Gennadios, late 4th-5th century. Seal (Lead, 16 mm, 6.65 g). ΓЄNNAΔIO - ΔO...VΓA (retrograde) The entry of Christ into Jerusalem: Jesus Christ, nimbate, riding left on the back of a donkey, raising his left hand, the animal being lead by a small figure advancing in front. Rev. Large hemiglobular swelling. Apparently unpublished. An interesting and very rare early Christian scene on a Roman seal. Good very fine.


The image on this seal shows the triumphal entry of Christ into Jerusalem, a key event in the Passion story (marking its beginning) and related by all four Gospels. Even though one major narrative element is missing on our seal - individuals laying down clothes in front of Christ - other key elements are clear: the nimbus, the pronounced ears of the animal (which excludes it from being a horse), and the overall similarity to a Roman Adventus scene, upon which the early Christian depiction of the Entry of Jerusalem was based. Our seal was made with a die that had the rider raising his right hand in greeting, not his left. It also had the inscription in the positive, resulting in a retrograde legend in the impression on the seal. Perhaps the device utilized to produce this piece was the raised bezel of a bronze ring. The inscription names a Gennadios, but slight surface roughness does not allow a clear reading of the latter part. Perhaps VΓA refers to hygieia, health, a word which regularly appears on early Byzantine bronze rings.