Like dozens of historians and archaeologists, I am passionate about the topic of the tomb of Alexander the Great, where is buried relic like half the world has looked for 2,000 years?. Unfortunately at this time of my life I have neither the time nor the equipment nor the resources to embark on the quest for Alexander.
But while, so if I can be doing is collecting all the information possible on the subject and is just what I have at least a year doing. Among so much information I collected and read, I have met several times with the famous Nemeseión, so I decided to dedicate a post.
The Nemeseión is the name that is known to the temple of Nemesis and Julius Caesar (as Appian) built there to bury the decapitated head of his enemy and friend Pompey and is supposedly built on the exact spot where Pompey was killed.
The Nemeseión is quoted in several of the works that I mentioned because I have collected all the historical accounts we have suggest that Alexander's tomb is in Alexandria., Place where Pompey was murdered on the orders of King Ptolemy XIII. Therefore, dozens of archaeological works were carried out in cemeteries and temples of the city. Of the places that have been found, the most important is perhaps the alabaster tomb when it was discovered in 1907 by Italian archaeologist Evaristo Breccia, thought he had found the Nemeseión, but one of his compatriots, Achille Adriani, took it out of his error.
And indeed, Breccia was wrong. Alabaster Tomb could not be the Nemeseión since it was destroyed during the Jewish-Roman War, between 115 and 117 AD when luku, the leader of the rebellious Jews, entered in Alexandria after the Romans abandoned and burned the whole city.
One of the most common confusion is that which says that the head was buried in Pompey's Pillar, which stands in what remains of Sarapeión. This speculation arose in ancient times when travelers began to speculate on the tomb of Pompey and Pompey's Column assigned as the place where Caesar had buried his head. This idea continued until the Middle Ages when the Crusaders visited the column with the same purpose, but the reality is that this column was built to commemorate the victory of Publius on the rebellion of Achilles, who proclaimed himself Emperor of Egypt during the reign of Diocletian. Therefore, Caesar never saw the Column of Pompey since it was erected three and half centuries after his death in 291 aD
I have not found any description of how was the Nemeseión I searched a bit more about it but sources are scarce mention it so I'm afraid I can not give any picture. What I found was a beautiful poem dedicated to Pompey and Nemeseión, are fluent in English, here is the link:
http://sannion.livejournal.com/tag/nemesis
In conclusion, the Nemeseión was destroyed during the assault of Alexandria, but it would certainly be an invaluable relic if it still existed today. The war took that piece of history, but we are looking for an even bigger and I am confident that we will find: the tomb of Alexander the Great.
But while, so if I can be doing is collecting all the information possible on the subject and is just what I have at least a year doing. Among so much information I collected and read, I have met several times with the famous Nemeseión, so I decided to dedicate a post.
The Nemeseión is the name that is known to the temple of Nemesis and Julius Caesar (as Appian) built there to bury the decapitated head of his enemy and friend Pompey and is supposedly built on the exact spot where Pompey was killed.
The Nemeseión is quoted in several of the works that I mentioned because I have collected all the historical accounts we have suggest that Alexander's tomb is in Alexandria., Place where Pompey was murdered on the orders of King Ptolemy XIII. Therefore, dozens of archaeological works were carried out in cemeteries and temples of the city. Of the places that have been found, the most important is perhaps the alabaster tomb when it was discovered in 1907 by Italian archaeologist Evaristo Breccia, thought he had found the Nemeseión, but one of his compatriots, Achille Adriani, took it out of his error.
And indeed, Breccia was wrong. Alabaster Tomb could not be the Nemeseión since it was destroyed during the Jewish-Roman War, between 115 and 117 AD when luku, the leader of the rebellious Jews, entered in Alexandria after the Romans abandoned and burned the whole city.
One of the most common confusion is that which says that the head was buried in Pompey's Pillar, which stands in what remains of Sarapeión. This speculation arose in ancient times when travelers began to speculate on the tomb of Pompey and Pompey's Column assigned as the place where Caesar had buried his head. This idea continued until the Middle Ages when the Crusaders visited the column with the same purpose, but the reality is that this column was built to commemorate the victory of Publius on the rebellion of Achilles, who proclaimed himself Emperor of Egypt during the reign of Diocletian. Therefore, Caesar never saw the Column of Pompey since it was erected three and half centuries after his death in 291 aD
I have not found any description of how was the Nemeseión I searched a bit more about it but sources are scarce mention it so I'm afraid I can not give any picture. What I found was a beautiful poem dedicated to Pompey and Nemeseión, are fluent in English, here is the link:
http://sannion.livejournal.com/tag/nemesis
In conclusion, the Nemeseión was destroyed during the assault of Alexandria, but it would certainly be an invaluable relic if it still existed today. The war took that piece of history, but we are looking for an even bigger and I am confident that we will find: the tomb of Alexander the Great.
