Many good examples have been discovered in France, chiefly in the Basses-Pyrénées, and in England, at Woodchester, Withington in Gloucestershire, London, and other places (Figs. 286, 287). The Roman mosaics executed in the provinces were, however, of a ruder kind than those found at Rome and at other places in Italy (Fig. 288). [Illustration: Fig. 288.—Ancient Roman Mosaic.] In the Græco-Roman collection at the British Museum may be seen representations of colossal figures in mosaic from Carthage, and a floor pavement 40 feet by 12 feet from Halicarnassos. One of the most important examples of Roman mosaic was found in the seventeenth century in the Temple of Fortune at Palestrina—the ancient Praeneste. It represents landscape scenes placed in superimposed sections, through which runs a river, supposed by some authorities to represent the mouth of the Nile; islands are represented on which are monuments, temples, trees, farms, climbing plants, animals, and figures engaged in agricultural and hunting pursuits. The animals depicted are chiefly those which are native to Egypt; besides these there are some fantastic creatures represented common to the mythology of that country, as well as to Greece and Rome; the inscriptions and names of the animals are rendered in Greek characters, Greek being the official language used at that period in Egypt and at the Court in Rome, as well as being the native language of the artists who executed the work. All this goes to strengthen the opinion formed by the Abbé Barthélemy, in opposition to others, that this great mosaic picture represents the voyage of the Emperor Hadrian on the Upper Nile, through Egypt, to the Elephantine Island. Mosaic pavements with subjects of combats of lions and bulls in a savage landscape, executed in the same manner as the Palestrina mosaic, have been found at Pompeii in the ruins of Hadrian’s Villa, a building which he had constructed in imitation of the various styles of architecture of the different countries which he had visited. A celebrated mosaic, of a much higher and earlier order of art, is the representation of the Battle of Arbela, or Issus, now preserved in the Naples Museum. This battle was fought between the Greek and Persian forces in the year 331 (B.C.), in which Alexander the Great was victorious over Darius the Persian. Alexander is represented on horseback in the act of throwing his lance at a Persian satrap; horsemen, chariots, and foot soldiers are all represented with great vigour and in correct drawing; the whole composition is excellent, and represents the Greek army in the decisive moment of victory.