ALT An Egyptian-Roman mummy portrait of a man dated to 150-200 AD. "This serious looking man in a white tunic and cloak wears a wreath of vine leaves in his hair, a sign of divine status after death. His hairstyle is characteristic of the late 2nd century AD. Small curls hang decoratively over the forehead. This portrait appears to have undergone a number of (modern?) restorations. The two wooden fragments placed at an angle at the bottom on the right and the unusual colour contrasts in the face indicate this." Per a special exhibition's description. This is owned by the University of Heidelberg Egyptian Institute in Heidelberg, Germany which is closed for renovation.

ALT MOSAIC EMBLEMA WITH DOVES, 120-100 BCE, FROM THE HOUSE OF THE GEOMETRIC MOSAICS, POMPEII, NOW IN THE MUSEO ARCHEOLOGICO NAZIONALE DI NAPOLI (MANN, INV. 114281) Crafted in microscopic opus vermiculatum by Greek-trained masters in Campania, this magnificent mosaic emblema depicts doves at a bronze cantharus. This variant of the "Pliny's Doves" mosaic includes two extra doves on the ledge below, while an upper bird is caught in an almost photographic snapshot, landing with wings outspread. The composition shows the matte nature of local stones (dark limestones and dense volcanic deposits), punctuated by vibrant glass-paste highlights rendering the wet sheen of water and glinting plumage. Framed by a rich border of theatrical masks and fruit garlands, this Pompeian original prioritises a tactile, muscular naturalism, differing sharply from the later imperial Capitoline Museums version's ethereal, highly polished golden basin and smooth painterly illusionism.

ALT SPOLIA IN THE ARCHI DI PORTA NUOVA, MILAN, REUSED IN THE 1860S ​“We've made Italy, now we must make the Italians,” wrote Massimo d’Azeglio in 1866. ​Here we see a very specific and unusual use of spolia, with a political message reaching beyond the spolia itself and beyond Milan. Inset into the rustic tan blocks of this 1171 gate is a vertical column of Roman marble fragments assembled during an 1860s post-unitary restoration by architect Giuseppe Balzaretto. The main piece is a C1 BCE funerary monument of the freedman family Gens Vettria, showing five portrait busts peering from house-tomb niches, a Latin inscription, and a small marriage relief at the base. Below it, an unrelated Roman inscription fragment has been seamlessly stacked. By moving these antiquities into the public square, the new Italian government created an open-air classroom, using local Romanitas to anchor this northern city to a grand, shared national lineage before Rome itself was even part of the new nation.

ALT The François tomb, named after the archaeologist who discovered it, contains a fresco depicting Caelius Vibenna (whom the Romans believed the Caelian Hill was named after) and Mastarna (a legendary figure whom the Emperor Claudius identified with Servius Tullius). The tomb paintings include a representation of 'Marce Camitlas' (Latin equivalent 'Marcus Camillus') about to draw his sword against a crouching 'Cneve Tarchunies Rumach' ('Gnaeus Tarquinius of Rome'). The ancient histories of Rome do not include any reference to a 'Gnaeus Tarquinius'. These frescoes are a unique reference point for an Etruscan view of the rise of Rome and point to a whole series of different, hostile legends told about the city's archaic monarchy by its northern enemies.

ALT LACUNAR COLUMN, C2 CE. VATICAN MUSEUMS Here we see an unusual Roman storied column carved in high relief. The marble shaft is divided into a vertical grid of interlocking hexagonal medallions, an eccentric design choice likely mimicking luxury metalwork or molded stucco ceilings. Inside these geometric frames are very fine carvings: a galloping horse at the top, a wildly-tousled bearded face in the middle, and a bull lower down. Discovered in 1771 by Gavin Hamilton at the Villa of Gallienus along the Via Appia, it was probably part of a set of four framing an œcus or reception room. Since Roman builders usually preferred standard fluting or simply a smooth marble surface, this bespoke survivor is incredibly rare. Restored in the eighteenth century, it now stands proudly in the Sala degli Animali, having narrowly escaped being shipped off to an English country estate by the enterprising excavator.

ALT TERRACOTTA APPLIQUE WITH NIKE AND QUADRIGA, C. 240 BCE. MUSEO NAZIONALE ROMANO This applique was found in a dig on the Cælian hill under via S. Stefano Rotondo, in a tomb. Here we see a curved plaque with holes at the back, to attach it to the neck of a giant urn. Bursting out from it in high relief is a quadriga pulled by four galloping horses, all with traces of paint. In the chariot, leaning forward as she is pulled by the impatient horses' invisible reins, is Nike or Victory, and under her chariot is a Giant, turning his head to the left as he dies under her wheels. This pathos came with the conquest of Magna Græcia, and the arrival in Rome of coroplasts, clay-workers, from Apulia and Sicily, c. 250 BCE. In that moment, Rome was no longer just a regional Latin power, but had not yet become the massive, cynical, marble-clad empire of the late Republic. It represented a brief, brilliant window of artistic synthesis: southern Greek energy bursting out of a Republican Roman tomb.

ALT COPY OF THE MOSAIC OF THE DOVES BY SOSUS, C. 125 CE. CAPITOLINE MUSEUMS The wealthy churchman Giuseppe Furietti bought excavation rights to the ruins of the so-called Accademia of Hadrian's Villa in 1736. His dig immediately produced the thrilling discovery of the two "Furietti Centaurs", now also in the same museum, and on Good Friday 1737 this emblema was found, at the centre of a large rectangular room. It is a copy of a mosaic mentioned by Pliny the Elder in Book 36 of his Natural History from 77 CE: "At Pergamum there is a remarkable dove done in mosaic, drinking, and darkening the water with the shadow of its head; other doves are preening themselves on the rim of the bowl." This copy matches Pliny's description, and was often known as "Pliny's Doves". Acquired from Furietti's heirs, it entered the Capitoline collections in 1765. It became the most celebrated mosaic of the C18, reproduced in many different forms, and had a colossal impact on art from neoclassicism onward.

ALT ALTAR TO HERCULES VICTOR, 81 CE. CAPITOLINE MUSEUMS "HERCVLI VICTORI POLLENTI POTENTI INVICTO D(ono) D(edit) L(ibens) M(erito) · C **[...]**S FRONTO **[...]**AIOR Q(æstor?) DEDICAVIT III I(dus) IVL(ias) L(ucio) VETTIO PAVLLO ET T(ito) IVNIO MONTANO CO(n) S(ulibus)" "To Hercules the Victorious, the Mighty, the Powerful, the Unconquered, [Caius ...s] Fronto, the [---]ior, Quaestor, gave this gift willingly and deservedly; dedicated on the third day before the Ides of July, in the consulship of Lucius Vetitius Paullus and Titus Iunius Montanus." This short, damaged inscription has a lot to unpack. The first three lines are punching hard with praise for Hercules Victor, here in the Forum Boarium a mercantile god, but its monumental squarish epigraphy veers off its central axis with the name of the dedicator, C. Fronto. The dedication date, 13 July 81, coincides with the end of the Ludi Apollinares, and a huge parade through the Forum Boarium, so Fronto's new altar would get attention.