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# Marble copy of the copper dog described by Pliny, in Baron Barracco's museum in Rome
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/plinii-starshii-vostorzhenno-pishet-pro-sobaku-zalizyvaiushchuiu-rany-v-khrame-iunony-na-kapitolii/
- Published: 2020-08-05T10:31:06.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-02T19:01:32.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Art, Books, Museums, Rome

Pliny the Elder waxes enthusiastic about a dog licking its wound in the temple of Juno on the Capitol:.

"This art attained a perfection incredible in a man, and with it a boldness to match. … Our generation saw on the Capitol, before it burned down so recently, … a dog of bronze licking its wound. Of the singular marvel and perfect fidelity of its likeness one may judge not only from the fact that it was dedicated in that very place, but from the surety given for it: since no sum seemed its equal, it was established by a decree of the state that its keepers should answer for it with their heads."

The original has not come down to us, but it can be judged from a late Hellenistic marble copy signed with the name of the sculptor Sopatros. The dog that so impressed Pliny, though now in marble, is on display in the little-visited and intimate Roman museum of Baron Giovanni Barracco.

![](https://theparnassian.com/content/images/2026/09/photo_3102@05-08-2020_13-31-06.jpg)