Detail from Opus Vermicularum Mosaic "Battle between Alexander and Darius III", c. 100 BC

(see other details: | A | | B | |C | | D | )

National Archeological Museum of Naples, Naples, Italy.

Discovered on 24th of October of 1831 in the House of the Faun in Pompeii, where it adorned an exedra with a colonnade overlooking the central peristyle of the house.

In 1832 Goethe wrote "neither the present nor the future will be able to comment fittingly on such a remarkable work of art."

Experts believe it depicts a Hellenistic painting of unprecedented conceptual breadth possibly by Philoxenes. The painting was well known because it was found depicted in an Etruscan urn from Perugia with the same scene in relief as well in Roman ceramic cups from the workshop of Gaius Popilius.

Recently, researchers postulate that the painting was by Apelles, a contemporary of Alexander the Macedon.