In the the Capitoline Museums in Rome, among the masterpieces of ancient sculpture, we find an impressing bronze statue, the Spinario, portraying a young man in a curious pose. He is a child, about twelve years old, sitting on a rock and bent forward, trying to remove a thorn from his foot.
The young man is called Marzio, a shepherd boy from Vitorchiano, whose myth dates to the fourth century B.C.
The bronze statue of Marzio hosted in the Capitoline Museums – photo by www.museicapitolini.org
According to legend, the boy, trying to deliver the news of the attack that the Etruscan army was preparing against Rome, left running towards the city.
During the journey his foot was pierced by a thorn, which he removed, and then continued his heroic race.
Once he reached the Campidoglio, he managed to warn the Romans of the impending danger, before dying exhausted at the feet of the Senators.
Rome was saved and Marzio became a myth.
Even today, the young man is depicted in many statues exhibited in the most important museums in the world. Undoubtedly the bronze Spinario, donated by Pope Sixtus IV to the Roman people and hosted in the Capitoline Museums, is the most famous and perfect one.
The statue of Marzio in Vitorchiano – photo by Alessandro Vagnoni Vitorchiano also celebrated the myth of Marzio with a peperino statue, carved by Luigi Fondi in 1979 and placed at the entrance of the village in piazza Umberto I.