A fine Roman statuette fragment of Helios-Apollo cast from bronze. The deity is depicted heroically nude, apart from a mantle pinned at the right shoulder and wrapped around his bent left arm. He wears a diadem with radiating spikes to represent beams of light on top of his curls. He is depicted with his right arm outstretched to the side and his left arm bent, holding a patera. His face shows bold features, slightly worn with time, with large round eyes, a straight nose and a wide mouth. The fragment cuts off at the torso. The interior seems to have had a bronze lug running vertically down the middle of the statue. The piece is covered with patination and earthly encrustations. Bronze statuettes were popular across the Roman Empire, usually modelled in the shape of gods, goddesses and animals. Such statuettes could have been part of private households or placed in temples as votive offerings. By the third century AD, Helios had absorbed a number of religious, mythological, and literary elements from other deities, particularly Apollo and the Roman sun god, Sol. In 274 AD, on the 25th of December, the date of the Winter Solstice, the Roman emperor Aurelian instituted an official state cult to Sol Invictus (or Helios Megistos). This new cult combined elements from not only Helios and Sol, but also from deities such as Mithras and Harpocrates, and even with the monotheistic Judaeo-Christian god. This elevated Helios as the main god, protector of Rome and the Roman state, with the last pagan emperor of Rome, Julian, making Helios the main deity of his revived pagan religion. Measurements: (circa) H 8cm x W 8cm Provenance: Ex Collection of a London Gentleman, 1980s.