 In this episode, let's explore Alexander the Great and his relationship with the East. I'm here in Naples, Italy, and this is the man, the Archaeological Museum of Naples. It's truly one of the greatest museums in Italy, and it has right now this exhibition on Alexander the Great. Alexander the Great was born in 356, succeeded his father in 335, and between 334 and 330 he conquered the Persian Empire defying the odds, ultimately invading India in 326, dying at the young age, dying in 323, still a young man. What a legacy! And of course, his empire quickly dissolved into smaller kingdoms carved up by successors. And of all those amazing idolized portraits of Alexander on exhibit, we can also turn to the Alexander Mosaic, which depicts probably the most faithful rendition of what Alexander the Great looked like. Here's how it is normally on display. It's currently being restored, a massive overhaul of this important mosaic, which was a faithful rendition of a painting that was created in the lifetime of Alexander, probably depicting the battle of Issus against the Persian king Darius. Okay, here in the grand hall you have an incredible collection, and a lot of the work here reflects the impact that Alexander the Great had on other people throughout the Mediterranean. This is a case in point. This comes from the town of Lanuvium, so not that far from Rome, and it's an example of Imitatio Alexandri. So people are imitating Alexander. There's a famous statue group at the battle of the Granicus River, depicting Alexander and his companions in bronze that's eventually brought to Rome to the Porticus Metellus as a trophy. But here we have a grouping in Perian marble that was found in a sanctuary, and what we're doing here is we think it's attributable to Locullus, and Locullus is then with his companions imitating that same statue group first made famous by Alexander's companions. Now here is an example of a Roman general, Locullus, ultimately outshined by Pompey the Great, but here is apparently his moment of glory in this sanctuary in Lanuvium. This is the famous, very famous, Farnese tazza, the Farnese cup, which is the largest preserved sonnet agate cup, a cameo preserved from the entirety of the ancient world. This is a piece that falls into the hands of the Farnese family. It comes from this collection in this museum, but it had a storied past, and why it's here in this particular exhibition at Alexander has to do with the influence of Alexander the East, and of course that includes Egypt, and this seems to be part of the production of one of the Ptolemaic rulers, one of the successors of Alexander the Great that ultimately becomes a possession of the imperial family of Rome. Here's a depiction of a famous wedding, this is the wedding of Alexander and Roxanne, this is after he's conquered the Persian Empire, and of course you can see he's accompanied here by a Persian soldier, you can tell by the getup that he has. His uniform is also what we'll see on the Alexander Mosaic, but what's so important about this kind of connection in the time of Alexander, it wasn't just about conquest, it was also about a merger of cultures, and Alexander saw as much as his people influencing the Persians, is that he himself was being influenced by the Persians and the people of the east, and so many different cultures in this climactic battle between east and west ended up, at least in Alexander's mind, being that what he wanted to be a harmonious merger, it didn't really work out his empire dissolve very quickly with his death, but the conversations, the crossroads, the dialogue, and the overlap of those cultures never looked back, so this was a real changing point, truly where east met west, and so much of this exhibition then focuses on that dialogue, that conversation between east and west. What's so important about this kind of exhibition is that it also holds to the values of the Museum of Naples in general, what they're doing is pushing this conversation of multiculturalism, you have it in the city of Naples, the Greek city, a Roman city, think of Spanish influence, and so on, there's so much of that multiculturalism that's visible when you're in the city of Naples, bringing it into this incredible collection in Naples, you're confronted with what's happening in Herculaneum and Pompeii, you're looking at that magnificent Farnese collection that's bringing the international flavor from Rome as capital of empire, but all together there are all kinds of threads that make you very much aware just how international, just how multicultural experience was in the ancient world, it wasn't just the classical world, it was much larger, and these kinds of exhibitions that they're holding today, like this exhibition on Alexander in the east, is that it's drawing you into a much larger world, drawing you into the connections between these cultures, and I think it's really successful because it's giving you a much more nuance, a much richer look at the ancient world in general. We have here the reconstruction of a room from a villa found in Basque Reale, being to the time of Julius Caesar, that probably belonged to Publius Fania Sinister, and you have a whole cycle of frescoes referring to the Macedonian court. And this particular section is quite important, according to Filippo Corelli, this figure right here is none other than Alexander the Great himself in a new interpretation. We have all these Macedonian figures with that spear leading down here, crossing the spot of water, it's the conquest of Alexandra in Europe, crossing over into Asia, a new interpretation as part of this new exhibition. This figure, in the scholarship oftentimes identified as a woman, has a lot of physical features similar to the portrait of Alexander on the Alexander Mosaic. Alexander was also known for having a very fair complexion, and this figure is wearing the calcium, which is the hat of the Macedonian rulers, and with that spear or scepter he's leaning on it and it extends across a small body of water, the dardanelles, so he's spanning from Europe and Macedonia over across into Asia. He's got a Macedonian shield at his feet and who's looking at him on the Asian side, expectantly a figure that represents Asia. So we have a new interpretation and you know, there's a lot of convincing aspects of this interpretation that we're actually looking at another contemporary based portrait of Alexander the Great made as a copy in this house in Bosco Reale. There are so many individual pieces that give us a nuanced view of the contemporaries of Alexander the Great, but also the impact from the conquest of Alexander the Great, and ultimately that conversation between East and West, and it really is a great assemblage of materials of various media, and ultimately it opens up a lot of conversations, conversations about the relationship between the Macedonians and the Greeks, the Greeks that protested, that fought against Alexander and his conquest of Greece itself, and then many of the Greeks that then fought for the Persians against the Macedonians and Alexander. We have contemporary armor. We have also the reflection, the echoing of those lost great works of art, including the Granicus monument of Alexander and his companions, all in bronze. We see a lot of iterations in the Roman period made of marble. Although the Alexander Mosaic is undergoing an important restoration, the public can look at this, this faithful restoration that fills in the missing gaps in the Alexander Mosaic to give us a full picture of the Battle of Alexander and Darius. The exhibition has many unique pieces like these camels from China, underlying the fact that the Silk Road is now really opened up under Alexander the Great. He fought against elephants in India, and elephants then become part of the repertoire of battle against foreign foes. And we have many examples from Alexandria, a city that was founded by Alexander in the House of the Faun, which also boasts the Alexander Mosaic. It's an extraordinary museum and it is a wonderful exhibition. You learn so much more about Alexander the Great and the world in which he was involved in and how he made a great change by directly interacting with so many new cultures, bringing them into the Mediterranean. And that's a conversation we'll continue in other exhibitions. Thank you so much again to the man for the invitation and the exclusive access. Sign up for Ancient Rome Live, subscribe, and we'll see you throughout the Mediterranean.