wonax: May 3, 2009

HOLLYWOOD COMES THROUGH
Shanna C.
Occasionally the movie industry produces a historical movie that is ,for the most part, grounded in historical fact. Such a movie is the recently released "Gladiator." In Hollywood's brief history of making movies, it has re-written history more than once. It's not that Hollwood intentionally meant to mislead the public or deliver false historical information. It is just that a good story sells, and depending on the mood of the "mob" at the time they maybe had to alter the facts a bit to provide an entertaining movie that the public would buy. In "Gladiator," they have managed to combine the best of both. The story is gripping enough to be entertaining and historically factual enough to appease the most skeptical historian.

Separating Fact from Fiction
As I watched the movie I became a detective of historical fact and fiction. I wanted to know if the movie had any basis in fact and if it did what were those facts, and if not where did the movie delve into fiction? In my research I found that while there were non-factual parts of the movie, most of it was soundly based in historical fact. There was only one area that I could find that glaringly deviated from the truth. That was in the area of relationships. There is no documentation to prove that Commodus had a sister although he was certainly Marcus Aurelius's son. And although killing each other was part of the Caesar history, the idea that Commodus killed his father is pure fiction. Historians generally agree that Marcus Aurelius died of the plague in Vienna on March 17, 180 AD (AURELIUS.HTM pg. 1 lines 42-43). It is also untrue that Marcus found his son unfit to rule. He had Commodus named Caesar when he was 5 years old and named him as his successor when he was 17 (romanemp/commod.htm pg. 2 lines 1-6). As a Roman father he was undoubtedly loving and dotting and spoiled his son terribly. Unfortunately, the movie was quite accurate in its portrayal of Commodus. While most historians depict him as he appears in the movie, vain, evil, dictatorial and insane, (gladiator/gladiator-ch7.htm) there is also evidence that in life as in the movie he was popular with the "mob." He was very generous to the lower classes and gave them money and other gifts. He held lots of extravagant games in the Coliseum and he liked to participate in them. This delighted the "mob" but the senate hated him for it. During his time as Caesar, several attempts were made on his life. It is not true that he died in the arena but was strangled to death as he bathed in his bath (roman/commod.htm).

Caesar and the Army
If you got the impression from the movie that Marcus Aurelius was a "good" Caesar you would be right, at least as far as Caesars go. The movie accurately portrayed Marcus Aurelius as a ruler who was tired of war and bloodshed. In real life he was probably not suited to fill the role of Caesar. History remembers him as the "philosopher king." He was a man who was much more comfortable with peace and intellectual pursuits than with wars. During his reign the pax romana which was a long period of peace in Rome failed and as shown in the movie he found himself locked in endless wars with the Germanic people. The Germanic tribes had been hard to conquer (AURELIUS.HTM pg. 1 lines 27-41). Here again the movie takes liberties with the truth because he died before he completed his conquest of Germany. His reign as Emperor had been long and difficult. And the Caesar who was more suited to peace than to war finally got to rest.

As for his general Maximus, he never existed. But that is not to say a relationship much like theirs would not have been possible. There was great loyalty to good leaders in Rome and Marcus Aurelius was considered a "good" Caesar (Mediterranean/Maurelius.html). Yet I wondered if it was possible for a Spaniard to become a "general' in the Roman army? The answer was yes. By the end of the First century the Roman colonization of Spain was complete. The people of Spain spoke Latin, used Roman institutions like slave labor, and traded with Roman money. Spain provided Rome with some of its greatest writers, orators and politicians and soldiers (Marcus Aurelius was born in Spain). Rome had granted the Hispanic population citizenship and had given many of them land to farm. Roman soldiers married Spanish women and their children were Roman citizens (heritage/roman5.html). The movie quite accurately describes the Roman army. It used swords, shields, and bows and arrows as weapons. It depended mainly on its artillery regiments to do the fighting and iIn large campaigns the army used catapults. The Romans did have a love of horses but they rarely saw battle (aadepa/army.html pg. 3 lines 39-46). Much to my amazement the uniforms and armor of the soldiers were historically correct.

Togas, Treachery and the Coliseum
So often in Hollywood's epic historical movies they have taken great liberties with the clothing of an era. This did not happen in "Gladiator." The soldiers, Emperors, gladiators, noble women and children as well as the common citizens were dressed to Roman Imperial perfection. The dress of Roman citizens as seen painted on ancient temple walls, in mosaics and in sculptures came to life in "Gladiator." As an interesting aside: good taste at the time dictated that men wear only one ring (Donnclass/Romanlife.html pg. 3 lines 47-56). Did you notice that when Maximus walked through the wheat field in his dream he had on only one ring? I don't know if this was intentional but it was an interesting historical detail.

In Roman Times as in the movie it was very possible that someone like Maximus could have been betrayed. Treachery, conspiracy, and plots were common in Roman history. Plus the Romans built replicas of Rome all over the Empire; there are ruins of Roman cities and arenas everywhere in Europe and North Africa (Blood/blood.html). The movie accurately depicted gladiatorial schools where slaves and criminals were taught to be gladiators (bmcmanus/arena.html). It was probably not uncommon for an innocent man to end up as a gladiator now and then. Even if you found yourself in this predicament though, all was not lost, if you were good enough and "won the crowd" you could earn your freedom as well as some fame and glory (arena/arena.html pg. 1 lines 17-19).

As I watched "Gladiator" I felt like I had been given the rare opportunity to time travel back to the "glory that was Rome." From looking at images of ruins and re-creations of Ancient Rome on the Internet (www.iei.net/~tryan/walk.html), I knew the movie maker had been faithful to those people that had toiled so long and hard under the Italian sun for so many centuries to build this wonder of a city in the Ancient World. The Coliseum was especially impressive. From its magnificent size and underground chambers where the gladiators and exotic animals were kept to the trap door in the Coliseum floor, the architectural details were very factual. The citizens of Rome loved their games and the Coliseum could seat as the movie stated 50,000 of them.

The Crowd Roars for More
It may seem strange to us that the citizens of Rome loved to watch these games, they were brutal, bloody, savage and inhumane. But so was their existence. When the pax romana failed, the Republic failed with it. The people were once again faced with wars and barbarians. The city had become overcrowded and there were riots and plague. They had lost their precious right to vote. The games were used by the government to appease the masses. The games gave the people who had lost their personal power a chance to feel powerful again. They held the power of life and death in their hands; at the games anyway. The games were the biggest popularity contest in history. If the crowd liked you, it gave you thumbs up and you lived. If it did not like you, you got thumbs down and you died.

The games also had a political purpose - they entertained the masses and kept them distracted from the harsh realities of their own lives. They eliminated huge sectors of undesirable people from their population like unwanted slaves, criminals and prisoners of war.

No one really knows why the "Mob" liked the blood and gore so much; there is only speculation. Maybe the brutality of the games made their own lives seem easier. Maybe they had become so desensitized to killing and wars and battles that "playing" at war seemed mild in comparison to the real thing. Maybe they had become so vain and arrogant as to think that Romans were the only people that had a right to life. And worse still, maybe they had lost all ability to care and think for themselves and went along with whatever the government proposed and said was good for them. The fact remains that no matter how repulsive the idea seems to us, the Romans loved their games and the games gave them something they desperately needed. There is no denying the greatness of Rome and her vast contributions to the development of Western Civilization. I think the movie "Gladiator" comes very close to telling the truth about the lives and times of the Ancient Romans. I can honestly say that because of this movie and the research I have done, I found a lot of compassion for the people and understanding of the history of the Roman Empire.

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