Accuracy Of Historical Events In Movies: Analysis Of Gladiator

The movies that portray the historical events are sometimes not the best for accuracy but they do help gain interest of the past for present day people. Even though it is great that movies help create awareness they can create mislead information becoming fact. This has been the case with Emperor Commodus who is described in conflicting ways through the movie, Gladiator, and historical scholarly accounts. Gladiator is known as a cinematic masterpiece due to its representation of ancient Roman culture but many scholars are hesitant to support the film since the accuracy about the treatment of Commodus and the specifics of the time period are not good (North, 2001). Historians are concerned about the accuracy due to its comparison with historical texts from the time written by Dio and Herodian. Dio and Herodian came from very diverse backgrounds and this lead them to focus on different aspects of Commodus. Dio, a senator, wrote on Commodus’ politics while Herodian, a freedman, wrote without very much personal experience and replaced this with references from standard authorities of the time. Between Gladiator and the writings of Dio and Herodian there are three important differences that must be marked, how long Commodus reigned, his relationship with his father, Marcus Aurelius, and to what extent his eccentricity is true.

Gladiator sets Commodus in a six month reign of Rome, however, he reigned for twelve years which was longer than most emperors during this time period (Hekster, 2002). This is an important difference because the film does not allow enough time to display Commodus’ full actions in his reign. If the film had shown Commodus’ full actions it would have made him more problematic for movie viewers and it would have been difficult to name Maximus the full hero of the film and Commodus the full villian. Commodus was known as being an emperor of tyranny, which was accurate, but there were some positive outcomes from his reign as well (Dio, 1927). For example, Commodus was tolerant of Christians and they were able to live their lives peacefully with little persecution from local officials (Healy, 1908). This began to lead Rome towards Constantine, under him Christians would be granted religious freedom through Christianity becoming the official state religion (Ward, 2014). Another fact that would have seemed to contradict the character of Commodus in Gladiator would be that he ended the gladiator games. Commodus was known for participating in these games and this was shown in the movie but the movie also added that he died in the gladiator ring (Hekster, 2002). This is not true but is a much more exciting way to die rather than being strangled in a bathtub, which is what actually happened. Overall, the short reign of only six months works in the movie because they want to make the characters as simple as possible to create drama and a clear winner but in reality Commodus served twelve years as emperor and did not only act in horrible ways.

Comparing the accounts from Gladiator and Dio and Herodian, the father of Commodus, Marcus Aurelius, could be thought of as two different people. Gladiator depicts Aurelius as being a loved and respected emperor who yearned to strengthen the Senate and bring peace to Rome by eliminating all wars, internal and external. Unfortunately, this is was not true and Aurelius greatly weakened the Senate and systematically oppressed his enemies, including religious groups such as Christians (Gibbon, 2015). Since Commodus was the first emperor to be “born in the purple” he held his father’s beliefs that he should be a supreme leader and followed in his father’s footsteps (Herodian, 1961). This idea was also driven into Commodus because his father took great care to ensure that Commodus received the best education and training because he did not want to adopt an heir to be his successor (Herodian, 1961). Throughout the movie Aurelius acts reluctant to appoint Commodus as emperor due partially to their many disputes. Gladiator also leads the viewer to believe that Commodus was inept to become emperor because he was not educated on the politics of Rome. This is why on his deathbed Aurelius appoints Maximus as his heir. On the contrary, as mentioned above Aurelius ensured the full education of Commodus. This is why he proclaimed a Caesar at the young age of five and a consul at only fifteen. He was very familiar with the inner workings of the Roman government and seemed to be prepared to be emperor. Lastly, Commodus’ father was so focused on his son’s success as an emperor that he surround his son with the best advisors from the Senate since he would become an emperor at the young age of nineteen (Dio, 2015). The men’s existence as advisors demonstrates that Aurelius has prepared everything for Commodus to become emperor (Dio, 2015). The preparations that Aurelius put forward and the support that he provided his son showed that Gladiator did not accurately portray their relationship and there was no debate over who would succeed Aurelius as emperor.

Commodus is infamous for his eccentric and seemingly insane behavior. It has been established that Commodus had a set of advisors from his father. His father surely had good intentions by placing them in his life but Commodus would become a “slave of his companions.” which would help lead him to misfortune (Dio, 2015). Commodus and his father did not respect the Senate so these advisors were the greatest influence in Commondus’ life but they could rarely come to a consensus on decisions (Gibbon, 2015). An example of this would be when Commodus secured peace for the Romans with the Germanic tribes. This lead to many soldiers and senators to be angry because they felt like they had lost the opportunity to gain power and fame. In the movie this event is made to look like it was solely planned by Commodus without any input from others but he was actually following the plans of his advisors even though they could not all agree that this was the best one (Gibbon, 2015). As Commodus grew older he began to care less of what anyone thought of him. Forcing the Senate to declare him a god, naming all twelve months after twelve different names that he went by, and adopting names such as “conqueror of the world” became normal to him (Speidel, 1993). Gladiator focuses on some of his other behaviours that were more stereotypical of this time like participating in the gladiatorial games and his suspicion of a coming assassination attempt. These parts of his character were accurate but his fear of his sister was not correctly displayed in the film. Lucilla, Commodus’ sister, did conspire to kill him with their brother Maximus but it was futile and Commodus treated his two other sisters in a much worse fashion (Hekster, 2002). He participated in sexual activities with them and this lead to his reputation lowering even more. In Gladiator they were certainly right to show that Commodus acted in a horrifying way with his sisters but they should not have focused on Lucilla if they wanted the film to be historically accurate. Generally, the film was historically accurate in showing Commodus as a morally bankrupt emperor but they did not show that Commodus acted as a member of a group and they misplaced and undercut some of his atrocious behaviors.

Many historical events have been created into movies but these are not always created with history in mind and this is true for Gladiator and its story of emperor Commodus. While the movie is based in some fact it takes large artistic liberties when it came to Commodus’ relationship with his father, how he behaved as a ruler, and even the length of his reign. Historical sources from this from authors such as Dio and Herodian could have been consulted and used to create a more accurate movie but it would not have created the same drama and movie magic that the creators were looking for. While a movie about a historical event or person can be useful for receiving a basic understanding of the time that the movie is set in is not necessarily a good source to learn about the specific events portrayed.