The group in the Vatican is probably a copy, because Pliny says that the original was made of one block, and that of the Vatican is composed of six pieces. Pliny also tells us that the Laocoon was the work of three sculptors, AGESANDER, POLYDORUS, and ATHENODORUS. The Vatican group was found in 1506 in the excavation of the Baths of Titus, in Rome, and was placed in its present position by Pope Julius II. (Fig. 51). The right arm of Laocoon was missing, and Michael Angelo attempted to restore it, but left it incomplete; Montorsoli made an unsatisfactory attempt for its restoration, and the arm as it now is was made by Cornacini, and more straight than it should be. The story which these statues illustrate is told in the second book of the AEneid, and says that Laocoon was a priest of Apollo at Troy, who, when the Greeks left the wooden horse outside the city and pretended to sail away, warned the Trojans against taking the horse inside the walls; he also struck his spear into the side of the monster. But Sinon, who had been left behind by the Greeks, persuaded the Trojans that the horse would prove a blessing to them, and they drew it into the city, and ordered feasts and sacrifices to be celebrated to do honor to the occasion. Laocoon had much offended Pallas Athene by his words and acts, and when he went to prepare a sacrifice to Neptune that goddess sent two huge serpents up out of the sea to destroy him and his two sons, who were with him by the altar. When the three victims were dead the fearful creatures went to the Acropolis and disappeared. [Illustration: FIG. 51.--THE LAOCOON GROUP.] In the Laocoon group it appears that the eldest son will save himself, and in certain minor points the sculptors seem not to have followed the account of Virgil; but we see that it must be the same story that is illustrated, and we know that it was told with some variation by other poets. This group is a wonderful piece of sculpture, but it is not of the highest art, and it is far from pleasant to look at. The same is true of another famous group which is in Naples, and which is also from the Rhodian school. I mean the Farnesian Bull, or the Toro Farnese. This group was made by APOLLONIUS and TAURISCUS, who are believed to have been brothers. It was probably made at Tralles, in Caria, which was their native place, and sent by them to Rhodes, the great art-centre; from Rhodes it was sent to Rome, where it was in the possession of Asinius Pollio. This splendid group, which is probably the original work, was found in the Baths of Caracalla, in 1546, and was first placed in the Farnese Palace, from which it was removed to the National Museum in Naples, in 1786 (Fig. 52).