Question

Answer these questions from the Movie Gladiator with Russell Crowe.

- What do the details of this movie tell you about Ancient Roman Sport? (4 things)

-Is this movie historically accurate? (4 points/things supporting opinion)

Answer 1

• The movie begins with the ailing Marcus Aurelius, the emperor of Rome, watching Maximus leading a battle against a German tribe, where the battle is portrayed as crucial in bringing peace to the Roman Empire's northern frontier.
• The German tribe was shown wearing Neolithic period clothing, something that is inaccurate and the clothing would have been more complex in fashion. During the reign of Aurelius, there were prolonged wars in Germania. Wars there were largely inconclusive, although they were close to annexing Moravia and West Slovakia during his reign.
• The movie depicts the emperor being killed by his son Commodus, although in reality Commodus was already co-emperor. In fact, there is no certain evidence that Commodus had any difficult relationship with his father, although later authors did disparage Commodus.
• Furthermore, although Maximus is mostly a fictional character, it is not likely Marcus Aurelius would appoint a general as protector of the empire, as suggested in the movie where shortly before his death the fictional Marcus Aurelius asked Maximus to lead the empire.
• The Colosseum was the premier event for gladiator contests after its construction in 70-80 CE. Ambitious trainers, similar to how the film depicts it, would try to situate themselves so they could compete in main events that promised large financial rewards.
• Similar to sport today, the gladiator games had a lot of money that would exchange hands around the event. This revolved around gambling on the events but also rewards earned by the owners from the gladiator slaves, which is one reason why mass killing of people may not have occurred that often.
• Something not shown in the film is that gladiator contests may have looked familiar to us. Gladiators often were used to sponsor products and billboards often hung in stadium where contests would have been held. This was not shown in the film, mostly because the producers thought film audiences would not believe it since it is so similar to our modern sports.
• There were many historical inaccuracies in the film and some of the possibly accurate events borrow from less than certain sources. In fact, many historians who were hired to advise on the movie quit or refused to be given credits because of the many historical inaccuracies the final version had. Nevertheless, as with most historical dramas, this movie was more about entertainment than historical narrative.
• The general narrative of a somewhat crazy emperor in the form of Commodus embellishing in gladiator games was true and, in fact, reality was probably more outrageous than what was shown in the film, as the emperor often made himself dress as a gladiator and fought numerous contests with animals and others, such as wounded gladiators.