‘More than conquerors’ (Rom 8:37): Paul’s Gospel and the Augustan Triumphal Arches of the Greek East and Latin West

Abstract

This paper investigates the social and theological import of Romans against the iconography of the Augustan arches, focusing on Paul’s indebtedness to Greeks and barbarians, the reconciliation of enemies, the victory of Christ on behalf of believers, and his rule over the nations. D.C. Lopez and B. Kahl investigated the iconographic evidence of Aphrodisias and Pergamon when discussing the political implications of Paul’s gospel in the Roman province of Asia. Paul visited neither city, so arguments about the apostle’s interaction with the imperial ideology of ‘victory’ depends more on the ubiquity of the Julio-Claudian propaganda than on any contact Paul might have had with those specific monuments. The Augustan arches throughout the Empire stereotypically depict the humiliation of barbarians at the sites of Pisidian Antioch, a city visited by Paul (Acts 13:14-50), as well as at La Turbie, Glanum, Carpentras and the triple arch at the Roman Forum. However, there were other iconographic motifs on the arches that conflicted with the relentless triumphal ideology of Augustus. They articulated an alternate vision of social relations between conqueror and conquered.