Hephaistion’s signature on a 2nd century BCE floor Mosaic

Hephaistion’s signature on a 2nd century BCE floor mosaic from the Palace V of the Acropolis at Pergamon, Turkey. The tesserae are meant to look like a parchment note held by wax, about to fly away.

Hephaestion, Son of Amyntor, was an ancient Macedonian nobleman of probable “Attic or Ionian extraction” and a general in the army of Alexander the Great. He was “by far the dearest of all the king’s friends; he had been brought up with Alexander and shared all his secrets.” This relationship lasted throughout their lives, and was compared, by others as well as themselves, to that of Achilles and Patroclus.