Image Details

Scala/Art Resource, NY

Alexander the Great (far left) pursues the chariot of Darius (center), in this famous mosaic from Pompeii illustrating the Battle of Issus (333 B.C.), in Asia Minor. The scene on this mosaic, now in the Naples Archaeological Museum, closely resembles a scene on a vase by the Darius Painter, also in the Naples Museum. So close is the resemblance, in fact, that scholars were able to identify the depiction on the vase by comparing it to the mosaic. But there is a significant difference: The vase shows a bearded Alexander, indicating that it was made earlier than the mosaic. Only later did the clean-shaven Alexander depicted in the Pompeii mosaic become known in the West.