By Andre Castaigne( 1898-1899)
It’s my birthday today – I’m 31. Alexander the Great died at the age of 32. Educated by Aristotle, his empire was one of the largest in the ancient world. It reached from Greece to India. His deeds were a profound influence on cultures for hundreds of years to come – especially the Romans.
I’ve got a year left to achieve this much. Who’s good with a spear?
Lawrence Alma-Tadema, 1907.
The Cyrus Cylinder, in fact.
Lawrence Alma-Tadema, 1884.
There is no reason, I feel, to object when antiquity draws no hard line between the human and the supernatural.
– Livy, The Early History of Rome
Lawrence Alma-Tadema, 1877.
Mosaic of Choregos and Actors, found in House of the Tragic Poet, Pompeii. Incredible how detailed it is for a mosaic. I remember seeing some fine examples in the Met Museum in NYC, as well as the British Museum, but none quite as impressive as this (which is now in Naples).
Lawrence Alma-Tadema, 1889.
Cesare Maccari, 1889
It turns out that this may have been the grave for an elite Viking killing force of mercenaries:
It was a deliberate execution and decapitation only of men of fighting age, and most interestingly for Dr. Baillie, these men weren’t decapitated by a blade to the back of the neck. They were decapitated from the front, just like the captured warriors in the Saga of the Jomsvikings, an Icelandic saga about a quasi-legendary fighting force of Viking mercenaries who were reputedly the fiercest of all Viking warriors.
Read the rest. Fascinating and grim stuff.