FLAVIAN PERIOD, CIRCA 69-98 A.D.

This imposing version of Hercules is based on a sculptural type created in Greece in the later 4th century B.C., today known as "The New York Herakles" after the statue from the Giustiniani Collection now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (see no. 452 in Picon, et al., Art of the Classical World in the Metropolitan Museum of Art). The Met's example is similarly over-lifesized, and was likely once paired with a youthful figure of the hero for display in a large public space, such as a bath complex (many of Giustiniani's marbles were found in a bath constructed during the reign of Nero near the Pantheon). For other figures of the New York Herakles see nos. 466-472 in Boardman, "Herakles," in LIMC.