Let's go back in 180 AD...

Rating: 10/10 (29 May 2000)

Though the plot of Gladiator is completely fictional, using historical characters requires keeping a certain accuracy. In this respect it is intersting to learn who Emperor Commodus really was... Marcus Aurelius became emperor in 161, and until 169 he reigned in cooperation with Lucius Verus, husband of his eldest daughter Lucilla. Then the latter died. In 177, Marcus Aurelius associated his son Commodus to official functions in order to prepare him for the succession. In that sense, Marcus Aurelius reestablished the blood succession. Marcus Aurelius died shortly after the victory against thr Danubian barbarians near the actual Vienna in 180, but, he wasn't strangled by his own son as in the film, but died or of the plague or of exhaustion.Commodus becomes emperor, but shows little ability to succeed in his new functions. He concluded a quick peace with the barbarians, came back to Rome and actually did not care about politics. He lived in his world of laziness and lust. Lucilla was very angry at him and did not like his lover Bruttia Crispina. She set a plot and an attempt was made to kill Commodus, but it failed. This marked the beginning of a series of executions within the royal circle and the senate. Dio Cassius, Roman senator said: "The fear was shared by us senators.He killed an ostrich, cut off its head, and came towards us with the head in his left hand, brandishing his bloody sword in the right. He wagged his head to show he would do the same to us." When he entered the senate, the senator had to salute him in this way: "You are Lord, you are first, you are most fortunate. You are Victor, you will be victor; from everlasting, Amazonian, you are victor". More than that, Commodus was clearly a mad man, influenced by oriental religious practices. He wanted Rome to be called Commodiana, and the Legion Commodian.. He called himself the Roman Hercules, and styled Rome the "Immortal Fortunate Colony of the Universe"! All the months were given his names: Amazonius, Invictus, Felix, Pius, Lucius, Aeliuys, Aurelius, Commodus, Augustus, Herculeus, Romanus, Exsuperatorius. He applied Exsuperatorius (his own image of Jupiter) to himself regularly to show that he surpassed mankind in many ways... Many statues represented him as Hercules. Commodus loved the games. He often went to the amphitheatre and entered the arena dressed as Mercury, beginning his exhibition barefoot and in his tunic after having got rid of his garments!. According to the historian Aurelius Victor, he was "so depraved that he often fought in the arena as a gladiator"!! He had a real fascination for gladiators and wild beast, and when he wanted in January 193 to kill two senators in sacrifice and to make a procession in Rome at the head of his gladiators, it became necessary to get rid of this dangerous psychopath! His surroundings plotted, and Marcia, his favorite lover handed him a cup of poison, and he was then strangled in his bath by his coach, Narcisse, on December 31, 192. The reign of Commodus marked 12 years of terror, lust, cruelty and greed. He was obviously a megalomaniac. If a date can be fixed for the beginning of the decline of the Roman Empire, it would be his reign. In the film, his folly is well represented, but in a different way though. We can see that he is a megalomaniac the way Ridley Scott made him enter Rome, and through the fact that he wants to rule alone. We als see that he loves the games, since he introduces 150 days of gladiators' fights. But his obsession with religion has been replaced by an incestuous love for his sister, whom he nearly consider as a goddess. But he didn't die in the arena (though he often fought as a gladiator), but was murdered. Nevertheless,with an astonishing photography and editing, Ridley Scott's Gladiator is one of the best epics of the last 20 years, and will remain as such in many people's eyes...hopefully!