Roman General George Washington

Raleigh, North Carolina

What's a marble statue of a lounging, sandal-clad, armor-wearing Roman general doing in the North Carolina Statehouse? Wait a minute -- that's George Washington!

Sculpted in 1820 by Italian Antonio Canova, the statue was the brainchild of Thomas Jefferson, who suggested that Washington be portrayed as a virtuous Roman ("a modern Cincinnatus"), and the then-low height of the statehouse roof made a sprawled Washington seem sensible.

The statue was destroyed eleven years later in a fire. North Carolina missed it so much that it had an exact replica sculpted in 1970, even though the replacement statehouse had a rotunda that could have easily accommodated a standing Washington.