Italian archaeologists have discovered the tomb of the Ancient Roman hero who inspired Russell Crowe’s character in the film Gladiator.

Daniela Rossi, a Rome archaeologist, said that the discovery of the marble tomb of Marcus Nonius Macrinus, which has an inscription bearing his name, was “the most important Ancient Roman monument to come to light for 20 or 30 years”.

The tomb was found when archaeologists were asked to investigate ruins uncovered during building work on the banks of the Tiber at Saxa Rubra, on the Via Flaminia, north of Rome.

Cristiano Ranieri, who led the archaeological team at the site, said that the tomb had long ago collapsed into the mud but its columns, roof and decorations were intact. Some parts of the tomb had slipped into the river but had been recovered.

Angelo Bottini, Superintendent of Archaeology in Rome, said the tomb was “a monument of great beauty”.

Marcus Nonius Macrinus, born in Brescia, northern Italy, was a general and consul who led military campaigns for Marcus Aurelius, the Roman emperor in 161-180AD. He became part of the emperor’s inner circle and one of his favourites, serving as proconsul in Asia. His patrician villa at Toscolano Maderno on Lake Garda has been identified and partially excavated.

In Gladiator, directed by Ridley Scott, he became Maximus Decimus Meridius, also portrayed as the emperor’s favourite general. The screen-writers added a twist of their own, however: after the murder of Marcus Aurelius by his ambitious son Commodus (a fictional event) the general falls from grace and ends up in exile in North Africa.

He later returns to Rome as a hardened gladiator to take revenge for the murder of his family and the emperor. Russell Crowe won an Oscar for the role.

The archaeological find was presented yesterday at the Culture Ministry by Professor Bottini with new excavations on the Palatine Hill and the discovery of an imperial villa on the Via Aurelia and a necropolis adjoining the Stadio Flaminio rugby ground. There are thought to be plans to reconstruct the tomb as the centrepiece of a “Via Flaminia Archaeological Park”, which would also include the House of Empress Livia, the wife of Emperor Augustus, near by at Prima Porta.

The character of Maximus also drew on accounts by Roman historians of a wrestler named Narcissus, who murdered the Emperor Commodus by strangling him, and the life of Spartacus, the leader of a revolt by slaves and gladiators in the 1st century BC.

Gladiators were professional fighters who entertained the public by fighting wild animals and each other, often to the death. The most celebrated Rome arena, the Colosseum, built by the Emperor Vespasian, was also flooded for staging naval battles. The first recorded Roman gladiatorial combat took place in the 3rd century BC, using prisoners of war.

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