Marcus Nonius Macrinus was a highly regarded general and consul under Marcus Aurelius. He was (at least in part) the model for the Maximus character in Ridley Scott’s Gladiator.
Archaeologists working on building site just north of Rome have found columns, parts of the roof, friezes, tumbled down walls, and most importantly, a Latin inscription which identifies the stone mausoleum as Macrinus’.
Although parts of the tomb have crumbled into the Tiber over the centuries, enough has been recovered during months of excavation that experts are discussing the possibility of rebuilding the tomb as the centrepiece of an archaeological theme park.
This would also include the house of Empress Livia, the wife of Emperor Augustus, at Prima Porta nearby. This villa occupied the high ground dominating the view down the Tiber valley to Rome and some of the walling that retained its terraces can still be seen.
Except for the terracing – the gardens are currently being excavated – all that can be seen today are three vaulted subterranean rooms, from the largest of which the fresco decor of an illusionistic garden view was removed to Rome, where it has recently been installed in the Palazzo Massimo, following cleaning and restoration.
Sounds good, as long as it doesn’t mutate from archaeological park to Gladiator theme park. :facepalm:
Gladiator was so popular that you can’t help but know that there will be history tourism to expoit that. I think that’s great if local folks will get some financial benefits from that and it serves to educate people on things historical. Local governments need to define the limits of that as to what their constituents will put up with though. By the way- just learned in the last two weeks who Livius Drusus was. Greetings from Coastal Northern California. Hans
I agree. They’re excavating a villa of Macrinus’ up at Lake Garda, too, so there will soon be several stops on the “Gladiator” tour.
W00t! Greetings right back at you. I love it when people stumble on my namesake. 😀
Just came here to tell you about this but you’ve already seen. The BBC has a bit of video posted:
:skull: Clickable skulls, oh noes! Must mean Halloween is near.