Alexander's Crown 
 


A Bronze Lantern
 


A Pair of Gold Earrings
 


A Golden Krater **



A Golden Quivver for Arrows
 

 Library at Ephesus (Efes, Turkey)

(Photo credit: R. Borneman, 2000)

     "In the opening years of the second century B.C., the Roman general Flaminius defeated the Macedonian army and declared the old poleis of Classical Greece as free once again.  They never, however, regained their former glory.  Athens, for example, sided with king Mithridates VI of Pontus (r. 120 - 63 B.C.) in his war against Rome and was crushed by the general Sulla in 86 B.C.  Thereafter, it retained some of its earlier prestige as a center of culture and learning, but politically Athens was just another city incorporated into the ever-expanding Roman Empire.  Greek artists, however, continued to be in great demand, not only to furnish the Romans with an endless stream of copies of Classical and Hellenistic masterpieces but also to create new statues a la grecque for Roman patrons.

     One such work is the famous group of the Trojan priest Laocoon and his sons, which was discovered in Rome in 1506 in the presence of the great Italian Renaissance Artist Michelangelo. The marble group, long believed to be an original of the second century B.C., was found in the remains of the emperor Titus' (r. 79 - 81) palace, exactly where Pliny had seen it more than fourteen centuries before.  Pliny attributed the statue to three Rhodian sculptors - Athanadoros, Hagesandros, and Polydoros - who are now generally thought to have worked in the early first century A.D.  They probably based their work on a Hellenistic masterpiece depicting Laocoon and only one son.  Their variation on the original [adds the other son in order to] conform with the Roman poet Vergil's account in the Aeneid.  Vergil vividly described the strangling of Laocoon and his two sons by sea serpents while sacrificing at an altar.  The gods who had favored the Greeks in the war against Troy had sent the serpents to punish Laocoon, who had tried to warn his compatriots about the danger of bringing the Greek's Wooden Horse within the walls of their city."

- Gardner's Art Through The Ages, 11th edition, Vol. I, pp. 157 - 158
 

Laocoon

"In Vergil's graphic account, Laocoon suffered in terrible agony, and the torment of the priest and his sons is communicated in a spectacular fashion in the marble group.  The three writhe in pain as they struggle to free themselves from the death grip of the serpents.  One bites into Laocoon's ... hip as the priest lets out a ferocious cry."

- Gardner's Art Through The Ages, 11th edition, Vol. I, p. 158
 

Laocoon (detail)