There actually are a number of sculptures depicting victorious Romans dominating the national personifications of subjugated peoples. Nonetheless, the Medium post fundamentally misrepresented Professor Pagels' book. In her Revelations: Visions, Prophecy, and Politics in the Book of Revelation, Elaine Pagels traced the life of John of Patmos who wrote the Book of Revelations after the Romans vanquished Judea. During this, she commented on the disgust or anger John probably would've have felt seeing sculptures celebrating Roman victories over other nations under imperial rule, at the Sebasteion in the ancient Hellenic city of Aphrodisias.
![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/oWISlm.jpg)
Left: Claudius conquers Britannia | Right: Nero conquers Armenia
However, she then adds that:
The citizens of Asia Minor who commissioned the Sebasteion and funded the annual festivals, sacrifices, and athletic games to honor the emperors chose to interpret their submission to Roman rule not as defeat but as submission to the will of the gods.
In other words, Professor Pagels was not claiming the Romans systematically went out of their ways to humiliate their new subjects and offend their religions. And indeed, the examples cited above were created by Greeks and depicted the conquest of non-Greeks.
In general, the Romans were reasonably tolerant imperialists. The Romans usually equated foreign deities with their own through process of interpretatio romana. By this very logic, it is difficult to imagine their "signature move" would be to desecrate altars to the same gods they recognised.
This process greatly helped the integration of Roman and conquered, for the Romans were extremely tolerant of foreign religions provided there was no suspicion of political conspiracy (they strongly disliked closed groups and societies) and the rites were not so repugnant as to be intolerable (such as human sacrifice).
Salway, Peter. A History of Roman Britain. Oxford Paperbacks, 2001.
There are several goddesses that have not been equated to Graeco-Roman deities, who are often depicted together with Roman gods. However, they are normally portrayed as equals. For instance Nemetona, the goddess of the Nemetes people, often appears with Mars without any indication of the kind of subjugation that the Sebasteion reliefs above depicted.
Some other examples:
![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/ahM9fm.jpg)
Left: Rosmerta, goddess of fertility, and Mercury | Right: Sirona, goddess of healing springs, and Apollo