The concept of Rome in Late Antiquity reflected in the mosaics of the triumphal arch of S. Maria Maggiore in Rome

The mosaics of the triumphal arch of S. Maria Maggiore contain certain iconographical elements which cannot be explained with the usual reference to the biblical accounts of Christ’s birth and childhood. Such exhaustively discussed elements are the image of the goddess Roma on the front of the temple in the Presentation scene and the sombrely dressed woman in the scene of the Adoration of the Magi. A reinterpretation of these motifs leads to the overlying concept of the arch mosaics as a whole