Images

View of the Decumanus Maximus (main east-west axis) of Herculaneum with the House of the Black Hall on the left and the House of the Bicentenary on the right.

Mosaic decoration depicting the sea god Neptune with his wife Amphitrite. Summer triclinium of the House of Neptune and Amphitrite, Herculaneum.

“The nose of Cleopatra: if it had been shorter, the whole face of the earth would have changed” ~ Blaise Pascal, Pensées 162. On the basis of portrait coins struck by Cleopatra, philosophers such as Blaise Pascal (1623-1662 CE) assumed...

Stemma (reduced family tree) of Arsinoe II, the daughter of Ptolemy I and Berenice I, showing her three marriages to Lysimachus, her half-brother Ptolemy Ceraunus, and her full brother Ptolemy II, who was first married to Lysimachus’ daughter...

The atrium of the House of the Wooden Screen in Herculaneum with central rainwater basin (impluvium) and marble table (cartibulum). In the background, the tablinum is separated by an elegant wooden partition. The simple mosaic floor indicates...

Herculaneum, located on the Bay of Naples, was a Roman town which was destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE.

Gold octodrachm (mnaieion) with the draped and diademed jugate busts of siblings Ptolemy II and Arsinoe II on the reverse; Ptolemy I and Berenice I as their divine parents on the reverse. The legends over the portraits read Adelphōn (“of...

Gold octadrachm (mnaieion), from Alexandria, c. 253-246 BCE. The obverse shows the veiled portrait of Arsinoe II; the reverse illustrates a double cornucopia (dikeras), bound with a royal fillet (diadēma) and overflowing with grapes, pomegranate...

The Gonzaga Cameo (named after Renaissance dukes of Mantua) is a miniature masterpiece of Hellenistic art, attributed to Ptolemy II (r. 285-246 BCE) and Arsinoe II (r. circa 272 - c.268 BCE). Sardonyx, provenance unknown, ca. 3rd cent. BCE...

The original wooden doors of Chepstow Castle in southern Wales. The castle was first built c. 1067 CE by Earl William FitzOsbern and then extended from c. 1190 CE by Sir William Marshal (c. 1146-1219 CE). The doors, dated using tree-ring...