Warning: This article contains spoilers for Gladiator II.Gladiator IItakes much creative liberty with the depiction of the later ancient Roman Empire, but its confirmed sequel is set up to veer ever further away from the course of history. Ridley Scott’s Best Picture winnerGladiatoris by no means strictly historically accurate; while Scott is known for his expansive, textured world-building in the context of historical epics, he firmly decided that he was willing to change certain events for the sake of his story. Perhaps the biggest example in the first movie is the public death of Joaquin Phoenix’s Emperor Commodus, in contradiction with the historical figure’s assassination.
The story ofPaul Mescal’s Hanno/Luciusis structured the same way as Russel Crowe’s Maximus' narrative, with the goal of crafting a movie of incredible scale about “strength and honor.“Gladiator IIsees Lucius, having left Rome and his mother Lucilla (Connie Nielsen) as a child, is brought back into the heart of the empire as an enslaved gladiator, out for revenge against the Roman general Acacius (Pedro Pascal).Lucius finds that destiny is inescapable, and he must aid in freeing Rome from tyranny,which leads directly into howGladiator II’s endingis the biggest derivation from history yet.
Gladiator 2’s Ending Has Lucius Fulfill The Dream Of Rome & Change History
Lucius Changes Ancient Roman History By Ending Macrinus' Regime Early
Lucius and Lucilla are both among thehistorical characters inGladiator II, althoughLucilla was killed on her brother’s orders as a young woman while Lucius died as a child,both before the ages they are in this movie. How Emperors Geta (Joseph Quinn) and Caracalla (Fred Hechinger) came into power is not described inGladiator II; in real history, they inherited the throne from their father, who was the last in a succession of several emperors within a year after Commodus' death. Without scrutinizing the finer points of their rule, the movie accurately depicts them in power around this time.
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Upon arriving in Rome after Numidia is conquered and his wife Arishat (Yuval Gonen) is killed, Lucius finds out that Acacius, the man he wants dead, is actually his mother’s new husband.Lucius ultimately does not kill Acaciushimself and is later informed of the plan for the general’s armies to storm Rome and arrest the emperors. However, Denzel Washington’s Macrinus conspires to turn the brothers against each other, ultimately helping Caracalla kill Geta and then killing Caracalla himself. After Macrinus kills Lucilla,Lucius kills Macrinus to prevent him from seizing control of the entire Roman Empire.
Lucius convinces the two armies to stand down, imploring them to band together to make Rome better, aspiring to achieve the “Dream of Rome.”
In reality, the historical Macrinus did succeed Caracalla as emperor (after the latter ordered his brother’s death) and ruled Rome for about a year; Lucius prevents this from ever happening. More dramatically, Lucius convinces the two armies to stand down, imploring them to band together to make Rome better, aspiring to achieve the “Dream of Rome,” which Marcus Aurelius (Richard Harris inGladiator) envisioned as Rome’s return to being a republic. Lucius appears to succeed in his speech, which completely contradicts real history, as the real Lucius was dead at this time and no such systematic upheaval took place.
Rome Becoming A Republic After Gladiator 2 Would Completely Alter Real History
Rome Never Became A Republic Again In Real History After The Time Of Gladiator II
Gladiator II’s conclusion implies thatLucius will stay in Rome, likely as a significant political leader, when there is a power vacuum to be filled following the deaths of all the other major royals in the movie, and help the senate and the people rebuild. Although he has reclaimed his identity as the grandson of the last great Roman emperor, it is very unlikely that Lucius wants to be an emperor himself. He would only want to see the people rule through the senate and could possibly follow in Maximus and Acacius' footsteps by assuming a position in the military.
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However, a movie focusing on Lucius striving to achieve these goals rewrites history more thanGladiator ever has before.Rome never became a Republic again after the defeat of Mark Antony and Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus' rise to power in 27 B.C.,the beginning of the Roman Empire. There were only more emperors in power until the empire’s fall in the 5th century. The Roman Empire is widely considered to have come to have ended in A.D. 476, following years of decline largely due to the empire having become too big to manage (viaTIME).
However, the movie then suggests that Lucius prevents this course of history from playing out.
The empire eventually split into the Western Roman Empire and the Eastern Roman Empire, the latter surviving as the Byzantine Empire until the 15th century.Gladiator IIemphasizes the decline of Rome, painting it as largely the result of the twin emperors' rule, but somewhat accurately alluding to the various economic, military, and governance factors that caused the empire’s gradual collapse. However, the movie then suggests that Lucius prevents this course of history from playing.
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Gladiator 3could build a substantial plot from real history with the one exception being that Macrinus is dead, and Lucius is still alive and a major player.Gladiator II’s ending might make it seem like everyone is on board with the Dream of Rome in the moment, but Lucius could find himself facing some pushback from Rome’s nobility. All the senators who supported Lucilla and reforming the republic were killed in the Colosseum; what’s left is a senatorial class that would likely include some people wanting to make a play for emperor.
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The historical Macrinus was succeeded as emperor by Elagabalus,whose eccentric historical record would make him a fantastic character in a movie. Elagabalus was the cousin of Caracalla and became emperor as a teenager; he is primarily remembered for much controversial sexual and religious activity.Gladiator 3has a setup brimming with the potential of historical religious conflict, as well as storylines regarding the concerns Acacius voices inGladiator IIabout Rome having “many subjects to feed,” as the empire would become too widespread to be sustainable.
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However, Ridley Scott has hardly paid attention to real history withGladiatororGladiator II; the real question is what he will change in the third movie. Scott has teased the movie as comparable toThe Godfather Part II, with Lucius getting “a job he didn’t want” (viaIndieWire).Lucius may have to become emperor in the hopes of overseeing the reestablishment of the republic,which Marcus Aurelius once wanted Maximus to do as Lord Protector. Of course, Lucius would at this point be an entirely fictional Roman emperor, having not lived past childhood in real history.
If Lucius actually succeeds by the end ofGladiator 3and Rome is once again a functioning democracy, the entirety of ancient Rome would by then be a fiction. There is some potential in terms of entertainment value through multiple story possibilities; the crux of the next sequel is whether Scott wants Rome to be a public again in his universe. Maximus, then Lucius, and many others die in these movies for the idea of Rome being better, but the next movie, even more so thanGladiator II, will reveal what kind of tragedy this was always meant to be.
Gladiator II
Cast
Gladiator 2 is the follow-up to Ridley Scott’s award-winning film Gladiator from 2000. Scott returns to direct the sequel, with Paul Mescal staring as Lucius, alongside Denzel Washington and Joseph Quinn as the villain Emperor Geta. Gladiator 2 had been stuck in development hell for years before a script written by David Scarpa finally moved forward.
