ALEXANDER THE GREAT
This mosaic was originally placed in the elegant House of Faun which was excavated from Pompeii. It can be considered the most famous mosaics from ancient times. The mosaic is located in the National Archeological Museum in Naples. Removed from the floor of the room called the exedra in the House of the Faun, the mosaic measures 19.5 by 11 feet and is made of around a million tesserae (small mosaic tiles). Fashioned after a lost Greek painting of the late 4th century B.C., Alexander the Great (riding a horse on the left) is defeating the King of Persia, Darius III (fleeing in a chariot on the right), during the Battle of Issus in 333 B.C. The mosaic derives from a painting felt to be commissioned by Cassander, the successor of Alexander in Macedonia, to be painted by Piloxenos form Eretria. It represents the battle of Isso (333 BC). In this piece one can see Alexander the Great depicted in the saddle of his famous horse Bucephalus at the head of his cavalry, and Darius III, king of Persia, in flight on his chariot.
