Painting
Alexander Mosaic
Anonymous (Roman), c. 100 BC
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Classical · chronological order 2
A mosaic of some 5.8 × 3.1 metres and more than a million and a half tesserae, found in 1831 on the floor of the House of the Faun at Pompeii. It shows the turning point of the battle of Issus (333 BC), with Alexander the Great cutting through the Persians towards the chariot of Darius III, who flees with his eyes fixed on the Greek. It is thought to be a Roman copy of a lost Greek original of the 4th century BC, probably by Philoxenus of Eretria. It is in the National Archaeological Museum of Naples.