A 2,000yearold statue of Hercules was discovered in Greece. The sculpture was found by a team of researchers from Aristotle University in a building conducting an excavation in the ancient city of Philippi, according to the Greek Ministry of Culture and Sports.
During the search, a richly decorated building with “special” architectural decoration was discovered, which “dates from the 8th or 9th century”. The building had an (almost complete) statue of Hercules from the Roman period in the 2nd century which the ministry says adorned buildings into the subsequent Byzantine period.
Photographs of the Hercules sculpture show that it is buried under rock and earth, and when it was excavated parts of the statue were detached. The statue also contained a mace found in fragments and a lion hanging from the outstretched left hand, meant to symbolize a hero. 
The statue of Hercules has been found almost complete and dates from the 2nd century. Photo: Reproduction Ministry of Culture and Sports of Greece
One of the most famous figures in Greek mythology, Hercules was born human but with divine power, the son of Zeus, the “ruler of all gods and men.” The city of Philippi where the statue was found was the site where Mark Antony, the Roman general of Julius Caesar, and Augustus, who would later become emperor, fought a battle that killed Brutus and Cassius, the Julius murdered Caesar.
The city developed into a kind of “little Rome”, the empire was only founded decades later. There is also a theater and another temple, Roman buildings such as a courthouse and basilicas which, according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, were built when Christianity was being established in the city.