Week 4 GLADIATOR Flashcards
Date where Octavian became Augustus and why
- individual becomes Augustus from 27 BC - AD 14
- defeated Mark Antony and received absolute power from the Senate
Augustus established what?
The pax Romana (Peace of Rome) was established by this individual and conquered more land around the Roman empire
Gladiator date (2000 film)
AD 180
The Julio-Claudian Dynasty (1st C BC - AD 1st C)
Family line of the 5 following emperors of the Roman Dominate Empire
- Augustus
- Tiberius (stepson of Augustus)
- Gaius (Grandnephew of Tiberius)
- Claudius (Nephew of Tiberius)
- Nero (Grandnephew of Tiberius)
Date of death of Nero and results
- AD 68
- Causes a civil war because everyone wishes to become the emperor
- Vespasian becomes the next ruler (a soldier who had support of his troops) and passes his rule to his family
Flavian Dynasty (Late AD 1st C)
-Vespasian
- Titus (elder son)
- Domitian (younger son)
Date Death of Domitian and results
- AD 96, Domitian dies
- As a result, the Senate appoints stable politician Nerva
- Causes adopted heirs as rulers
- Nerva-Antonine Dynasty
Nerva-Antonine Dynasty (End of AD 1st C - 2nd C AD)
- Nerva
- Trajan (heir of N)
- Hadrian (Heir of T)
- Antoninus Pius (Heir of H)
- Marcus Aurelius & Lucius Verus (Heirs of A)
Marcus Aurelius (ruled AD 161 - 180) & Lucius Verus (Ruled AD 161 - 169)
- Lucius marries daughter of Marcus Aurelius and have children (Lucius the boy)
- Campaigned for territory and also his citizens
- Marcus made his son Commodus his successor in AD 177
- Commodus did not kill his father but rather died during a campaign in AD 180 in Vienna
Commodus (Ruled AD 180 - 192)
- Reject lifestyle of his father, neurotic, pleasure-loving, vicious, megalomaniac
- loved by the people and a gladiators
- Several attempts on his life by his sister, who was quickly killed after that
- assassinated by his mistress, senators and guards and strangled to death by an athlete/wrestler, Narcissus
Small historical Inaccuracies
- The bread distribution to the people (did not actually occur)
- Unskilled fighters (normally performance entertainers in pairs rather than fighting to the death)
- Geographic difficulty and the short months between scenes when it was years in real life
(Trying to make it fun to watch, not boring)
Big Historical Inaccuracies
- invention of Gracchus, the popularist senator (direct reference in Spartacus)
- Maximus (invented character to rival Commodus as a hero)
- Death of Marcus Aurelius (film:Suffocated / Reality:Died on Conquest) and Commodus (film:Arena / Reality:Strangled) shown by Cassius dio and Herodian
- Marcus Aurelius wished to return Rome to a Republic (FALSE!) since they liked emperors much more
The rewriting in Gladiator and reality (Pax Romana)
- Movie made it seem that Rome needed Peace when it already had it for 200 years (Pax Romana)
- Saddam Huissian or something
Lucilla and Marcia
- Lucilla was killed off early (he was not incestuous)
- he had a mistress in reality, Marcia
- Was influenced into being evil by peers in reality, unlike being naturally cruel
Correct historical context in the film in Gladiator
- Funeral services with gladiators games
- vastness of the Roman Empire
- how quick ones status could change in the Roman Empire
- Archaeologic look of the sets
- influenced by a painting by Jean-leon Gerome in 1872 “thumbs down”
What is an epic
A long poem, typically derived from ancient oral tradition, narrating the deeds and adventures of heroic or legendary figures or the history of a nation (8th C Illiad and Odyssey. Aeneid by Virgil in the 1st C BC)
Epic in film, epic in every way (cost, budget, scale, heroic tales, contemporary narrative, set in the past, long runtime)
Gladiator as an epic
- narrative based on a clear villain and a clear hero “a hero will rise”
- Epic in feel, scale, music (emotions manipulated with the soundtrack), visuals (made to impress, shot with wide-aspect ratio), budget, very roman (Maximus as the “barbarians” win against the “romans” as a historic battle of Carthage reenactment for the population pleasure)
- allusions and quotations from the ancient world epics, western epics, biblical epics (1960s and earlier) [Spartacus: Gladiator Training ring, getting painted, Gracchus, Juba=Draba, Proximo=Batiatus] [Riding across Spain, campfire, ranch burned down, family dead] [Maximus crucified and stabbed like Jesus, Commodus brought up in white and religious requiems playing]
- Contemporary commentary
Commodus differences
Historic: Lazy, pleasure-seeking, has a mistress, luxury-loving, not clever, privileged
Film: Perverted, greedy, Paranoid, immature, selfish, vindictive, sadistic, jealous, vulnerable and insecure
Gladiator as a contemporary commentary
- The beginning allusion like the Gulf War (1990-1991)
- slow moving action battles in the same techniques that refer to “saving private ryan” from the 2nd world War (emphasizes the high cost of War no matter the justification)
- Marcus Aurelius refers the Jeffersonian ideal of the original US republic
- Commodus in Rome looks like Hitler in Germany with scenery and directly like a Nazi propaganda film
