The Slaughter of the Innocents

5th century
Mosaic
Triumphal apse, Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, Rome

This image forms the third register of the mosaics on the left side of the arch. Herod is pictured sitting on a pillow on a bejewelled throne. His royal status is signaled by a halo, which in later iconography will be pictured only on saints and the deity. He gives his directions to the soldier, who reaches for the first baby. The latter's response is to reach out with both hands, indicating a precocious willingness to accept martyrdom, a status that earns him a toga and halo.

The boy in the striped garment has a small cross on his forehead, which also refers to martyrdom. Schiller (115) points out that the cross would "refer to the sealing of the martyrs and their baptism with blood, for the marking of the forehead with a cross was a very early element in the ritual of baptism."

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Photographed at the basilica by Richard Stracke, shared under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.