AQUILA (IN CHRISTIAN ARCHAEOLOGY). - The eagle appears in early Christian art only as an ornamental motif, as in a cubiculum in the cemetery of Callisto in Rome, or on an ivory pyx, found at Carthage and now in the Civic Museum of Livorno, or on the sarcophagus of Giunio Basso. On certain Roman and Gallic sarcophagi depicting the scene of the resurrection, the eagle, with outspread wings, holds suspended in its beak or claws a triumphal crown surrounding the monogram of Christ in the form known as Constantinian. In such cases G. B. De Rossi recognized an allusion to the classical standard of the Roman legions, because it is connected with the laurel crown enclosing the signum Christi raised upon Constantine’s labarum.
Later it is found in the mosaic pavements of the baptisteries of Capua and Valenza, perhaps on account of verse 5 of Psalm 102: “renovabitur ut aquilae iuventus tua.” In the East it is sometimes a symbol of the resurrection of the deceased, as some Coptic stoles in the Cairo Museum show, or of Christ’s resurrection in the paintings of Athribis and Bavit. In the funerary mosaics of Palestine both concepts are found combined. St. Ambrogio (PL 16, 420) and St. Massimo of Turin (PL 57, 369) point to the eagle as a symbol of resurrection and apotheosis; in this capacity it appears at the feet of Christ on the chalice of Antiochia, V. ANIMALE; APOTEOSI.