Some
differences between the Gladiator Film as opposed to Ancient Rome is how the
Roman families lived. In Roman history, men were known to have power over the
household having the privilege of owning all properties and selling their wives
or children into slavery if needed to. But in the Gladiator film, it showed a
different understanding towards how the head of the household treated their families.
Maximus, for example, loved and had full compassion for his wife and child. In
the film, Maximus personally expressed his grief towards losing his family due to
Commodus. Another difference between the film and Ancient Rome is the
characters’ lives. Although some facts were true from the film, many of them
were not. Marcus Aurelius’ character and the way he wanted Rome to be was
accurate, but the way he died in historically is a different understanding. His
son, Commodus did not kill Marcus Aurelius, but instead “Marcus Aurelius died
in the Danube region, in his camp, on March 17, 180 CE.” (Mark). The movie was more visually realistic than it
was historically accurate.
Some historical
accuracies depicted in the movie that began the gladiatorial tradition was
building the Coliseum. Building the Coliseum became the most important architectural
work of ancient Rome architecture which played a significant cultural, social,
and political role of the Roman Empire. Venerable
Bede once said, “While stands the Coliseum, Rome stands, when Rome falls, so
falls the world” (Bomgardner 2). The Romans were known to have Emperors and
rich aristocrats “display their wealth to the populace, to commemorate military
victories, labels visits from important officials, and celebrate birthdays or
simply to distract the populace from the political and economic problems of the
day” (Cartwright). This idea was shown in the movie when Commodus gave out
bread to the audience in the Colosseum. He did this in hopes of winning over
the people of Rome, due to the fans favoring Maximus. Not only was the
Colosseum used to attract people to celebrate special programs, but it also drew
them to watch the thrilling gladiator games
