Fortuna cristiana di Iupiter in un sigillo dall’Iran Sasanide

The present article focuses on a Christian Sasanian seal with Pahlavi inscription, preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale of Paris, characterized by a figure of a naked standing man, holding a long cross in the left hand and a globe in the right one. This peculiar iconography seems to derive from a Roman prototype of “Jupiter Protector”, which was introduced in Roman coinage by Domitian, and that was later largely adopted by other emperors. Since some rare copper coins of Šābuhr II (309-79 CE) were over-struck on late Roman coins with the same iconography, it is likely that the Persians adopted this Western image by means of coins. Finally, the Christians of Persia, during the Fifth Century, transformed the sceptre of Jupiter into a cross, and put on the gem an augural legend, well-fitting with such “victorious” representation.