Pasquino is a statue, perhaps of Hellenic origins, capable of talking without neither a face nor hands. From the year 1500 the Romans started hanging from the statue’s neck the so-called “pasquinades”, signs with words directed to the political and religious powers, or to the town’s most prominent characters. Perhaps the first person ever to use language as a means of protest was Pasquino, famous in the whole neighborhood for his satirical verses.
Just because of its bothersome nature, across the centuries the talking statue was put under surveillance by guards, and even risked being thrown into the Tiber River, but instead its popular voice has grown stronger and stronger.
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