In Greek mythology, the silen Marsyas was tied to a tree and flayed alive as punishment for having challenged Apollo to a music contest. In the Roman world he became a symbol of a city’s libertas, his statue often appearing in the fora of colonies and municipalities such as Paestum, both in Italy and in the provinces.
Discovered in 1931, this bronze statue presents a diadem on its head, identifying the figure as a king. The slave’s shackles at its feet and the absence of chains indicate its recently acquired freedom. The fact that the statue was placed in the public square ties it to the deductio of the colony in 273 BCE, an event which would have been regarded by the Romans as the city's "liberation" from the Lucanians and the granting of a new statute.
It is modelled on the statue of Marsyas which stood in the Roman Forum, near the Comitium, and which is featured also on a denarius issued by L. Marcius Censorinus in 82 BCE.