E07517: Funerary plaque with a carving showing unlabelled figures of *Peter (S00036) and *Paul (S00008) the Apostles, and Christ in the scene of the traditio legis. Found in the Catacombs of Priscilla on the via Salaria, Rome. Probably late 4th c. [provisional entry]

The carving is executed on a marble plaque, probably closing the aperture of a tomb in the catacombs, measuring H. 0.30 m; W. 0.85 m. Its existence was first reported by Giovanni Marangoni in 1740 (in his Acta S. Victorini, p. 42), who found it in the Cemetery of Priscilla on the via Salaria, and transferred it to the church of Saints Kosmas and Damianos in Anagni. Now in the lapidarium of the Cistercian monastery at Anagni (monastero delle suore Cistercensi della Carità).

The carving shows a bearded male figure with nimbus, standing on a small rock. He is raising up his right hand in the gesture of a conqueror or orator and, with his left hand, is passing a scroll with three lines of text to a male figure on his his left-hand side. The recipient of the scroll is holding a long cross, he is kneeling before the central figure, and looking into his face. He is also wearing a pallium, wrapped around his hands, through which he is going to hold the scroll. The figure on the opposite side is also bearded, and is reaching towards the central figure with his right hand. He is wearing a robe with the letter L or Γ. The three figures are flanked by palm trees. A phoenix with a nimbus and seven rays is shown on the right-hand one. Below the palm trees one can see schematic images of cities behind walls, and flocks of sheep (six animals in each of the two flocks). Three rivers flow out of the rock, and a small lamb with nimbus and a small superimposed cross is shown in front of it.

The scene is usually interpreted as the traditio legis, the ‘handling over of the law’.

The inscription on the scroll, although illegible, almost certainly read Dominus | legem | dat/'The Lord gives the law'. The central figure is Christ, the two men flanking him are the Apostles Peter (the recipient of the scroll) and Paul. The cities are probably Bethlehem and Jerusalem.