Alexander Mosaic
by Weston Westmoreland
Title
Alexander Mosaic
Artist
Weston Westmoreland
Medium
Photograph - Photograph
Description
Alexander Mosaic, Pompei, Rome. C. 100 BC.
The Alexander Mosaic, also known as the Battle of Issus Mosaic, is a Roman floor mosaic recovered from the House of the Faun in Pompeii from around 100 BC. It is believed to be a copy of a Greek painting made from the 4th century BC.
The mosaic depicts the Battle of Issus, the first great battle between the armies of Alexander the Great and Darius III of Persia, from which Darius escaped in defeat. The illustration measures over 8x16 feet, it is preserved in the Naples National Archaeological Museum and it is believed to be a copy of an early 3rd-century BC Hellenistic painting.
The mosaic illustrates the moment in which Alexander charges through the Persian lines straight for the Persian king, piercing one of his soldiers through the stomach with his spear. Alexander defeated Darius at Issus for the first time and on aa second and final occasion two years later at the Battle of Gaugamela. Darius would be killed by his own troops soon afterwards and Alexander would culminate his invasion of Persia with the destruction of Persepolis in 330 BC.
Alexander III of Macedon, commonly known as Alexander the Great succeeded his father at the age of 20. He spent most of his ruling years on an unprecedented military campaign through western Asia and northeast Africa, and by the age of thirty, he had created one of the largest empires of the ancient world, stretching from Greece to northwestern India. He was undefeated in battle and is widely considered one of history's most successful military commanders.
During his youth, Alexander was tutored by Aristotle until age 16. After Philip's assassination he subdued Greece and led the Greeks in the conquest of Persia. Alexander broke the power of the Achaemenid Empire in a series of decisive battles, most notably the battles of Issus and Gaugamela and conquered the Persian Empire in its entirety. Alexander then invaded India but eventually turned back at the demand of his homesick troops. He died in Babylon in 323 BC, the city that he planned to establish as his capital, without executing a series of planned campaigns beginning with the invasion of Arabia.
Alexander III of Macedon died at the age of 32, after having consolidated the greatest empire to that time, reaching from Europe to India and from Kyrgyzstan to Egypt. Many of these lands remained under Macedonian-Greek rule for the following 200-300 years.
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Weston Westmoreland
Uploaded
May 4th, 2020
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