Furtwaengler, by an ingenious process of reasoning, argued that he had recovered an actual statue of an Olympic runner in the so-called _Alkibiades_, formerly in the Villa Mattei, but now in the Sala della Biga of the Vatican.[1453] This torso he ascribed to the sculptor Kresilas, because of its likeness to the _Perikles_ of that master, which once stood on the Akropolis,[1454] and to a marble torso in Naples representing a wounded man ready to fall, which he thinks is a copy of the _Volneratus deficiens_ of Kresilas mentioned by Pliny.[1455] The _Alkibiades_ is very similar to the Naples gladiator, though later in date; the bearded head, drawn-in stomach, and muscular chest, and the veins in the upper arm are common to both. The restorer of the Vatican statue has placed a helmet under the right foot. But the deep-breathing chest may indicate a runner, as we saw in the case of the statues of the Conservatori just discussed. Furtwaengler has the body bend further forward, so that the right foot may rest upon the ground and the glance be fixed upon the goal, with the arms extended at the elbows, a position proved for the right arm, at least, by the _puntello_ above the hip. As the head shows portrait-like features and only those athletes who had won three victories had portrait statues, he has identified the original of the _Alkibiades_ with the statue of the famous stade-runner Krison of Himera, who won his victories at Olympia just after the middle of the fifth century B. C., the approximate date of the Vatican copy.[1456] Such an identification appears, however, to be too far-fetched to be convincing. STATUES OF BOY RUNNERS. [Illustration: FIG. 40.—Statue of the _Thorn-puller_ (_Spinario_). Palazzo dei Conservatori, Rome.]