After nearly a decade of legal wrangling, a piece of ancient Roman sculpture worth almost U.S. $2 million has been unveiled to the public for the first time. The 28-pound fragment is a life-size horse’s head dated to A.D. 1. Made of bronze and covered in gold, the head is more just than a spectacular example of Roman art.

The horse head was uncovered as part of excavations of a Roman settlement called Waldgirmes, near modern-day Frankfurt, and it adds a dramatic new wrinkle to the story of Rome and the Germans.

For centuries, historians had agreed that the Romans intended to use military force to subdue Germany’s tribes and create a new province north and east of the Rhine