2-587-595 - © Fine Art Images/Heritage Images

'Sophonisba', 1640s. Sophonisba was a Carthaginian noblewoman who was captured by the Romans late in the Second Punic War. She committed suicide by drinking poison in order to avoid the humiliation of being paraded through Rome as a captive in a triumphal procession. Her story inspired numerous visual, written and musical works of art from the 16th until the 19th century. Found in the collection of the State A Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow.