Side view of the double herm of Thucydides (left) and Herodotus in Naples.

The portrait heads are early 2nd century AD copies
of early 4th century BC Greek originals. Height 58 cm.

Found in Hadrian’s Villa, Tivoli, near Rome, around 1547-1555.
Later in the Farnese Collection in the Villa Farnesina, Trastevere,
Rome. Taken with the rest of the collection to Naples in 1787.

Part of a large polychrome floor mosaic, measuring around 380 x 440 cm, from a rectangular room of the villa, thought to have been a triclinium (dining room). It was discovered by chance in 1907 by a Circassian family living in the ruins of the ancient city, and excavated between 1907 and 1935. The twenty two fragments of the floor now in the Berlin State Museums (SMB) were purchased in 1908, following the first excavation by Gottlieb Schumacher, and parts uncovered subsequently are in other museums and private collections.

The floor mosaic had a 20 cm wide frame with a continuous guilloche pattern, enclosing a wider border within which ran a series of busts of Muses alternating with ancient Greek writers, including Thucydides and the poets Homer (see the bust in Homer part 1), as well as the poets Anakreon, Alkman and Stesichoros. Each of the busts is shown above part of a long garland, continuous along each side of the border, festooned with leaves and fruit, supported by Erotes (Cupids) and hung with theatre masks. Various birds stand on the garland, flanking the busts. At each of the four corners of the border was a round medallion containing a bust of one of the Seasons (Horai).

The centre of the mosaic is thought to have been divided into four large emblemata (panels) with depictions of Dionysian scenes with several figures: one surviving emblema shows a Triumph of Dionysus (see the Dionysus page), and another a Dionysian procession with a drunken Herakles among Satyrs, Silens and Maenads.

The Dionysian themes and the presence of the Muses has led to the suggestion that the villa's owner may have had some connection with the theatre. However, none of the surviving busts portray playwrights, and apart from the actors' masks there is no specifically theatrical imagery. It may be more likely that the central panels reflect the use of the room for symposia (drinking parties), and the Muses and writers were meant to broadcast the owner's claim to literary taste.

Thucydides' name in Greek is written in black tesserae, in two parts, ΘΟΥΚΥ ΔΙΔΗC, to either side of his head. He is depicted as a middle-aged man with long brown hair and greying beard, a red nose and cheeks, his head turned slightly to face the viewer's left. He wears a white chiton (tunic) with a vertical red stripe on each side of the chest, with a himation (cloak) over his shoulders. This lively portrait is that of a dashing intellectual in his prime, the kind one sees today in photos of authors on the back covers of books.

Among the puzzling aspects of this floor decoration is the fact that on the outer border all the portraits face the outside of the mosaic area. In order to appreciate the images and read the inscriptions, the viewer in the villa would have had to stand or sit on the narrow guilloche frame, which was at the edge of the floor next to the walls of the room. Usually the floor would have been covered by dining couches and other furniture, and perhaps carpets. This also applies to other floor mosaics in private homes, leaving us to wonder why their owners went to so much expense commissioning or buying works of art they seldom saw.

"The city [Athens] meanwhile was permitted to retain her ancient laws; but the family of Pisistratus took care that one of their own number should always be in office. Among others who thus held the annual archonship at Athens was Pisistratus, a son of the tyrant Hippias. He was named after his grandfather Pisistratus, and during his term of office he dedicated the altar of the Twelve Gods in the Agora, and another altar in the temple of the Pythian Apollo.

The Athenian people afterwards added to one side of the altar in the Agora and so concealed the inscription upon it; but the other inscription on the altar of the Pythian Apollo may still be seen, although the letters are nearly effaced. It runs as follows:

Pisistratus the son of Hippias dedicated this memorial of his archonship in the sacred precinct of the Pythian Apollo."

Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, Book 5, chapter 54, sections 6-7. At Perseus Digital Library.

The facia of the altar was found in five fragments during excavations in 1877 on the right (north) bank of the Ilissos River, southwest of the Olympieion (Temple of Olympian Zeus) in central Athens. The fragments included most of the inscription exactly as quoted Thucydides. A further small fragment (Inv. No. Λ 13142) was discovered in March 2009 at 3 Iosiph ton Rogon Street (Οδός Ιωσήφ Των Ρωγών), near the site of the earlier excavations. It fitted perfectly a missing section of the top front edge of the altar and completed the part of the dedicatory inscription mentioning Apollo Pythios.

Μνε̃μα τόδε hε̃ς ἀρχε̃ς Πεισίστ[ρατος hιππίο h]υιὸς θε̃κεν Ἀπόλλονος Πυθίο ἐν τεμένει.

This memorial of his archonship Peisistratos son of Hippias set up in the temenos of Apollo Pythios.

Inscription Inscription IG I³ 948.

It is not known in which year Peisistratos (Πεισίστρατος) was archon, some time between 522 and 511 BC, perhaps 522/521 BC. The location of the sanctuary of Apollo Pythios (Απόλλων Πύθιος) has not yet been found, but is thought to be beneath modern buildings in the area where the altar fragments and other artefacts have been found.

The Altar of the Twelve Gods (or the Sanctuary of the Twelve Gods) at the northwest of the Athens Agora, was considered the centre of the city and the point from which distances from other places were measured. [3] The extension of the altar mentioned by Thucydides was probably built around the last third of the 5th century BC, during the Peloponnesian War.

Thucydides is the main historical source concerning the Athenian Sicilian expedition, which ended with the entire expeditionary force being killed or captured, with many being sold as slaves. His account, which takes up most of Books 6 and 7 of the History of the Peloponnesian War, also includes valuable and rare information about the history of ancient Sicily. He may have used now lost histories of Sicily and Italy by Antiochus of Syracuse as sources, particularly concerning the Greek colonization there.

1. Scapte Hyle (Σκαπτὴ Ὕλη, a forest that may be dug; also referred to as Scaptensula, foss wood).

"Indeed the Muses, it appears, called exile to their aid in perfecting for the ancients the finest and most esteemed of their writings. 'Thucydides of Athens composed the history of the war of the Peloponnesians and Athenians' in Thrace at Scapte Hyle; Xenophon wrote at Scillus in Elis, Philistus in Epeirus, Timaeus of Tauromenium at Athens, Androtion of Athens at Megara, and the poet Bacchylides in the Peloponnese."

2. Xenophon of Athens (Ξενοφῶν, circa 430-354 BC), general, historian and philosopher; pupil of Socrates.

3.The Altar of the Twelve Gods in Athens

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