The iconography of the Christus militans, treading on the lion and the
serpent, the forces of evil – with a reference to Psalm 91:13 – is an
unusual yet very common image in Ravenna. Historian Agnellus, in his
Liber Pontificalis Ecclesiae Ravennatis describes it in the counter￾façade of the now-lost church of Santa Croce. This representation
can still be found today in a stucco of the Neonian Baptistery and is
sculpted on the 5th-century sarcophagus of Pignatta in the Quadrarco
of Braccioforte. In the sacellum, Christ is depicted young, beardless,
with a cross-marked nimbus. In his right hand, he carries a cross made
of gold tesserae, resting it on his shoulder, tracing the gesture of Saint
Lawrence in the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia. In his left hand, covered,
he holds an open book, the Gospel of John, with the words: “ego sum
via, veritas et vita”. A phrase that was mentioned also by some Church
Fathers, such as Athanasius of Alexandria and Gregory of Nyssa, one of
the most severe opponents of Arianism.