 This mosaic may be inspired by or copied from a Greek painting finished in the late fourth century BC, probably by the artist Philoxenus of Eretria.Unlike most Pompeian pavements of the late second and early first centuries, this mosaic is made of tesserae, and not the more common opus signinum, or other kinds of stone chips set in mortar.The "Alexander Mosaic" is complemented by other floor mosaics with Nilotic scenes and theatrical masks.