of Early Christian Art Carla Gomez ...

nonetheless states that the scene takes place in front of "one or other temple"
and that the figure in the pediment is the goddess Roma. He also wonders
whether the Temple depicted is the one that stood in the Via Sacra in Rome or
the one that Hadrian built in Aelia Capitolina. 26 Others have also identified the
female figure as Roma. 27 Grabar concludes that the building is the Temple of
Venus and Roma erected by Emperor Hadrian and known as Templum Urbis
(the City Temple). The fact that the mosaic shows the Temple with only four
columns instead of the ten it actually had, does not prove that the artist had
not seen it: many coins depicting this Temple used the same conventional form.
Grabar not only sees no contradiction in the appearance of a goddess on the
Temple but even finds it natural, since it was logical to represent the Temple in
the form of the Templum Urbis, the symbol of Eternal Rome, the Bringer of
Peace. And just as the personification of Roma on coins symbolized concordia
(fraternity), so was she understood by Christians who perceived the unity
between the Old and the New Testaments. Grabar identifies the figures
welcoming Jesus as the twelve priests of the Temple of Rome, adoring the God
become Man and acknowledging the commencement of His reign over the
Eternal City. Thus Roma, by the authority of Jesus, rises anew as the center of
the universe and becomes interchangeable with Jerusalem. 28
To some extent Schiller repeats these perceptions, but adds that the chief
priest (pontifex maximus) of the Templum Urbis was the emperor himself, so that
in this case the Temple assumes a double significance, with the priests
representing both the Jews and Christian Rome ready to accept her new Lord. 29
Some twenty years later Grabar modified his opinions. He terms the scene
"a Purification" - referring apparently to the purification of Mary after giving
birth and her entry into the Temple - and now believes that the mosaic tends to
show Rome as the heir of Old Testament Jerusalem, as implied by the use of
the pagan, Roman façade of the Temple of Roma and Augustus. The figure of
Roma in a pagan temple, in place of the Jerusalem Temple, symbolizes Roma
Aeterna which had in some way changed its religion. 30
Several less plausible opinions and interpretations have also been offered.
Venturi suggested the figure in the pediment to be that of the Saviour (Jesus)
and the other figures - his Apostles. 31 Van Berchem and Clouzot perceived the
colonnade in the background as that of Solomon's Temple. 32 Leclercq, apparently
drawing on Venturi, suggests that the figure is Jesus between the haloed busts
of his two chief disciples, Peter and Paul, and also identifies the temple and
colonnade as those of King Solomon. 33 Neither proposition is plausible. With
respect to the first, the figure depicted appears identical to the figure of the
goddess Roma that appears on innumerable temples, statues and coins.
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