The Greek sculptor believed to have created the original bronze of the Dying Gaul is Epigonus.
The surviving Dying Gaul in Rome is a Roman marble copy of a lost Hellenistic Greek bronze. The original was probably part of a victory monument commissioned by Attalus I of Pergamon to commemorate victories over the Galatians, Celtic peoples who had settled in Anatolia.
Epigonus was a leading court sculptor of the Attalid dynasty in Pergamon during the late third century BCE. Ancient writer Pliny the Elder associated him with works depicting the battles against the Gauls, and modern scholars connect his name with the prototype of the Dying Gaul.
The marble statue is famous for showing a defeated enemy with dignity rather than presenting only the victor’s triumph. Its torc, moustache, shield, and wounded posture identify the figure as a Galatian warrior. The work was once mistakenly called the Dying Gladiator, a name that reflects an earlier misunderstanding of the subject.