Helios and the Emperor in the Late Antique Peloponnese

This paper discusses a badly damaged over-life-sized marble head with radiate headgear found in the Roman theater of Gytheum. It probably belonged to a public statue or shield monument of the god Helios and is thought to be late antique. It is here argued that this monument was in fact intended to pay honor to the ruling emperor, who was associated with the god Helios. It is also suggested that the association of the new Flavian dynasty with the solar god represents a particular way by which the people of Greece, among other provincials, chose to express their loyalty to the emperor along traditional religious lines.