Fig. 1 Seven rings from across the Roman world showcasing the god Mercury, a man riding a dolphin, the portrait of a woman, and the representation of a man in Sassanian style under two stars. Gold, mother-of-pearl, cornelian, rock crystal, agate, 250–400. The J. Paul Getty Museum, Villa Collection, Malibu, California (inv. no. 83 AM.228). (Photo: Digital image courtesy of Getty’s Open Content Program)
Fig. 2 Portrait of Terentius Neo and his wife. Fresco, 1st century, Pompeii. Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Napoli (inv. 9058). (Photo: Wikipedia, CC0 1.0, su concessione del Ministero della Cultura – Museo Archeologico di Napoli)
Fig. 3 Ring stone showing a seated man reading a scroll in front of a herm statue. Carnelian, 1.6 cm, 1st century BCE–3rd century CE. The Metropolitan Museum of Art (inv. no. 81.6.49)
Fig. 4 Statue of Venus with dolphin (the Mazarin Venus). Marble, 184 cm, 2nd century, from Rome. The J. Paul Getty Museum, Villa Collection, Malibu, California (inv. no. 54.AA.11). (Photo: Digital image courtesy of Getty’s Open Content Program)
Fig. 5 Funerary stele of Gaius Julius Helius, shoemaker from Porta Fontinalis. Marble, late 1st century, Rome. Roma, Musei Capitolini, Centrale Montemartini (Inv. M.C. 930) (Photo: © Roma, Sovrintendenza Capitolina ai Beni Culturali)
Fig. 6 Relief showing man feeding grapes(?) to a herm statue. Terracotta, 1st century, Italy. Musée du Louvre, Département des Antiquités grecques, étrusques et romaines (inv. no. Cp 4038) (https://collections.louvre.fr/ark:/53355/cl010288169)
Fig. 7 Funerary relief of high priest (archigallus) of Cybele shown sacrificing to the goddess. Marble, 0,62 × 0,40 m, 3rd century, from the Isola Sacra necropolis, Ostia. Museo Archeologico, Ostia. (Photo: Sailko – Wikipedia, CC BY 3.0)
Fig. 8 Masked priest performs a dance under the monumental threshold of a sacred precinct. Fresco, 1st century, Herculaneum. Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Napoli (inv. 8919). (Photo: Vladimir Ivanovici, su concessione del Ministero della Cultura – Museo Archeologico di Napoli)
Fig. 9 Bust portrait of follower of Atargatis. Marble, 0,48 × 0,45 m, 3rd century, unknown provenance. Roma, Musei Capitolini, Centrale Montemartini (inv. S 2971) (Photo: © Roma, Sovrintendenza Capitolina ai Beni Culturali)
Fig. 10 Relief showing the Capitoline Triad (Jupiter, Juno, Minerva) along with Hercules (left) and Mercury (right) welcoming Emperor Trajan. Jupiter is handing Trajan (represented on the facing panel) the symbol of his power, i.e., the lightning bolt. Parian marble, ca. 104, Benevento. (Photo: Anca Cezarina Fulger)
Fig. 11 Detail from floor mosaic depicting the history of Apamea on the Orontes. Syria, 4th century. Discovered in illegal dig and sold on the black market in 2011. (Photo: Interpol)
Fig. 12 Collar with medallion and pendants. The medallion is set around a coin with the laureate bust of Emperor Commodus (r. 180–192) while the pendants represent Isis-Fortuna and possibly characters related to her cult. Gold, 3rd century, Alexandria, Egypt. Cleveland Museum of Art (inv. no. 1948.419)
Fig. 13 Sculpted tondi from the reign of Hadrian showing boar hunt (left) and sacrifice to Apollo (right), integrated above newly sculpted marble relief showing Emperor Constantine’s (r. 306–337 CE) adlocutio from the tetrarchic rostra. Arch of Constantine, ca. 320, Rome. (Photo: ‘Following Hadrian’ – CC BY-SA 2.0)
Fig. 14 Reception courtyard of Emperor Diocletian’s (r. 284–305 CE) palace, with view of the prothyron. 4th century, Split. (Photo: Stefan Pijanowski)
Fig. 15a Coin with portrait of Philip the Arab (r. 244–259) wearing the crown of Sol on the obverse and with the temple of Zeus Katabaites on the reverse. Bronze, 244–249, 29 mm diameter, Syria. © Münzkabinett der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin Preußischer Kulturbesitz, inv. no. 18259953. (Photo: Bernhard Weisser, in the public domain)
Fig. 15b Coin with portraits of Diocletian (left) and Maximian (right) on the obverse, and the two emperors in an elephant-drawn chariot on the reverse. Gold, 287, 30 mm diameter, Italy. © Münzkabinett der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin Preußischer Kulturbesitz, inv. no. 18200802 (Photo: Lutz-Jürgen Lübke, in the public domain)
Fig. 15c Coin with portrait of Hadrian on the obverse and of Sol on the reverse. Gold, 117, 20 mm diameter, Italy. © Münzkabinett der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin Preußischer Kulturbesitz, inv. no. 18200596 (Photo: Lutz-Jürgen Lübke, in the public domain)
Fig. 15d Coin showing portrait of Hadrian on the obverse. The reverse shows Hadrian and his wife Sabina meeting Isis and Serapis in front of an altar. Hadrian and Serapis shake hands while Sabina raises her hand in salutation of Isis who holds the sistrum. Gold, ca. 130, 19 mm diameter, Rome. Bibliothèque nationale de France (inv. no. FRBNF41982443)
Fig. 16 Two priests carrying a naiskos-shrine of Harpocrates. Clay, first half of the 1st century BCE, 15,6 cm. Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe (inv. no. H 796). (Photo: Thomas Goldschmidt)
Fig. 17 Constantius II as consul of 354. Drawing after 17th-century copy of manuscript illumination from the Calendar of Filocalus. MS Romanus 1, Barb. lat. 2154 fol. 13r in the Biblioteca Vaticana. (Drawing by Vladimir Ivanovici)
Fig. 18 Cavalry mask with protomes showing two men and three women pertaining to the cult of Bacchus. Iron and bronze with silver veneer, late 1st century, Nijmegen. Collection Valkhof Museum, Nijmegen, on loan from the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands (Photo: Thijn van de Ven)
Fig. 19 Relief at the base of the Obelisk of Theodosius showing Theodosius (r. 379–395) in the Hippodrome loggia in Constantinople next to Valentinian II (to his left) and his sons and future emperors of the West and East, Honorius and Arcadius (to his right). Members of the guard, court, and high society are depicted around, while representatives of barbarian tribes kneel below bringing tribute. Marble, 390, Constantinople. (Photo: © The Byzantine Legacy)
Fig. 20 Pottery bowl with scene of damnatio ad bestias showing a man tied to a pole and exposed to a male lion. Terra sigillata, ca. 350–430, 18.2 cm diameter, produced in north Africa. Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe (inv. no. 68/28). (Photo: Peter Gaul)
Fig. 21 Mural showing Andromeda chained to a rock as Perseus and the sea monster approach. Fresco, late 1st century, from the villa of Agrippa Postumus at Boscotrecase. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (inv. no. 20.192.16)
Fig. 22 Late antique reliquary. Silver with traces of niello, 6.8 × 7.2 × 7.2 cm, early 5th century, from Kaper Koraon, Syria. The Walters Art Museum (inv. no. 57.638)
Fig. 23 Zachariah holding a censer and reliquary. Mosaic, apse of the Basilica Euphrasiana, Poreč, ca. 559. (Photo: Vladimir Ivanovici)
Fig. 24 Deacon carrying a coal container while censing. Nocturnal liturgical service, Vatopedi Monastery, Mount Athos. (Photo: www.pemptousia.com)
Fig. 25 Relief showing Mithras as a child opening a passageway through the cosmos. The zodiac ring marks the threshold between the upper and the lower cosmic regions, while the personified winds represent the lower regions or Earth. Below, watching the god’s descent, are characters of his myth. Limestone, 94 cm, second half of the 2nd century. © Rheinisches Landesmuseum Trier. (Photo: Th. Zühmer)
Fig. 26 Frontal side of the Seasons Sarcophagus. Marble, 112 cm × 224 cm × 116 cm, ca. 330, possibly from Rome. © Dumbarton Oaks, Byzantine Collection, Washington, D.C. (inv. no. BZ.1936.65). (Photo: Vladimir Ivanovici)
Fig. 27 Relief showing followers of Mithras impersonating the god and the characters of his myth during the celebration the ritual banquet. Limestone, 59 × 85 cm, likely of the 4th century, Konjica. Zemaljski Muzej Bosne I Hercegovine / National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Fig. 28 Mosaic decoration of domed ceiling inside the San Giovanni in Fonte baptistery in Naples. Ca. 400. (Photo: Domenico Ventura)
Fig. 29 Drawing showing the location of golden mosaic tesserae in the decoration of the domed ceiling inside the San Giovanni in Fonte baptistery in Naples. Ca. 400. (Graphic development by Lorenzo R. Pini)
Fig. 30 Mosaic decoration of the domed ceiling of the Orthodox Baptistery. Mosaic, ca. 458, Ravenna. The blue mosaic tesserae of the background faded over the centuries, thus the contrast was a lot stronger initially. (Photo: Longo Editore, with the kind concession of the Opera di Religione della Diocesi di Ravenna)
Fig. 31 Plan and section of the church San Vitale in Ravenna (ca. 548) showing the spaces converging in the episcopal cathedra (Plan: Jäggi 2013: 241, section: Johnson 2018, fig. 7.43)
Fig. 32 Axonometric model of the Lateran Basilica (320) showing the fastigium. (Image: Bosman / Haynes / Liverani [eds.], 2020, fig. 8.19)
Fig. 33 View from the main doors towards the apse. Virtual reconstruction of the interior of Santa Maria Maggiore, ca. 432, Rome. (Image: © Bernard Frischer)
Fig. 34 View from the former temple of one of the two stoas that flanked the interior courtyard of the Sebasteion and of the remains of the propylon. Marble, 1st century, Aphrodisias. (Photo: ‘Following Hadrian’ – CC BY-SA 2.0)
Fig. 35 Apse mosaic showing Christ as a theophanic vision. Late 5th century, Church of Hosios David, Thessaloniki. (Photo: Vladimir Ivanovici)
Fig. 36 View of the nave towards the apse. Hagia Sophia, 537, Constantinople. Study of light in apse, 1948. Byzantine Institute and Dumbarton Oaks fieldwork records and papers, Dumbarton Oaks, Trustees for Harvard University, Washington, D.C.
Fig. 37 Apse of the Church of San Vitale in Ravenna (ca. 548). (Photo: Vladimir Ivanovici, with the kind concession of the Opera di Religione della Diocesi di Ravenna)
Fig. 38 Cathedra and part of the flanking synthronon in the Basilica Euphrasiana. Ca. 559, Poreč. The bishop received a red porphyry, round halo topped by a cross, while the two priests who sat to his sides received rectangular haloes. (Photo: Vladimir Ivanovici)
Fig. 39 Main nave and apse of the Church of Sant’Apollinare in Classe (549). (Photo: Steven Zucker, Smarthistory, by concession of the Ministero della Cultura – Direzione regionale Musei dell’Emilia-Romagna. All rights reserved)
Fig. 40 Detail from larger mural showing a simple shrine consisting of a statue set on a column, placed on a rock on the seashore. Such shrines were found across the Roman world. Fresco, late 1st century, from the villa of Agrippa Postumus at Boscotrecase. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (inv. no. 20.192.17)
Fig. 41 Stylite tower, early 6th century, 13.5 m, Umm ar-Rasas (Jordan). (Photo: Hubert Bartkowiak – Wikipedia CC BY-SA 4.0)
Fig. 42 Herm of Hermes, late 1st century, 149 × 24 × 21 cm. The J. Paul Getty Museum, Villa Collection, Malibu, California (inv. no. 79.AA.132). (Photo: Digital image courtesy of Getty’s Open Content Program)
Fig. 43 Watercolour of lost mosaic showing devotee present small girl to St Demetrius. North inner aisle, Church of Saint Demetrius, Thessaloniki, 7th century. (British School at Athens, with kind permission)
Fig. 44 Pilgrim token with the image of Symeon Stylites the Elder. Angels carrying crowns flank the saint. The Baptism of Jesus and the Adoration of the Magi are shown below. Red clay, 6th century, from Qal’at Sem’an, Syria. Walters Art Museum, Baltimore (inv. no. 48.1939)
Fig. 45 Portrait of a bearded man. Tempera on wood, 36 × 37.5 × 0.3 cm, 1st century, Egypt. The J. Paul Getty Museum (inv. no. 74.AP.20). (Photo: Digital image courtesy of Getty’s Open Content Program)
Fig. 46 Painted panel with a saint/martyr called Victor. Encaustic(?) on wood, possibly 6th century. (Photo: su concessione del Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Firenze, Direzione regionale Musei della Toscana)