Poussin came to Rome in 1624, and only a short stay in Paris (1640–1642) was to interrupt his Roman career. As a friend of his successful fellow-painter Claude Lorrain and a protégé of Pope Urban VIII and the cultured members of the papal court, Poussin became one of Rome’s most prominent painters. His frequently documented interest in the art of antiquity gave his works a classical touch, which manifests itself in the present painting in its relief-like composition and plain coloration. The chaotic action appears well-organised, with the bodies precisely laid out on the canvas, and the mighty columns of the temple and the rigid figures in the foreground providing a counterweight to the battlefield tumult.