The remains of Marcus Venerius Secundio were found in a tomb at the necropolis of Porta Sarno, which was one of the main entrance gates into the city.
The tomb is believed to date back to the decades before Pompeii was destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79.
What have been described as the “best-preserved” human remains ever discovered in Pompeii include Secundio’s white hair and a partially visible ear.
Initial tests show he died at about the age of 60.
Archaeologists said the discovery was unusual because deceased adults during Roman times were usually cremated.
A glass urn with the name of a woman, Novia Amabilis, possibly Secundio’s wife, was also found in the tomb.
“Pompeii never ceases to amaze; it is a pride of Italy,” culture minister, Dario Franceschini, said.
Also found was an inscription confirming that Greek was spoken in the theatres of the Roman colony on the Bay of Naples, destroyed and preserved by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.
“A lot is expected of the new find,” Pompeii’s director, Gabriel Zuchtriegel, told Italian news agency ANSA.
Marcus Venerius Secundio was a freed slave who had previously been a guardian of the Temple of Venus in Pompeii, an important monument because the Romans named the city after that deity.
He had also been a “minister” of the Augustali priests and finally, after his liberation, also an Augustale himself, one of the college of priests of the imperial cult.
He had earned enough money to pick a tomb in a very prestigious site, Alapont said.
