The legend about this group and its companion, attributed with equal absurdity to Praxiteles, is curious. In “Roma Sacra, Antica e Moderna,” which was published in Rome in the latter part of the sixteenth century, and constantly reprinted for at least a hundred years, we are told that these two statues were made, one by Phidias, and the other by Praxiteles, in competition with each other,—that they represent Alexander taming Bucephalus, and were brought to Rome by Tiridates, King of Armenia, as a present to Nero,—and that they were afterwards restored and placed in the Thermæ of Constantine, from which place they were transported to the Quirinal, and again restored and set up by Sixtus V., with inscriptions, stating, that they were brought by Constantine from Greece. The inscriptions were as follows: under the horse of the statue professing to be by Phidias, was inscribed: “Phidias, nobilis sculptor, ad artificii præstantiam declarandam Alexandri Bucephaalum domantis effigiem e marmore expressit.” On the base was inscribed: “Signa Alexandri Magni celebrisque ejus Bucephal ex antiquitatis testimonio Phidiæ et Praxitelis emulatione hoc marmore ad vivam effigiem expressa a Fl. Constantino Max. e Græcia advecta suisque in Thermis in hoc Quirinali monte collocata, temporis vi deformata, laceraque ad ejusdem Imperatoris memoriam urbisque decorem, in pristinam formam restituta hic reponi jussit anno MDXXXIX Pont. IV.” Under the horse of Praxiteles was inscribed: “Praxiteles sculptor ad Phidiæ emulationem sui monumenta ingenii relinquere cupiens ejusdem Alexandri Bucephalique signa felici contentione perficit.” Here are a charming series of assumptions, so completely in defiance of history that one cannot help smiling; and were not the fact accredited, it would be difficult to believe that these inscriptions could have been placed under these statues. Phidias died probably in B. C. 432, Praxiteles flourished about B. C. 364, nearly a century later, and Alexander was not born till B. C. 356. Here we have Phidias making a group of Alexander and Bucephalus, and representing an incident which occurred a century after his death, and in competition with Praxiteles. Absurdity and ignorance can scarcely go further; and, as we learn from “Roma Sacra,” it afterwards occasioned such ridicule that Urban VIII. removed the inscriptions, and substituted the simple words, “Opus Phidiæ” and “Opus Praxitelis” under the respective statues, still adhering to the legend that the two groups were the work of these great artists. The fact is that they are Roman works, and were neither brought by Tiridates from Armenia to present to Nero, nor by Constantine from Greece.