While surviving the shipwreck and the viper bite in Acts 28.1–6 have often been recognised as symbolic assertions of Paul's innocence, the viper may hold further symbolic significance. Following his act of matricide in 59 ce, Nero was linked to Aeschylus’ portrayal of Orestes, who, in turn, was linked to a tradition that understood a viper's birth as matricidal. Thus, through his encounter with the viper, Paul symbolically ‘appears before’ the emperor Nero—something that is anticipated yet never happens overtly in the narrative of Acts itself.

Two damaged and partially restored Roman portraits in the collection of the British Museum, previously identified as either the emperor Caligula or an unknown “Julio-Claudian prince,” are here reassessed and identified as Agrippa Postumus, the youngest grandson and adopted heir of Augustus. The first portrait, from southern Britain, may have come from a temple dedicated to the worship of the Julio-Claudian house, while the second was probably part of an equestrian group standing outside the Aedes Castoris in Rome. This is a significant reinterpretation, providing potential evidence not only for links between Rome's first family and the rulers of a distant client kingdom, but also for the framing of imperial power and the uncertain nature of the Augustan succession in the early years of the 1st c. CE.

Surprisingly, the Gospel reaches Rome under the sign of the Dioscuri (Acts 28.11). In the first two centuries CE these saviours represent, at a broad cultural level, salvation and secure justice, deliver the message of victory to Rome, and symbolise the Empire's expansive claim on the world. In the rhetoric of ἐνάϱγεια the nautical detail marks a theological transformation: the Mediterranean becomes the mare nostrum of Christians; this transformation is plausible even according to pagan eusebeia; the gospel reveals itself as good news of victory claiming the world. It is within this illustrative logic that the noteworthy detail gains its meaning.