Reply #81: There were plenty of innaccuracies in "Gladiator", which didn't [View All]

[Aristus]

diminish my enjoyment of the film; and I'm a NUT on Ancient Rome. Commodus was not killed in the arena; he was strangled to death in his bath by a wrestler named Narcissus. Not exactly a Hollywood ending there. And he DID fight in the arena from time to time. We know this for a fact; but the fights were almost certainly staged to make him look good.

One thing "Gladiator" did well, although probably by accident, was to explicate the system of succession fostered by the Emperor Nerva. Find a talented conscientious military leader, adopt him as your son, and have him succeed you as emperor. Nerva did it with Trajan, Trajan adopted Hadrian, Hadrian adopted Antoninus Pius, and Pius adopted Marcus Aurelius. Marcus Aurelius allowed his own son to succeed him, but the movie let's us believe that he was going to continue the adoption of a general like his predecessors. (Like Trajan and Hadrian, Maximus in the film was a Spaniard.)