Really good film with an opening battle scene that is incredible!

Rating: 9/10 (9 October 2015)

Loved this movie but the best sequence was at the beginning when the disciplined, methodical, Roman Army slaughtered a disorganized German horde in a filmed battle sequence with no equal other than perhaps the storming of Normandy beach from Spielberg's movie Saving Private Ryan! Tactics will beat brute force every time! The emperor overseeing this slaughter was Marcus Aurelius who was the last of the adoptive emperors, also referred to as the 'Good Emperors'. It started with Nerva, who adopted Trajan, who in turn adopted Hadrian, who was followed by Antoninus Pius who in turn was succeeded by Marcus Aurelius. During their rule there was a considerable expansion of the Roman empire, from northern Britain to Dacia and to Arabia and Mesopotamia, followed by a consolidation and an attempt to perfect the empire's defenses (e.g. Hadrian's Wall in Britain). This all started to unravel under Commodus (son of Marcus Aurelius). The period of the adoptive emperors started with the assassination of a horrible emperor (Domitian) and ended with another horrible emperor (Commodus who also was assassinated). This is all historical fact and that's the end of the movie's factual content everything else is just fiction! But enjoyable fiction with the formulaic mistake of turning the main protagonist into something of a superhero and that's why it isn't getting a 10!