Images

The colossal head of Athena from an acrolith statue dating to the late 1st century CE and believed to be a copy of an original by Phidias. Provenance: Tor Paterno. (The Vatican Museums, Rome).

The colossal statue of Antinous, favourite of Roman Emperor Hadrian, who drowned in the Nile in 130 CE and was officially made a god by the emperor. Excavated from the site of Hadrian's villa. (The Vatican Museums, Rome).

A Roman ivory doll from the mid-2nd century CE. From the 'Grottarossa Mummy' sarchophagus, Rome. (Palazzo Massimo, Rome)

Eros the Greek god of love and desire from an Attic red-figure kylix, 510-500 BCE. (Museo Archeologico Etrusco, Florence).

The hull of the Olympias, a full-scale reconstruction of an ancient Greek trireme warship. The principal strategy in battle of the trireme was to sink or damage the oars of an enemy vessel using the bronze ram fixed to the ship's prow. Triremes...

The remains of the 2nd century CE Temple of Apollo at Side (modern-day Turkey).

The distribution of the respective fleets of the Greek allied states (blue) against the Persian forces of Xerxes (red), 480 BCE. The Greeks would outmanoeuvre the Persians in the shallow waters of the straights and win a victory which would...

A Roman marble statue of the Egyptian god Anubis. Provenance: Anzio, Villa Pamphili, 1st-2nd century CE. (Vatican Museums, Rome).

A Roman marble sculpture of a sleeping hermaphrodite displaying both male and female anatomy. A mid-2nd century CE copy of mid-2nd century BCE bronze original from Asia Minor. (Palazzo Massimo, Rome).

A Roman necklace in gold and glass paste, 6-5 BCE. From a sarcophagus at Fidene, Rome. (Palazzo Massimo, Rome).