STEVEN ZUCKER: In baseball, in soccer, sometimes
sports announcers will look for the turning point of the game.
And the scene that we're looking at-- a battle, not sport--
in fact, one of the most important battles
in ancient history-- is at that particular turning point,
the moment when the great ruler of Persia
turns and flees under the onslaught
of the great Greek general Alexander.
BETH HARRIS: Darius, the king of the Persians,
has just ordered his troops to retreat.
STEVEN ZUCKER: So there's tremendous tension
at this moment because we have this reversal of momentum.
We can feel, still, the momentum that
is moving in from the right because we can still
see the Persian guards' spears facing towards the Greeks.
But just at that moment, one of the largest objects
in this mosaic, the chariot, is being spun around.
And the tension and the torsion that's required for that
is creating this tremendous sense of dynamism.
BETH HARRIS: On the ground, we see the wounded and the dying.
STEVEN ZUCKER: One of my favorite details
is the reflection of one of the Persian soldiers
in his own shield.
BETH HARRIS: He's looking at himself fallen in battle,
perhaps about to die.
I think my favorite part is the horse that's
part of the team leading Darius's chariot.
Almost all four hoofs are off the ground.
As it's being pulled toward the left,
its head turns to the right.
STEVEN ZUCKER: There is this almost frenetic quality
to this image.
BETH HARRIS: And you have a sense of confidence
when you look at Alexander's face as he heads toward Darius.
Darius looks fearful as he gestures toward Alexander.
It looks to me as though Darius is almost
pleading for the lives of his soldiers.
STEVEN ZUCKER: Well, there is a look both of surprise and worry
and of seeking compassion.
I think that that's exactly right.
Alexander is known ultimately for his compassion, at least
towards Darius's family.
BETH HARRIS: And Alexander is the great Greek general,
the founder of an enormous empire.
STEVEN ZUCKER: Well, that's right.
He not only unifies Greece, but he will then
move south into Egypt.
He moves east into Persia, and he
gets to the Indus Valley itself.
So he puts under Greece's control
an enormous area of the known world.
And all of these details are rendered
in tiny pieces of stone and glass.
BETH HARRIS: So we're looking at a mosaic
that we think is based on an ancient Greek painting.
We hope it's based on an ancient Greek painting
because almost nothing of ancient Greek painting
survives.
And Pliny talked about how amazing Greek painting was.
STEVEN ZUCKER: Well, it's true.
When we think of Greek art, we think of Greek sculpture.
We might think of Greek architecture.
Perhaps we think of Greek vase painting.
But you're absolutely right.
In the ancient world, literature tells us
that what the Greeks did better than anything
was wall painting.
We just don't have any.
BETH HARRIS: So maybe this gives us some idea.
STEVEN ZUCKER: But I do find it really interesting
that the mosaic is almost empty at the top
and is so much weighted down towards the bottom.
Especially when we remember that this
was based on a painting that would have been on a wall.
And so this was intended to be seen vertically,
at least initially.
At least, that's our best guess.
BETH HARRIS: Art historians link this mosaic
to a literary description of an ancient Greek painting
by an artist named Philoxenos.
And in this literary source by Pliny,
Philoxenos is said to have created
a painting of the Battle of Alexander and Darius.
STEVEN ZUCKER: But here's the problem.
There were probably lots of paintings of that subject.
BETH HARRIS: And we know for certain
that there, for example, was a woman artist who
painted this subject in ancient Greece, as well.
STEVEN ZUCKER: This was an incredibly important
confrontation between these two generals,
between these two civilizations.
I'm sure there were many more.
BETH HARRIS: But this is what we have,
and this is what was found.
And we have it because of the eruption
of Mount Vesuvius in '79, which preserved
under a layer of volcanic ash the city of Pompeii.
STEVEN ZUCKER: Including this mosaic.
BETH HARRIS: This was found on the floor between two
peristyles, that is, between two open courtyards that
were surrounded by columns in the largest
and most elaborately decorated mansion in Pompeii,
often called the House of the Faun
after a bronze sculpture of a faun that was found there.
STEVEN ZUCKER: And the mosaic itself
is of extraordinary quality.
And so it's not surprising that we find it
in such a lavish environment as the House of the Faun.
There are apparently a million and a half pieces
of stone and glass that make up this mosaic.
BETH HARRIS: And the quality is not
just in the fineness of the materials,
but in the incredible naturalism of what we see here,
which is what the ancient Greeks were known for.
We have forms that, even with these tiny pieces of stone,
we have a sense of modeling, of the use of light and dark
to create a sense of three-dimensional forms.
If we look at the horses or the faces of the figures,
we see the turn of the face, the anatomy of the body.
STEVEN ZUCKER: And look at the foreshortening
of the animals-- for instance, of the horses.
BETH HARRIS: That ancient Greek knowledge of the human body,
of how it moves through space, is so clear here.
STEVEN ZUCKER: And of course, all of this
speaks to the Romans' regard for the achievement
of ancient Greek art.
BETH HARRIS: Sometimes it seems as though everyone in Pompeii
wanted to imitate the ancient Greeks,
to own copies of ancient Greek sculptures,
ancient Greek paintings.
There was a real mania, as in Rome itself,
for ancient Greek culture.