Hecate, an ancient Greek goddess still honored today

Hecate is a very recognizable goddess, the only one to be depicted with three heads or three bodies, as her realm includes the heavens, the earth, and the sea. Since she could easily move from one to the other, she was known to be the guardian of crossroads. That is where we often find her striking statues, but also at cemeteries, as she was associated with communication with the dead. 

A very well-preserved example of Hecate is this statue made in Italy after an original created by the sculptor Alcamenes between 430 and 420 BC for the Acropolis in Athens, where she marked the transition from the sacred hill to the rest of the city. 

Hecate’s roots go back 8,000 years, when she was seen as ‘the guardian of the threshold’, standing at city gates, for instance. In the figurative sense, she became an inner guide to those coping with a personal crisis. 

Hecate had her own temple, and the largest is to be found in Lagina, near the modern city of Muğla in southwest Turkey. It stood in the center of the sacred precinct and dates to the 2^nd century BC.  Her sanctuary invites even today’s visitor to look beyond the archaeological site to find a place of profound energy. 

The frieze that ran around the temple walls can now be seen at the Archaeological Museum of Istanbul, where the scenes are astutely presented high above the ground to mimic their original placement. We recognize mythological scenes, including the life of Zeus and the Carian gods, as well as scenes of Gigantomachy and Amazonomachy.

[Picture from Turkish Archaeological News]

In Hellenistic times, the Seleucids expanded the sanctuary to become one of the most important in Caria. Lagina continued flourishing under Roman rule. Emperor Augustus helped rebuild the sacred shrine after it was damaged by a Parthian attack in 40 BC. Thereafter, the Romans popularized the Temple of Hecate by creating a yearly festival that attracted people from all over the Empire. 

Lagina kept its importance until it was destroyed by the catastrophic earthquake of 365 AD that hit the entire Eastern Mediterranean. The rise of Christianity led to building a large Basilica on the ruins between the central altar and the Temple of Hecate. It is known to have served until the 6^th century AD. 

Lagina was connected to nearby Stratonikeia by a Sacred Road, 8.5 kilometers long and about 3.5 meters wide. This situation clearly reminds me of the Sacred Road that linked Miletus to Didyma (see: Miletus, Alexander’s first siege in Asia). A similar stone-paved road was lined with Nymphaea and wells, and dotted with small settlements offering comfort to the pilgrims. Yearly processions in honor of Hecate were organized between Stratonikeia and Lagina, beside the grand religious festivities that were held every four years, like those between Miletus and Didyma. 

Unique and significant was the key-carrying ceremony that symbolized the ability to move between life and death, the conscious and the unconscious, the old and the new. A young girl, the key-bearer, would carry a sacred key between Lagina and Stratonikeia, accompanied by a choir of young girls singing hymns. They would enter the sanctuary and start religious ceremonies. At this point, the gates of the temple would be opened by the key-bearer as the participants would take their places on the steps along the western edge of the sanctuary to attend the ceremony. 

Amazingly, even today, Lagina continues to be a place of pilgrimage where many visitors still bring their offerings of pomegranates, apples, wheat, garlic, and, occasionally, even fish. Archaeologists do not support this kind of gift as they fear damaging the fragile ruins. 

All in all, today’s visitors have their own way to interpret the worship of Hecate. It must be said that the journey feels very symbolic because her temple of Lagina stands close to a power plant, near a three-way junction. The location still underscores the role of the goddess of the crossroads. 

Although initially, Hecate was known for positive qualities as a protector, a source of wisdom, and a cosmic force, modern pilgrims and devotees particularly revere Hecate as a goddess of pathways and a bringer of light. 

What a beautiful support and safe haven in our troubled world!

Visit ancient cities in Turkey by night

As of this year, 2025, major archaeological sites remain accessible until late in the evening, often after sunset. The idea is for tourists to avoid excessive daytime temperatures. These late opening hours, which will also apply to several museums, will apply until 1 October 2025. 

I can’t help wondering how safe such nighttime visits will be. Museums should not be a problem, but ancient sites are another issue. I can imagine admiring the temples, theaters, and statuary lit by floodlights, although with some cautiousness, but walking over uneven pavement may be quite hazardous. 

An excellent example is, for instance, Mount Nemrud, which will open already at 4 a.m. and close at 9 p.m. Watching the sunrise or sunset from up there is a unique and unforgettable experience. But climbing the high-stepped stairs to the monument is a challenge by daytime, so much more so by dawn or dwindling light! 

Anyway, for the brave ones or daredevils, I am sharing the sites and museums that offer extended variable visiting hours. 

Closing times for archaeological sites and museums in 2025:

Istanbul
Galata Tower – 11 p.m.
Hagia Sophia History and Experience Museum – 10 p.m.
Turkish and Islamic Arts Museum – 10 p.m.
Archaeology Museums (excluding closed sections) – 10 p.m.

Adiyaman
Nemrud – 4 a.m. to 9 a.m.

Ankara
Museum of Anatolian Civilizations – 9 p.m.
Ethnography Museum – 9 p.m.

Antalya
Antalya Museum – 10 p.m.
Alanya Museum – 10 p.m.
Aspendos – 10 p.m.
Patara – 10 p.m.
Side – 10 p.m.
Nekropol Museum – 10 p.m. 

Aydin

Didyma – 9 p.m.

Denizli
Hierapolis – 11 p.m.

Erzurum

Erzurum Museum – 9 p.m.

Gaziantep
Zeugma Mosaic Museum – 9 p.m.

Izmir
Ephesos – 11 p.m. (Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday)
Museum Izmir Culture and Arts Factory – 9 p.m.

Mugla
Bodrum Museum of Underwater Archaeology – 10 p.m.

Nevsehir - Cappadocia
Zelve-Pasa Baglari – 9 p.m.
Derinkuyu Underground City – 9 p.m.
Kaymakli Underground City – 9 p.m.
Ozkonak Underground City – 9 p.m.

Samsun
Samsun Museum – 10 p.m.

Sanliurfa
SanliUrfa Museum – 9 p.m.
Haleplibahce Mosaic Museum – 9 p.m.

Does age matter?

Writing about Alexander over the years, I have been handling chronological dates for his whereabouts in the correct time frame. There is, however, another approach to consider and that is Alexander’s age. 

We know he became king at the age of twenty and started his invasion of Asia at the age of twenty-two. He died a month short of his 33^rd birthday. All his marches, sieges, battles, and fighting are condensed within this last period of roughly ten years. 

A comparison with any modern monarchy is impossible because there are hardly any kings left and they no longer go to war at the head of their army. To compare Alexander with young men his age today is out of the question also simply because life and the circumstances of living are too far apart. 

Alexander has been taught by Aristotle but again this kind of education cannot be identified with the teaching of a young man in our modern world. I believe that even Philip, although he intended to do what was best for his son, underestimated the vastness of Aristotle’s knowledge. Alexander was meant to rise above Philip because he understood how to draw from Aristotle’s vast database (to use modern terminology) and merge it expertly with his innate infallible instinct - his genius. 

However, Philip may well have realized the potential of his 16-year-old son when he entrusted him with the seal of Macedonia while campaigning against Byzantium. The young prince honored his assignment as Regent by successfully putting down the Maedi revolt on the country’s northern border. 

Two years later, Philip put his son in command of his cavalry at the Battle of Chaironeia. Alexander did more than his share and annihilated the entire Theban Band, all three hundred of them! 

We don’t know how much time the young prince spent among the soldiers growing up in Pella, but I think it is safe to assume it was a lot. Leading the small contingent against the Maedi and the cavalry in Chaironeia speaks volumes. An army has that instinctive flair to recognize a true leader, one they can and will trust. 

This trust would only grow when Alexander became king after his father was murdered. In the next two years, he successfully led his troops against the Illyrians and the Thracians to secure his northern borders, sacked the city of Thebes in retribution for its betrayal, and confirmed his position as Hegemon of Greece as per the Treaty of Corinth. Alexander could never have contemplated his campaign in Asia without the full trust and commitment of his army. 

He crossed the Hellespont shortly before his 22^nd birthday and fought the Persian army for the first time at the Granicus River. Later that summer, he marched to Sardes and took Ephesos, Priene, Miletus, Didyma, and Halicarnassus. Alexander spent the following winter in Lycia, after which he conquered Phaselis and Perge. 

When he was 23 years old, he headed north to Sagalassos and from there to Gordion, where he cut the knot. Crossing Cappadocia, he returned to the shores of the Mediterranean. At Tarsus, he fell sick with a fever, which incapacitated him for several weeks. By the end of the year, he was engaged in the Battle of Issus, his first personal confrontation with King Darius. 

In two years, Alexander fought two major battles (see: The Battle of the Granicus and The Battle of Issus, where Alexander and Darius faced each other for the first time), besieged two cities, Miletus and Halicarnassus, and occupied all the major ports in Asia Minor. In our modern world, this means that he crossed all of Turkey. 

At the age of 24, he laid siege to two more cities, Tyre (building a mole in the process) and Gaza. His reception in Egypt was that of a liberator, and he was soon acclaimed as their new Pharaoh - a title that automatically made him a god in the eyes of the Egyptians. At the western end of the Nile Delta, he founded his first Alexandria, a city that still exists and prospers today! 

Many more sieges and battles were to follow in Central Asia and India. We almost take them for granted, despite that every siege and every battle came with its own technicalities and challenges. Alexander faced many hardships as he traveled through deserts, waded through countless rivers, and crossed mountains as high as those of the Hindu Kush! 

The three years Alexander spent in Sogdiana and Bactria, from his 27^th to his 30^th birthday, were an uninterrupted succession of skirmishes and fights in guerrilla wars he was totally unfamiliar with. The events culminated with his victory at the Battle of the Hydaspes against the Indian King Porus. By then, he and his men had covered some 28,000 kilometers, creating many new Alexandrias in the process. 

Although Alexander is usually depicted sitting on his horse, we have to keep in mind that he moved at the pace of his foot soldiers. Riding bareback was not comfortable, not for the rider and not for the horse (see: No saddles and no stirrups for Alexander’s cavalry). 

It is impossible to imagine anyone covering such a distance on foot. It would imply walking an average of 2,800 kilometers a year, ten years in a row! Let us keep in mind that many of his troops were veterans of his father’s days, men in their fifties, sixties, and even seventies! Not a leisurely trip for the fainthearted. 

Speaking of walking: how many pairs of shoes, boots, and sandals would the Macedonians have worn out? Providing new ones for some 40,000 men or more would have implied production on an industrial scale! Maybe we should believe the sources suggesting that the soldiers fought and walked sections of the route barefoot?

Sadly, Alexander died far too young, and so did Hephaistion, but men like Ptolemy and Seleucos lived to the ages of 84 and 77, respectively. Age clearly is not everything!

About the Olympian gods

Walking through the history of Greece, we cannot escape the ever presence of the gods – in this case, the Olympian gods. Besides the written history, they all came to us in many shapes and forms, such as statues, reliefs, mosaics, and even paintings, which are widely lost. Some of those earthly creations are true masterpieces, which I'd like to share at present.

The Greek pantheon counted twelve gods: Zeus, Hera, Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Poseidon, Ares, Demeter, Aphrodite, Dionysos, Hermes, and Hephaistos. This number, however, was flexible, and at times one of the lesser gods was replaced by another one.

We will remember how King Philip, Alexander's father, proclaimed himself the 13th god when he made his triumphal entry into the Theater of Aegae, where he was murdered that same day.

The Greek gods were very human and constituted one big family.

Zeus was the father of the gods, and as such, he ruled over heaven and earth. He was the god of thunder, so he is generally depicted holding a thunderbolt in his hand. The most magnificent rendition, in my opinion, is the bronze Zeus from the Sea of Artemisia, c. 450 BC, that dominates the room at the National Archaeological Museum of Athens.

Hera was Zeus' wife and Queen of Mount Olympus. She was the goddess of marriage and the family. Although she was a very jealous spouse, she remained faithful to Zeus despite his many escapades. Her temple in Olympia left us with many unusual artifacts, among which there is this (restored) terracotta Acroterium, which is now displayed in the local museum.

Athena was born from the head of Zeus and was the goddess of war and wisdom. Her name is closely tied to Athens after she donated the olive tree to symbolize peace and plenty. A sacred olive tree stood on the Acropolis, where a more recent specimen had replaced its ancestor. In her honor, the famous Temple of the Parthenon was built in the 5^th century BC. The New Museum of the Acropolis exhibits a relatively uncommon marble statue of a striding Athena that was part of the pediment of the archaic temple from c. 520 BC.

Apollo is the most loved of the gods and is generally associated with music. He also stands for youth, beauty, and the source of life and healing. Delphi was one of his favorite places of worship. Still, I was very impressed by the larger-than-life statue of Apollo playing the Lyre exhibited at the Archaeological Museum of Tripoli in Libya. It was retrieved from the Bath of Hadrian in Leptis Magna, Libya.

Artemis was the twin sister of Apollo, and often her temple stood right next to her brother's – as we know from Didyma and Letoon (Turkey), for instance. She was best known as the protector of women in childbirth, although she was also famous as the goddess of hunting. We'll remember that Artemis was so occupied in assisting the birth of Alexander that she neglected her tasks in Ephesos and let her temple burn down that same night. She is represented in the archaic eastern form with many breasts in this city, but that is not my favorite picture. There is, of course, the nearly intact Diana, the Roman version, at the Louvre in Paris, but I'd prefer this cute little hairnet from the National Archaeological Museum in Athens.

Poseidon, the later Roman Neptune, is best known as the god of the sea. He was famous for bringing floods and storms, but was also responsible for earthquakes. Yet, he had a good side also, since he protected the seafarers. My favorite is this relief from the 1^st or 2^nd century AD on display at the Museum of Burdur (famous for the artifacts retrieved in Sagalassos) in Turkey.

Ares was the son of Zeus and Hera and a very bellicose god with a quick temper. His beauty and courage made him the perfect seducer of women, the most famous of whom was Aphrodite. This scene is beautifully depicted in a fresco from the House of Lucretius Fronto in Pompeii, exhibited at the National Archaeological Museum of Naples, Italy.   

Demeter was Zeus' sister and the mother of Persephone, who was raped by the god of the underworld, Hades. She was one of the oldest gods in the Greek pantheon, and as such, she provided the earth's fertility and protected the harvest. The votive relief from Eleusis is probably the most famous picture, but I have a special connection with this remarkable relief tucked away in the Museum of Dion in Greece.

Aphrodite was born on the island of Cyprus near the city of Paphos, where her memory is still alive. According to some sources, she is said to be the daughter of Zeus. Aphrodite, who later became the Roman Venus, is widely known as the goddess of love, beauty, and sex. She not only protected the courtesans and prostitutes but also the seafarers. Quite uniquely, she was a favorite among men and women alike and played an essential role in commerce, politics, and warfare. There are many statues of Aphrodite and Venus to entice us. After in-depth comparisons, however, I chose this one from the Louvre in Paris.

Dionysos was another son of Zeus, but from his liaison with Semele. Hera was very jealous of that relationship and killed Semele. However, Zeus took the unborn child and reared him in his thigh. Dionysus turned out to be the bad boy of Olympus and is best known as the god of wine – always playful and good-natured. He is often represented in the presence of a Satyr, and the example from Sagalassos exhibited at the Museum of Burdur is one of the finest Hellenistic statues.

Hermes. In the crowded family on Mount Olympus, Hermes was another son of Zeus, but this time by the nymph Maia. He is often seen in the company of Pan, his son, and is the patron of the shepherds. He was engaged in many fields and was the god of commerce and thieves, clearly illustrating his colorful personage. He was also active as the god of travel, wealth, luck, and language. His later Roman name, Mercury, highlights his versatility. The most perfect rendition is the splendid Hermes with the child Dionysus, which Praxiteles created for the Temple of Hera in Olympia.

Hephaistos was the brilliant blacksmith on Mount Olympus. He was the god of fire and metallurgy. Since he was born to Hera without a father, he appeared as an ugly figure – the only one among the overall near-perfect gods and goddesses. That may be why I didn't find (or photograph) a statue of Hephaistos, who has left us his well-preserved temple in Athens.

About Greek/Roman columns and capitals

Well, this is not so much about columns which are the apparent eye-catcher generally drawing our attention toward the remains of a temple, an agora, or a stoa. Capitals are more challenging to pinpoint as they often toppled down after warfare, earthquakes, or other destruction. Although the casual visitor will inevitably notice the columns, he seldom pays attention to the capitals. These, however, tell a story of their own.

We are most familiar with the Doric and Ionic columns and capitals. The Doric order is the oldest one and is found in archaic architecture. It was, in fact, a logical evolution when stone replaced the original wooden beams in the construction of sanctuaries. The stones were cut into drums that could be handled readily and piled one atop the other to the desired height.

We have many temples built in the Doric style, and the highest concentration may be found in places such as Agrigento, Segesta, and Selinunte in Sicily.

Remains of this stone-cutting process are clearly visible at the ancient quarry of Cava di Cusa in Sicily. Since the site was abruptly abandoned, the quarried and half-quarried drums have been left unfinished. Seeing them from so close up and realizing how big such a drum truly was was pretty amazing.

The slim Ionic columns and capitals are generally tied to the Hellenistic period. They are higher and carry their typical elegant curly capital. Once again, it pays off to carefully look at a capital lying on the ground, as is the case in Didyma, Turkey, for instance. Spotting such capital on top of a 20-meter-high column is one thing, but quite another experience to match it to your stature.

Once the drums were stacked, the columns were usually fluted, but not always. In some cases, we find monolithic columns made of more noble materials like marble. They always seem to make a statement.

The Romans favored the Corinthian order, whose capitals were more elaborate. They came in endless variations of acanthus leaves, sometimes mingled with flowers to turn into delicate high-reliefs, almost like lace. It is remarkable to learn that in Gerasa (modern Jerash), Jordan, the Romans removed all the Ionic capitals from the columns on the Cardo and replaced them with Corinthian ones.

By the second century AD, we start seeing the heads of gods and goddesses emerging from among the foliage of the Corinthian acanthus. The first such elaborate examples that struck me were those from the Palazzo delle Colonne in Ptolemais, Libya, with the heads of Jupiter and Mars. There must be many more such examples, of course.

The Greeks and Romans' primary architectural orders are the Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian capitals. Other countries and other civilizations had their own versions. The Egyptians loved their papyrus capitals, and the Persians the double bull or lion heads.

Yet, I was very much surprised to see the Pergamene capital as I was strolling through the widespread ruins of Leptis Magna in Libya. Why had I not seen any in Pergamon, Turkey? Did I miss them altogether? I returned to my pictures of Pergamon but found mainly Ionic capitals, besides some Doric and Corinthian. Even the famous Altar of Zeus displayed only Ionic columns. However, the temple of Athena has used Pergamene capitals. 

Otherwise, even after searching the internet, I found only rare examples of this capital inspired by the Egyptian palm columns. Yet, they were all over Leptis Magna, and I feel privileged to have seen them in such large numbers with my own eyes!

In the end, looking at the top of the many columns that still fill our archaeological sites clearly pays off. We may be in for more surprises than expected. 

The little known oracle of Claros

It is not common knowledge that Claros ranges among the three most important oracles in antiquity, together with Delphi and Didyma.

The first cult of Claros occurred some time during the 7^th century using a round altar, which a century later, was replaced by a larger rectangular one of circa 15x6 meters. At the same time, the foundations were laid for the marble Temple of Apollo at the nearby spring, and another yet smaller temple was erected in honor of his sister, Artemis. This makes the oracle of Claros the oldest prophecy center in the ancient world.

The sanctuary remained untouched till the 4^th century BC when plans were made to enlarge it. These plans were, however, only realized in the 3rd century BC with the construction of a new Temple of Apollo and a new altar. The temple seems to be inspired by the one in Delphi having a similar crypt-like adyton where the oracle delivered her prophecies. The vaulted corridors are still visible today, although the passage is more often than not flooded by the sacred spring.

It seems the renovation works were never completed. It is astonishing to learn that only a few years ago (2006) divers found eight drums of a ten-meter-high column and its capital in Doric style in the nearby shipwreck of Kızılburun, about 60 kilometers from Claros (see: Sunken column finally delivered to the Apollo Temple in Claros). It clearly never reached its destination.

Unlike most oracles in antiquity, the diviners in Claros were men. After fasting for 24 or 48 hours, the question was whispered in the diviner's ear. He then drank some holy water, reappeared from the cave room, washed his hands and face, and formulated the question to the god Apollo. Through either inspiration or revelation, he later received the answer which he delivered to the priest in the shape of a poem. These rituals were held at night and the messages were written on tables that were erected in front of the temple for all to see. Yet, their content traveled as far as Dalmatia, Rome, Sardinia, Algeria, and even Britain and Russia! With the spread of Christianity, the oracle was gradually abandoned.

In this sanctuary, one still can read many of the ancient inscriptions on walls and steps, even on a curved marble bench. It is the largest group of such inscriptions that survived from Greek antiquity. It is also the only place providing us with a clear picture of how the priests could perform the hecatomb, i.e., a sacrifice to the gods in which as many as 100 cattle could be killed simultaneously. This ritual may have been performed at the end of the Claria Games which were held at Claros every five years in honor of Apollo (a similar ritual existed in Olympia at the closure of the Olympic Games).

Today’s visitors can still admire the remains of the Temple of Apollo with its vaulted adyton when it is not flooded. This happens generally in spring since Claros is located in the river valley and the temple itself is below the local water table. Yet, this adds to the charm of the place.

In front of the temple, archaeologists have painstakingly reassembled the fragments of three colossal sculptures, a seated Apollo holding his lyre, flanked by Leto and Artemis, standing seven meters tall. 

It seems that even Alexander the Great consulted this oracle before building the fortress on the nearby hill of Pagos where the residents from Smyrna were resettled.

Wartime looting in antiquity

Wartime looting is something we associate with today’s unstable political situations in North Africa and the Middle East, but looking back into history, this is certainly not new, although the reasons and the drives were entirely different then from what we are facing now.

Looting can be triggered by warfare in which we have the urge to annihilate the enemy, and that includes everything he treasures and cherishes. When it comes to religious wars, like, for instance, those fought by the Crusaders, looting is translated into the destruction of religious convictions and what they stand for. Looting may also be simple greed, the envy to possess what no one else has, either because it is unique or because it is so valuable.

One of the first examples that comes to my mind is the statues of Harmodius and Aristogeiton, two Athenian heroes who stood for the origin of Athenian democracy in 514 BC, and whose images were erected in the Agora. They were stolen by the Persians in 480 BC and moved to Susa, where they were recovered by Alexander the Great in 331 BC, who sent them back to Athens.

Yet most widespread or best-documented lootings happened in Roman times when great Greek works of art were carried home as trophies or as simple spoils of war.

After the sack of Corinth by L. Mummius in 146 BC, many statues were brought to Rome, while others were sold to the King of Pergamum, who was building up a remarkable collection. Among the statues that arrived in Rome was one of Philip II that was mistakenly labeled as that of Zeus.

Better known for all kinds of not-too-glorious reasons was L. Cornelius Sulla, who launched a well-remembered attack on Athens and Piraeus. He used the trees from Plato’s Academy and Aristotle’s Lyceum to build his siege towers. When Athens fell in 86 BC, he removed choice pieces from the Temple of Zeus, hardly built a century before, and these fragments later surfaced in the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus in Rome. At the same time, an unknown number of manuscripts, paintings, and other precious objects were shipped to Rome. Further, to pay for his expensive wars, he levied heavy contributions on the wealthiest cities to acquire the treasures of Epidaurus, Olympia, and Delphi – a true sacrilege at the time!

Following Sulla’s example, L. Licinius Lucullus collected works taken from Sinope by L. Aemilius Paullus. Sinope was a great admirer of Greek art and took his time to tour the country to find the most appealing pieces, like an Athena by Phidias that he dedicated to Rome, leaving, however, (luckily) the gigantic Zeus of Olympia untouched.

Julius Caesar was another great “collector,” acquiring his objects by plunder and purchase.

The most notorious of all looters definitely was Gaius Verres, governor of Sicily, who in 73 BC seized statues, reliefs, dedications, paintings and jewelry from the Sicilians and from other parts of the Greek world. He started by requisitioning the most beautiful objects from private homes, followed by the despoliation of the island’s sanctuaries. He stole a statue of Ceres from the temple of Catania; a set of gold and ivory doors from the temple of Athena in Syracuse, together with paintings and other effigies of the goddess whose hands supposedly were made of gold; a magnificent bronze statue of Apollo by Myron from the temple of Asclepius at Akragas; and many more. On their way to steal the statue of Heracles from the temple at Akragas, his soldiers were overpowered by furious citizens. Enough is enough! Tensions rose so high that Cicero was called in to defend the Sicilians’ case. He won, and Verres went into exile in Marseille. Unfortunately, none of these works of art was ever recovered.

With the increase of its wealth, Rome developed a kind of refinement where Corinthian bronzes became especially prized (the bronze was of exceptional quality!). Among those connoisseurs was Novius Vindex, who acquired a bronze statuette of Heracles made by nobody less than Lysippos, paintings by Apelles, and many other objects of marble, ivory, and precious metal believed to be the work of Praxiteles, Phidias, and Polycleitus.

Even Emperor Nero is to be found among the admirers of Greece, making him one of the major looters of Greek art to adorn the eternal city. He did not shy away from directing his attention towards Delphi, from where he took 500 bronze statues, and Olympia, where he monopolized an unspecified number of statues. Also on his list is a particularly fine Eros by Lysippos taken from Thespiae that was, later on, destroyed by a fire in Rome. Strangely enough, he left Athens untouched but rampaged through the cities of Asia Minor instead. He concentrated on masterpieces created by artists like Phidias, Praxiteles, and Cephisodotus. Among his masterpieces, the most famous were the Apollo Belvedere, the Borghese Gladiator, and a Venus. With the end of Roman power, the import and looting of Greek art came to a halt.

By this time, the Byzantine Empire had taken over, and Constantine the Great in 324 AD, inverted the inflow of art by bringing all the treasures from Rome to Constantinople. Under one of his successors, the pagan Julian the Apostate, we know that the temple of Apollo at Didyma and the sanctuary of Demeter at Eleusis were restored.

The sack of Rome by the Visigoths in 395 was devastating, and many works of art found their way to Constantinople. The ruthless rampage of the barbarians spread as quickly as wildfire, and it was at this period that the great Chryselephantine statue of Zeus that Phidias made for the temple of Zeus in Olympia was saved at the last moment and transferred to the Palace of Lausus in Constantinople (to be ultimately destroyed by fire in the first half of the 5^th century AD). Soon, more selected gem pieces joined this collection, including the Athena of Lindos from the 4^th century BC, the famous Aphrodite from Cnidos created by Praxiteles, and the Hera from Samos made by Lysippos. Constantine also brought a porphyry column from Delphi to adorn his Forum, while his Senate was enhanced by the statue of Zeus from Dodona and two statues of Pallas Athena. Bellerophon slaying the Chimera was brought in from either Great Antioch or Corinth; the Fortune of the City exchanged the Forum in Rome for Constantinople, together with a statue of the Sun God from Phrygia.

Constantinople’s Hippodrome was outrageously populated by no less than sixty statues imported from Rome, which, except for a statue of Augustus, came from all over the Greek world: Athens, Chios, Crete and Rhodes, Cyzicus, Caesarea, Sardes, Tralles, Tyana, Antioch, Iconium (modern Konya), Smyrna, Nicaea, Nicomedia, and Nicopolis. Just imagine the widespread and cumbersome dragging and lugging of all these artifacts. No wonder we keep recuperating them from the bottom of the Mediterranean!

Today’s visitors to the Hippodrome in Istanbul can still admire the Serpent Column, which is part of a monument that once stood next to the temple of Apollo at Delphi and was dedicated by the cities that defied the Persians at the Battle of Platea in 479 BC. On the same square stands an Egyptian obelisk, originally commissioned by Thutmosis III in the 16^th century BC to commemorate one of his campaigns in Syria. It was shipped to Constantinople towards the end of the 4^th century AD and broke during its transport. What we see now is only the upper part mounted on a marble base showing reliefs of Theodosius I and his family attending races on this very Hippodrome.

This was also home to the life-size group of four horses we know from Saint Mark’s Cathedral in Venice. They were made of gilded bronze, and the horses are said to have been pulling a chariot. It may have been brought in from Chios or given as a present to Nero by the king of Armenia and closely resembles the group created by Lysippos for the temple dedicated to Rhodes in Delphi during the 4^th century BC. According to one theory, these horses are Hellenistic copies, but according to others, it may well be the original that traveled from Delphi to Chios to Constantinople and eventually to Venice.

Time-wise, we now reach the construction of the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, where today’s visitors can still find many columns, doors, and other decorative elements that were taken from different cities all over Asia Minor.

For many centuries, Constantinople was a safe haven for many works of art from antiquity, but during the ensuing invasions, first by the Arabs in the 7^th and 8^th centuries and by the Bulgarians in the 9^th and 10^th centuries, the city was thoroughly sacked in 1204 when the members of the Fourth Crusade rampaged through the streets of this once so glorious city. Most saddening is maybe the final destruction of so many documents that had survived from antiquity and that are since lost forever. 

In our 21^st century, we praise ourselves as lucky to have museums to shelter and protect our greatest and most magnificent works of art, although, at times, even the museums are no longer a safe haven for our culture. We are all aware of the dilapidated museums of Kabul and Bagdad, for instance, and we still don’t know what has happened to the Museum of Damascus and so many others in the Middle East. Looting was and still is omnipresent, most unfortunately.

[Picture of Harmodius and Aristogeiton is from Ancient Rome]