The Alexander Mosaic, a reconstructed part of which can be seen at the House of the Faun today, was removed from the floor of the House of the Faun and placed in the Archaeology Museum of Naples.
When first discovered in the 1830s, the mosaic was thought to represent a battle scene from the Iliad; but architectural historians are now convinced that the mosaic represents the defeat of the last Achmaenid dynasty ruler King Darius III by Alexander the Great. That battle, called the Battle of Issus, took place in 333 BC, only 150 years before the House of the Faun was constructed.
Sources
For more on the archaeology of Pompeii, see Pompeii: Buried in Ashes.
Beard, Mary. 2008. The Fires of Vesuvius: Pompeii Lost and Found. Harvard University Press, Cambridge.
Christensen, Alexis. 2006. From palaces to Pompeii: The architectural and social context of Hellenistic floor mosaics in the House of the Faun. PhD dissertation, Department of Classics, Florida State University.
Mau, August. 1902. Pompeii, Its Life and Art. Translated by Francis Wiley Kelsey. The MacMillan Company.
