In 2017, an extraordinary discovery in Pompeii captured the attention of both national and international media outlets: a monumental marble tomb, attributed to a prominent citizen, bearing the longest funerary inscription ever uncovered. This inscription, measuring four meters in length and comprising seven lines, memorialises his exploits and offers new insights into the history of Pompeii's final decades.
The tomb is situated in the San Paolino area, near Porta Stabia, one of the principal entrances to the ancient city that, over two thousand years ago, led to Stabiae. Although the deceased is not explicitly named, the inscription provides detailed descriptions of significant milestones in his life, including the acquisition of the toga virilis, his marriage, and the philanthropic activities associated with these events, such as public banquets, donations, gladiatorial contests, and fights with wild animals.
The discovery was made incidentally during maintenance and restoration activities in the San Paolino district, as part of the EU-funded Great Pompeii Project.
A team responsible for restoring a 19th-century building, which is to become the new library and offices of the Archaeological Superintendence, encountered a marble fragment while testing the foundations.
Since marble was rare in Pompeii's funerary monuments, archaeologists immediately recognised the potential significance of the find. The upper portion of the tomb has been lost, likely due to 19th-century construction work; however, the remaining structure is an imposing and unique monument among Pompeii's funerary remains.
To whom did this significant edifice belong? According to scholars, it was the tomb of Gnaeus Alleius Nigidius Maius, one of the primary financiers of the gladiatorial spectacles in the city's amphitheatre.

He was also a prominent real estate developer and owner of the Insula Arriana Polliana. Gnaeus Alleius Nigidius Maius died in 78 AD, a year before the catastrophic eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD, which buried Pompeii.
The epigraph records Gnaeus Alleius Nigidius Maius recounting his exploits: he is said to have organised lavish banquets, establishing 456 triclinia, and not content with such luxury, he also organised a show with 416 gladiators. This is extraordinary, considering that inscriptions in Pompeii rarely record more than 30 pairs of gladiators in combat. However, here, we observe a spectacle of immense grandeur, akin to the grand Roman games. These personal events were celebrated with acts of extraordinary generosity, aimed at enhancing prestige and advancing political careers.
The typology of the monument and the content of the epigraph support the hypothesis that the memorial may have been completed by the famous marble bas-relief, featuring scenes of processions, gladiatorial fights, and venationes, which is currently preserved in the National Archaeological Museum of Naples, and whose provenance had until now not been identified. This bas-relief serves as a connecting link between the tomb, the epigraph, and the figure.
The relief, approximately four meters in length, is well associated with the deceased's role as a games organiser. Discovered in the 1840s, it was erroneously relocated by the Superintendent of Avellino near Porta Stabia, which supports the hypothesis that its original location was within this area of the city. It comprises two interlocking slabs, approximately 4.5 meters long and 150 centimetres high, arranged in three registers of varying heights.
Each section illustrates a particular moment of the games: the opening and procession, the gladiatorial combats, and, in the lower register, the combats between humans and animals.

The scenes depicted across three distinct zones are described as follows:

-In the first register, starting from the right, there is the inaugural procession, led by two lictors and three flute players. This is followed by bearers of a ferculum featuring two figures working at the anvil, alluding to the deity Vulcan.
These images hold sacred significance and replace the statues of deities typically carried during processions before the games, to ward off bad luck.
Two harenarii, responsible for managing the arena, carry a tablet and a palm; a togatus stands at the forefront, succeeded by seven harenarii bearing gladiatorial weapons. A lituus player precedes two horses led by attendants.
Six harenarii, dressed in short tunics and boots, each carry helmets and shields of gladiators, which the magistrate will inspect during the phase known as the probatio armorum.
The first two wear the convex helmet and round shield characteristic of knights, the eques, while the other two carry less defined helmets and shields. The latter wear gladiator helmets of the murmillo and thraex types with reversed shields: the small rectangular shield of the thraex paired with the murmillo helmet, and conversely, the large curved shield of the murmillo paired with the thraex helmet.

-The second median register is larger in size and depicts duels between gladiators, known as the munus gladiatorium. On the left, there are two bareback riders, dressed in short tunics, wearing hemispherical helmets with circular brims and round shields. The victor raises his shield triumphantly, while his opponent lies prostrate on the ground; a referee is immediately visible, standing between a murmillo and the wounded gladiator, supported by four harenarii.
Subsequently, a gladiator raises his sword with his right arm, poised to attack his kneeling opponent, who implores for mercy while grasping his shield with his left hand. This represents a combat between gladiators of equal rank.
The loser belongs to the provocator class, identifiable by his breastplate, cardiophylax, helmet adorned with feathers and a visor, rectangular shield, the ocrea, the protective gear for his left leg, and bandages and a sleeve on his right arm. The victor is equipped with a scaled breastplate featuring the image of a gorgoneion, the head of Medusa, secured with two crossed bands on his back.
This armour design is derived from that of the Samnite gladiator, adopted during the late 1st century BC when ethnic classifications were reformed and modified. Next, a pair of paegnarii is depicted, simulating a fight in which the loser is supported by two harenarii while they bandage his injured leg. Following this, a murmillo is shown thrusting his sword into the chest of a hoplomachus, who leans sideways to evade the strike. The hoplomachus, having lost his shield, which lies on the ground between his opponent's legs, raises his left hand to his chest and elevates his right arm with the sword, which has missed the opponent's throat. Both combatants wear the subligaculum and a sleeve guard; the victor, the hoplomachus, is distinguished by his impressive helmet and straight sword. The defeated murmillo can be identified by his load on his left leg and his large, rectangular shield.

-Third, the lower register depicts hunting scenes, specifically the venationes. These include animal combats such as dogs against a roe deer and a wild boar, a stag against a bull, with armed hunters confronting a bull and another facing a wild boar.
An unarmed condemned individual is also observable, collapsing under an attack by a bear.
A taurocenta, a bull hunter, administers the final blow to a fatigued bull. Additionally, a bear, just emerging from a doorway, has killed an attendant, the bestiarius, who is subsequently torn apart in the presence of two guards, the harenarii.
The scene is set near a door, with the flaps of a velarium at the top of the first register, clearly indicating that the setting is within an amphitheatre.