ABSTRACT
In the spring of 1748 while Naples was ruled by Charles VII of Bourbon, the future Charles III of Spain, excavations were begun in the Campania region in search of the remains of the Roman city of Pompeii. Under royal patronage the ruins were excavated between 1759 and 1788, and then over the course of later archaeological digs. A new excavation of the exedra of a Pompeian house, known as the House of the Faun, revealed an impressive mosaic that dated back to antiquity itself and depicted an excellent visual representation of one Alexander’s battles (120–100 BC, Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli). The large mosaic showed and still shows the critical moment in a major battle between Persians and Macedonians, amidst whom Alexander and Darius can easily be distinguished. The presence of both monarchs indicates that we are looking at an evocation of Issus or Gaugamela, the only two staged battles where they fought one another. In this epilogue we would like to identify the mosaic as a depiction of this latter battle.
