The film 'Gladiator II', its successes and its sometimes absurd historical errors

This Friday, the second installment of the film "Gladiator" (2000), both directed by British filmmaker Ridley Scott, was released.

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I'll say in advance that I liked the film. It has excellent action scenes, a fabulous setting and a very good plot. The film is inspired by the events we saw in the first part, coinciding to a great extent with the style of that one, although it is not as good. I would leave it here if I were not a fan of Roman history...

At this point, NOTICE: from here on I will cite some details of the film. If you are going to see it, you may prefer to stop reading at this point.

As is often the case with almost all Hollywood films about ancient Rome, the film takes certain historical liberties. For example, the emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus "Caracalla" is presented almost as a sickly teenager, when in reality he grew up to be a robust man and, by the way, a brutal tyrant. Nor is it true that his reign was as brief as we see in this feature film: he reigned alone for six years that must have seemed very long to the Romans. As for his brother Publius Septimius Geta, it is believed that he was killed by the Praetorian Guard on the orders of his Caracalla, but not personally by him.

It is understandable that a film like this should take certain historical liberties. What is unfortunate is that it does so in certain respects as well. For example, Numidia was already Roman at the time in which the film is set and had long ceased to be a kingdom. Likewise, trebuchets did not exist in Roman times in North Africa or in Rome itself. They arrived in Europe in the High Middle Ages. On the other hand, the most absurd error is the one that appears in the scene where we see the tomb of Maximus Decimus Meridius, the protagonist of the first film... with an inscription in English. My old Latin teacher will have a heart attack if he finds out.

In addition, the film makes the same mistake as other current productions: believing that today's diversity already existed in times past. A female warrior and archer in North Africa would have been as rare in ancient times as a green dog

Anyway, I won't go on any longer. I'll leave you here with the trailer of the film: