Olive branch

Likewise, it is found in most cultures of the Mediterranean Basin[1] and thence expanded to become a near-universal recognized peace symbol in the modern world.

[8] For example, the reverse of a tetradrachm of Vespasian from Alexandria, 70-71 AD, shows Eirene standing holding a branch upward in her right hand.

[11][12] Appian describes the use of the olive-branch as a gesture of peace by the enemies of the Roman general Scipio Aemilianus in the Numantine War[13] and by Hasdrubal the Boeotarch of Carthage.

The early Christians, according to Winckelmann, often allegorized peace on their sepulchers by the figure of a dove bearing an olive branch in its beak.

[12] For example, in the Catacomb of Priscilla in Rome (2nd – 5th centuries AD) there is a depiction of three men (traditionally taken to be Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego of the Book of Daniel[16]) over whom hovers a dove with a branch; and in another of the Roman catacombs there is a shallow relief sculpture showing a dove with a branch flying to a figure marked in Greek ΕΙΡΗΝΗ (Eirene, or Peace).

[17] Tertullian (c. 160 – c. 220) compared Noah's dove in the Hebrew Bible, who "announced to the world the assuagement of divine wrath, when she had been sent out of the ark and returned with the olive branch".

Georgia's $40 note of 1778 portrayed the dove and olive and a hand holding a dagger, with a motto meaning "Either war or peace, prepared for both.

The idea of the olive branch opposing the bundle of thirteen arrows was to "denote the power of peace & war which is exclusively vested in Congress.

The emblem and flag of the United Nations bear a pair of stylized olive branches surrounding a world map.

Branches of an olive tree
Mars Pacifer bearing an olive branch, on the reverse of a coin struck under the lights and reverse ( Aemilianus )
Owl standing on amphora, all surrounded by a wreath of olive leaves. Greek silver tetradrachm from Athens, c. 200 –150 BC
A dove with an olive branch, Catacombs of Domitilla , Rome
Portrait of Queen Elizabeth I by Marcus Gheeraerts the Elder , painted between 1580 and 1585, and showing her with an olive branch in her right hand and standing on the sword of Justice .
The 1885 obverse design of the Great Seal of the United States