Aion Art

artschoolglasses:

Septimius Severus

Glyptothek, Munich

noragaribotti:

Museo Archeologico Nazionale Napoli-A partially intact Roman mosaic depicting a lion and leopard fighting. Provenance unknown.

AN EGYPTIAN GRANITE HEAD OF SEKHMET

THEBES, NEW KINGDOM, 18TH DYNASTY, REIGN OF AMENHOTEP III, CIRCA 1388-1351 B.C.

Source: Christies

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A ROMAN BRONZE MASK OF ZEUS AMMON

CIRCA 1ST CENTURY A.D.

Source: Christies

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COIN OF PERGAMON, MYSIA

Age unknown (most likely c. 200 B.C. - 100 B.C.)

Material: AE

Weight: 4.66g

Diameter: 17mm

Obverse: The bust of Athena right wearing triple crested helmet

Reverse: Trophy of armor

Mysia was a region in the northwest of Asia Minor (now modern Turkey)located on the south coast of the Sea of Marmara which connects the Black Sea to the Aegean. The city of Pergamon was one of the most important cities in the region.

The first historical reference to Pergamon comes in the writings of the Greek general, adventurer, and friend of Socrates, Xenophon, who captured the city in 399 BC from the Persians. It was immediately recaptured by the Persians, against whom the city unsuccessfully revolted in 362 B.C. - an act for which it was severely punished.

It started to grow after the the conquests of Alexander the Great when Lysimachus, King of Thrace (a coins of Lysimahus also features in this gallery), took possession of the city in 301 B.C.

Lysimachus entrusted the city to the command of his lieutenant Philetaerus, which proved to be a poor decision as Philetaerus revolted in 282 B.C., joining Lysimachus’ enemy Seleucus in his war against Philetaerus. After the Kingdom of Thrace collapsed with Lysimachus’ death in battle against Seleucus in 281 B.C., Pergamon became the capital of the new kingdom of Pergamon under the rule of Philetaerus. Although nominally under Seleucid control, Philetaerus seems to have been effectively independent, and, despite being a eunuch, he went on to found the successful Attalid dynasty through his nephew.

Under the Attalid’s the city would support Rome against Macedon and the Seleucids in Romes various military interventions and eventual conquest of the Greek world between 241-158 B.C., and in consequence Pergamon became a client kingdom of Rome ruling over much of Asia Minor until the Kingdom was ‘gifted’ to Rome in 133 B.C. when it’s king died without an heir. Under Rome the city was briefly the capital of the province of Asia, and even after the capital was moved it continued to prosper until the barbarian invasions of the late 3rd Century A.D.

Athena was a Greek goddess of wisdom, crafts and war. A temple to here was located on the Acropolis of Pergamon.

In ancient Greece and Rome, military victories were commemorated with a display of captured arms and standards. A trophy (from the Greek tropaion) was originally a war memorial assembled from such items on a battlefield. The Reverse of this coin is intended to replicate such a tropaion.

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didoofcarthage:

Black-figure kylix with satyr carrying a fish and wineskin

Greek (from Attica or Boeotia), Late Archaic Period, c. 480-470 B.C.

terracotta

Metropolitan Museum of Art 

signorformica:

Depiction of Anzû –also known as Imdugud in Sumer: 3500 BC in the Uruk period–, lesser Mesopotamian deity, half god, half demon; half man, half lion-headed eagle, personification of the blazing southern wind and the ominous thunder clouds, in a relief discovered by British archaeologists in the Assyrian city of Nimrud, Iraq, in 1850, dated 9^th century BC.  Bibliothèque Infernale on FB