Eagles and errors

What Ridley Scott gets seriously wrong in Gladiator II

Roman legionnaire with an eagle standard, as imagined by Midjourney.

NOTE: Plenty of spoilers ahead! Do not read if you are planning to watch the movie and care about plot details.

I approached Ridley Scott’s Gladiator II with considerable apprehension, fearing the extent to which Scott would disregard historical accuracy in favor of crafting a blockbuster fantasy. Following the release of Scott’s 2023 movie, Napoleon, historian Dan Snow highlighted numerous inaccuracies, including the fact that Napoleon did not lead the final charge at Waterloo. Scott dismissed Snow’s concerns, suggesting that he should “get a life,” clearly signaling a lack of regard for historical accuracy.

Nevertheless, Scott must have been sensitive to this issue since for Gladiator II he hired a historical script consultant, Alexander Mariotti, who now identifies as “The Gladiator Historian” and offers expensive “historical tours” to celebrities and wealthy individuals like Bill Gates. Mariotti’s contributions to the movie, however, are severely flawed, as we will soon discover. Moreover, he appears indifferent to the criticism, dismissing academic concerns about historical inaccuracies as “snobbery” while being puzzled by the criticisms, as if maintaining historical accuracy and creating a compelling film are mutually exclusive.