This chapter examines the development of early Christian iconography, tracing how visual representations evolved between the third and fifth centuries. It explores a wide range of materials, including paintings, relief sculptures, mosaics, inscriptions and artefacts such as sarcophagi, lamps and glassware. Historical texts are also incorporated to provide context for the meanings behind Christian imagery. The chapter argues that early Christian art did not emerge in isolation but was heavily influenced by Roman artistic traditions. Many motifs, such as the Good Shepherd and the story of Jonah, were borrowed from Graeco-Roman visual culture and reinterpreted with Christian significance. It also addresses the debate over the absence of explicitly Christian imagery in the first two centuries CE, suggesting that early Christians likely relied on religiously ambiguous symbols before developing a distinct visual language. The discussion then shifts to the impact of imperial Christianity in the fourth century, which led to more monumental depictions of Christ, often portraying him as a ruler rather than a humble shepherd. Finally, the chapter highlights the crucial role of funerary art in shaping Christian visual culture, noting that many early depictions survived in catacombs and sarcophagi, reinforcing beliefs in salvation and resurrection.

Christian writers, keen to interpret the apocalyptic scripture that had since become canonical, recognised the intrinsic importance of Nero’s role as first persecutor to the history of Christianity. According to tradition, Nero created the first martyrs, including the apostles Peter and Paul. Millennialists from the third century established the importance of a relationship between the first and last persecutors, affording Nero an apocalyptic role. To add detail to the paradigm, late-antique writers turned ted to non-biblical traditions – mostly classical historiography, but also the apocryphal Sibylline Oracles and Ascension of Isaiah. Here, they could find characteristics to populate their paradigm, be those the traits of the arch-destroyers of apocrypha, or those of the tyrannical Nero of classical texts.