Revealed: The 5 Blatant Historical Inaccuracies in the Gladiator II Trailer – Including American Accents and a Cup of Tea
After nearly a quarter of a century, a sequel to Ridley Scott’s epic historical blockbuster, ‘Gladiator’, is finally about to be released.
‘Gladiator II’ hits theaters Friday (Nov. 15) and features a host of stars, including Paul Mescal, Denzel Washington, Pedro Pascal and Connie Nielsen.
Mescal stars as Lucius, the grandson of Rome’s former emperor Marcus Aurelius and son of Lucilla, who must fight for freedom after being taken into slavery.
Meanwhile, Washington portrays Macrinus, a power broker who controls a stable of gladiators and sees the combative Lucius as a promising investment.
Fans have gotten a glimpse of the film in two trailers, but many have noticed some puzzling anachronisms.
One Roman historian has even called Gladiator II ‘total Hollywood b*******’ because he can’t separate fact from fiction.
Now MailOnline reveals five glaring historical inaccuracies in ‘Gladiator II’, from dodgy accents to rhino riding and baboon fights.
How many have you seen?
It’s been 20 years in the making, but Ridley Scott’s Gladiator sequel finally hits theaters on Friday (November 15).
ACCENTS
When the first Gladiator II trailer dropped this summer, fans noticed the wide variety of accents on display.
Denzel Washington speaks in his New York voice, while Paul Mescal, an Irishman, appears to speak in an approximation of the Queen’s English.
Of course, the Romans would not have spoken like this, as these accents would not develop until over 1,500 years later.
Professor Eleanor Dickey, a linguist at the University of Reading’s Department of Classics, said Romans in the 3rd century probably had different accents.
“The empire was huge, so it’s completely reasonable that people in the film speak with more than one accent,” she told MailOnline.
Moreover, it almost goes without saying that English would not have been the language of choice for the people of the Roman Empire two millennia ago.
Latin was the predominant language spoken in the western half of the empire, including Rome, while in the eastern half it was Greek – but many other languages were also spoken in both halves.
Denzel Washington plays Macrinus, a power broker who manages a stable of gladiators and sees the combative Lucius as a promising investment (photo)
‘English was not spoken in Rome at that period, nor anywhere else,’ Professor Dickey told MailOnline. “If they speak English at all, that’s a huge anachronism.”
‘It is difficult to say exactly when a separate language that we might call ‘English’ first emerged, but I do not think it could have been as early as the third century.
Of course, it was always unlikely that Ridley Scott would have his actors speak Latin, Greek or some other dialect in a major Hollywood blockbuster.
RINO RIDING
‘Gladiator II’ is set in Rome around the year 200, at the height of the Roman Empire, approximately twenty years after the events of the first film, ‘Gladiator’ (2000), starring Russell Crowe.
The vast territorial empire existed between 27 B.C. and 476 AD. and stretched across Europe and North Africa, with Rome at its center.
Violent gladiator fights took place all over the empire, including in the Colosseum in Rome, the remains of which are still standing.
In these public spectacles, which attracted large crowds like today’s football matches, men fought bloody battles to the death.
Gladiator fights, chariot races and executions would take place at the enormous locations. Here, a gladiator fight is depicted in the Colosseum in Rome, in ‘Pollice Verso’, an 1872 oil painting by the French Jean-Léon Gérôme
In a scene from ‘Gladiator II’, Mescal’s character faces off against a rival hunter standing atop a rhino
In one scene of “Gladiator II,” Mescal’s character, Lucius Verus, faces off against a rival hunter standing atop a rhinoceros, its horns covered in blood.
But Kathleen Coleman, a professor at Harvard University’s classics department, points out that gladiators fought other people, not animals.
‘The people who fought the beasts were a separate category of people – bestiarii, who did not fight other men,’ Professor Coleman told MailOnline.
Professor Shadi Bartsch, a classicist at the University of Chicago, agrees that the depiction of rhino riding is not entirely accurate.
Martial, a Roman poet who often described the action from the Colosseum in Rome, wrote of a rhino throwing a bull into the air in AD 80.
However, it was the one-horned rhino, not the two-horned version shown in the film, and there is no evidence that people rode it, she said. The Hollywood Reporter.
SEA OF SHARKS
In another scene, the Colosseum, which has been digitally recreated to look as it did during its heyday 2,000 years ago, fills with water like a giant bathtub.
Bloody gladiator fights, often to the death, were fought at the Colosseum in Rome, pictured left and right in the new film
Even more bizarre, sharks then fill the arena and attack fighters who have fallen from a floating ship.
Once again Professor Bartsch believes there is an inaccuracy here, as she thinks the Romans ‘didn’t know what a shark was’.
However, the Romans did fight naval battles in the Colosseum, meaning it was flooded with water at some point during its ancient history.
When Ridley Scott was recently asked about the addition of sharks in an interview with Collider, he was convinced that there is historical value to it.
The director said, ‘Dude, if you can build a Colosseum, you can flood it with damn water. Are you kidding?
‘And to get a few sharks from the sea into a net, that is of course also possible.’
Director Ridley Scott seemed irritated when asked about the historical accuracy of sharks in the Colosseum in Rome
In the new film, Paul Mescal stars as Lucius, the grandson of Rome’s former emperor Marcus Aurelius and son of Lucilla, who must fight for his freedom as a gladiator after being enslaved.
MORNING TEA
Perhaps the most laughable aspect of the new film involves a Roman noble drinking tea in a café while reading the morning newspaper.
As Professor Bartsch notes, the film is set about 1,200 years before the invention of the printing press – in Germany in the 1440s.
However, the Romans did have a form of daily news – Acta Diurna or ‘Daily Acts’ – which many consider the forerunner of today’s media.
Acta Diurna consisted of official messages and matters of public interest carved into stone slabs and displayed in public places.
Acta Diurna “was cut out and placed in certain locations,” Professor Bartsch told The Hollywood Reporter.
‘You had to go there, you couldn’t keep it in a café. Besides, they didn’t have any cafes!’
And tea was something the Romans did not know: they drank wine and posca, a diluted vinegar drink.
Acta Diurna consisted of official messages and matters of public interest carved into stone slabs and displayed in public places
BABEANS
Mescal’s character was also created to fight mean-looking baboons, but Professor Coleman adds that there is no evidence of this.
She told MailOnline: ‘There is no record of the Romans fighting baboons, or even of them being displayed in the arena.’
In the new Gladiator II trailer, there doesn’t seem to be any adherence to these historical accuracies, but this is probably not the filmmakers’ goal.
When Ridley Scott was recently asked for his response to anyone calling the film historically inaccurate, the director replied brusquely, “Get a life.”
Professor Bartsch had called the film ‘total Hollywood b*******’, although she has since said her comments were ‘very light-hearted’ and that there were ‘no snipers involved’.
She told MailOnline: ‘It certainly wasn’t my intention to take on the Hollywood film industry!’
Although the exact plot of Gladiator II is a closely guarded secret, it is expected to be a reimagined version of Roman history, while retaining some authentic aspects.
