The mosaics of Delos are a significant body of ancient Greek mosaic art. Most of the surviving mosaics from Delos, Greece, an island in the Cyclades, date to the last half of the 2nd century BC and early 1st century BC, during the Hellenistic period and beginning of the Roman period. About half of all surviving tessellated mosaics from Hellenistic Greece come from Delos. The paved walkways of Delos range from simple pebble or chip-pavement constructions to elaborate mosaic floors composed of tesserae. Most motifs contain simple geometric patterns, while a handful utilize the opus tessellatum and opus vermiculatum techniques to create lucid, naturalistic, and richly colored scenes and figures. Mosaics have been found in places of worship, public buildings, and private homes. They share characteristics with those in other parts of the Greek world, such as Macedonian mosaics in Pella. They often employ a black-background technique as seen in the red-figure pottery of the Classical period..

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_Greece

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1818:

Charles XIV John (portrait shown) succeeded to the thrones of Sweden and Norway as the first monarch of the House of Bernadotte. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_XIV_John_of_Sweden

1923:

Australian cricketer Bill Ponsford made 429 runs to break the world record for the highest first-class score. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Ponsford

1958:

A U.S. Mark 15 nuclear bomb disappeared off the shores of Tybee Island, Georgia, after it was jettisoned during a practice exercise when the bomber carrying it collided in midair with a fighter plane. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1958_Tybee_Island_mid-air_collision

2000:

Second Chechen War: As the Battle of Grozny came to a close, Russian forces summarily executed at least 60 civilians in Grozny's Novye Aldi suburb. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novye_Aldi_massacre

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

who would have thunk it: (colloquial, sometimes sarcastic) A rhetorical question used to express incredulity: who would have guessed it?; who would have thought that would happen? https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/who_would_have_thunk_it

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

I am a lawyer. I think that one of the most fundamental responsibilities, not only of every citizen, but particularly of lawyers, is to give testimony in a court of law, to give it honestly and willingly, and it will be a very unhappy day for Anglo-Saxon justice when a man, even a man in public life, is too timid to state what he knows and what he has heard about a defendant in a criminal trial for fear that defendant might be convicted. That would to me be the ultimate timidity.   --Adlai Stevenson II https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Adlai_Stevenson_II