ABSTRACT
This chapter considers a few permanent commemorative monuments of victory: public memorials set up in sanctuaries for their propaganda value, monumental tombs honouring the war dead, and some dedications celebrating naval victories. After the first major battle of Alexander’s army against the Persians at the Granikos river, the king ordered the erection of a commemorative battle monument at Dion, the national sanctuary of the Macedonians. The most famous royal commemorations of victory are of course the series of monuments erected by Attalid kings of Pergamon to celebrate victories over their various enemies. The military victories which they commemorated as triumph of Greek civilization over barbarism marked their graduation into ‘superpower league’ of hellenistic kingdoms. The site of the statue requires some discussion in light of recent archaeological discoveries not taken into account by Higgins. Lion monuments continued to be set up in the later classical and early hellenistic periods, and some of them present intriguing problems of date and context.
