A real stinker of a movie

Rating: 1/10 (21 December 2009)

I am an off and on student of Roman history. While viewing this movie again recently it struck me that almost every "fact" about the Roman Empire that this film introduces is wrong. I counted no fewer than 17 huge inaccuracies in the opening fight scene. These are important inaccuracies too, such as the cavalry charge through the woods. Try that yourself sometime and see how long it takes for you to end up with a branch in your teeth. Also, the general leaving the army to go lead a minor cavalry charge and the catapults and ballistae being used were glaringly inaccurate as well. I could go on and on just about the opening scene but the theme continues throughout the movie with inaccuracies piled on top of each other.
The bottom line is, this movie only has the vaguest resemblance to the historical Rome. Once you remove the historical distortions you are left with nothing but a cheesy movie with bad dialogue.
Whoever wrote this should have spent some time reading a book or two about Rome.