English: Boncompagni Ludovisi Collection.

Docimenum marble, Carrara marble for the restorations.

A standing male figure is represented in the act of stabbing himself in the neck with a short sword while supporting with his left hand a dying woman who falls forward at his side. The two figures, easily identified by their long curly hair and by the woman's oriental style of dress,rest on typical Celtic arms: an oval shield and the sheath of a sword. The interpretations of the two characters as Gauls (or Galatians), a Celtic people of Asia Minor, has linked this work to the Dying Gaul now in the Capitoline Museums. They could have both belonged to a single sculptural group, a marble copy of the original bronze by the famous artist Epigonos, commissioned by king Attalus I to celebrate to celebrate his victory over the Gauls in 240 BC.

The two sculptures - the Gaul Killing Himself and His Wife and the Dying Gaul - probably come from the area of Villa Ludovisi, where in Roman times were located the Gardens of Sallust, formerly of Caesar. The place of their discovery, very close to the residence of Caesar, suggests that they are to be considered symbolic copies commissioned by Caesar in memory of his victories over the Gauls, a Celtic people of the West.