Tomb Inscription Translated in Pompeii

NAPLES, ITALY—Live Science reports that an inscription discovered at a tomb in Pompeii in 2017 has been translated by Massimo Osanna, director general of the Archaeological Park of Pompeii. The text describes the tomb occupant’s coming-of-age party as a young man, which featured a banquet for 6,840 people and a gladiator show with more than 400 fighters. Osanna said the guests would have only been adult men who possessed political rights, or about 27 to 30 percent of the population, putting the city’s total at about 30,000 people around A.D. 59. The inscription also relates how the man sold wheat at discounted prices to Pompeii citizens and distributed free bread during a four-year famine. Osanna thinks this gesture may have been depicted in a now famous Pompeii mosaic showing bread distribution to two men and a child. This citizen was also remembered for successfully speaking to Emperor Nero on behalf of Pompeians who were ejected from the city after a riot during a gladiator show. Based upon the contents of other inscriptions in the city, Osanna thinks the tomb’s occupant may have been Gnaeus Alleius Nigidius Maius, but the area where a name had been carved in the tomb was destroyed by looters in the nineteenth century. To read more about recent research in the ancient city, go to "Digging Deeper into Pompeii's Past."