This impressive sculptural group is first documented on the Piazza del Campidoglio in 1300. From 1347 it was located on the staircase of the Palazzo Senatorio, an area destined to the administration of justice and capital punishment.

A symbol of Rome and of the city’s glorious past, the group was much admired by Michelangelo Buonarotti and in 1594 was restored by one of his pupils, Ruggero Bescape, who added the horse’s head, legs and tail, as well as the lion’s rear legs.

The sculpture is dated to the early Hellenistic period (late IV century BC and can be attributed to a workshop operating either in Greece or in Asia Minor. The group is perhaps to be described as a commemorative monument linked to the Persian victories of Alexander the Great.