The House of the Faun in Pompeii

The House of the Faun, constructed in the 2nd century BCE, was a grand Hellenistic residence framed by peristyle in Pompeii, Italy. It is one of the most luxurious aristocratic houses from the Roman Republic, and reflects this period better than most archaeological evidence found even in Rome itself. The historical significance in this impressive estate is found in the many great pieces of art that were well preserved from the ash of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE.

The most notable of the artworks found in the House of the Faun is the Alexander Mosaic. In the 1830s when it was first discovered, the mosaic was thought to represent a battle scene depicted in the Iliad, but architectural historians have found the mosaic actually depicts the Battle of Issus in 333 BCE between Alexander the Great and Darius at the Battle of Issus, which took place about 150 years before the House of the Faun was constructed.

The original mosaic was removed from the floor where it was found and placed in the National Archaeological Museum in Naples. Unlike most Pompeian pavements of the late second and early first centuries, this mosaic is made of tesserae, and not the more common opus signinum, or other kinds of stone chips set in mortar.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons