During the 1501 restoration of Palazzo Orsini (now Palazzo Braschi), Cardinal Oliviero Carafa placed an ancient statue-found nearby a few years earlieron the side of the building.1 No one in Rome could have predicted the political and cultural repercussions of his actions. Unwittingly, the people of the time were witnessing the birth of one of the most feared and everlasting champions of anonymous European propaganda of the modern era. Rechristened Pasquino, the statue became a celebrity in its own right and its success went hand in hand with that of polemicist Pietro Aretino. Although of excellent workmanship, this marble group from the Hellenistic age was badly damaged, so much so as to make the features of the two characters portrayed unrecognizable. Although for a long time the two male figures were believed to be Menelaus and Patroclus, more recent studies have shown them to be Ajax in the act of holding the body of Achilles.2 Having been placed in the Parione neighborhood, very close to Piazza Navona, the statue was also adjacent to the street