THE JOINING OF RIGHT HANDS. — The solemn act of celebrating marriage among the Romans culminated in the clasping of the right hands of the spouses, who thereby symbolically expressed their will to be husband and wife and to live together in common life. This gesture, known by the expression *dextrarum iunctio* or *coniunctio manuum*, is found represented in early Christian art several times on sarcophagi, more rarely on gold-glass bases and other small objects; it is absent from paintings and museums, except for the biblical scene in one of the mosaic panels of the Roman basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore depicting the marriage of Moses with Zipporah.
This scene was entirely taken over by Christian artists from classical art, so much so that in the earliest Christian representations, as, for example, is seen on two sarcophagi of late-Libertarian date—one from the church of San Salvatore in Vescovo and one found not far from Porta Salaria (now in the museum of the Camposanto Teutonico), both adorned with the figure of the Good Shepherd at the corners—appears in the midst of the two spouses the image of Hymenaeus Pronuba, the goddess to whom the guardianship of marriages was entrusted. The same depiction is found on a small fragment of a sarcophagus from the beginning of the 4th century, built into the façade of Villa Doria-Pamphilj in Rome, which is particularly valuable because the figure represented alongside some scenes from the New Testament is identified as a consul by the scepter in his left hand, a representation therefore, in this respect, unique in early Christian funerary sculpture.
In the act of the *dextrarum iunctio*, the spouses always appear in full figure and standing; the only exception is the sarcophagus of Caterinus and Severina in the cathedral of Tolentino, where the spouses, above whose heads the divine hand extends a crown, are depicted half-length and within a clipeus. Here, as in many other cases, the groom holds a rolled *volumen* in his left hand. In the context of nuptial scenes, it is more than likely that this *volumen* represents the *tabulae nuptiales* or the *libellus* on which the marriage contract was drawn up and on which mention was made of the size of the dowry brought by the bride, which was generally destined to support the burdens of marriage.
According to the opinion of Wilpert, a *notarius* may perhaps be represented in a scene of *dextrarum iunctio* carved on the side of a large sarcophagus in the cathedral of Mantua; there is indeed a figure dressed in tunic and penula who holds in his hands a diptych and a stylus.
The scene of the *dextrarum iunctio* appears at the end of the 4th century on two gold-glass bases, one formerly part of the Christian collection of the Kircherian Museum and another now in the Museo Sacro of the Vatican Library; in the middle of the 5th century it is found on the reverse of a gold coin issued by the mint of Constantinople (now in the museum of Glasgow), depicting the marriage of the Emperor Marcian to Pulcheria.