The Capriciousness of Life

Caius Marius Meditating in the Ruins of Carthage (1807).

The American painter John Vanderlyn (1775-1852) shows here the Roman general and politician Caius Marius in his exile in Northern Africa. Upon the ruins of Carthage he is thinking about the capriciousness of life, about his own future and his destiny. It is not known if Marius visited the ruins of Carthage, they serve here as a typical symbol of vanity. History passes by and in the end probably there are only ruins to tell of grater times.