The trailer for Gladiator 2 was released yesterday (you can watch it below if you haven’t seen it yet) and just like with the Napoleon movie, it seems like Ridley Scott is more following a grand cinematic experience than an authentic historical retelling. However, many online have been very quick to mock what they believe to be serious historical inaccuracies.
This includes, above all, the water fight where gladiators fight on board boats in the Colosseum, which has been heavily mocked. The fact is, however, that these so-called naumachia to the highest degree are real. In these games, the arena was filled with water and the gladiators fought each other aboard ships that mimicked the Roman navy.
The emperors Julius Caesar, Caligula and Claudius are some of those who organized these naval battles. Claudius’s event required the work of 20,000 people, while Caligula instead took over a small lake with ships the size of a Boeing plane.
There are also claims that Heliogabalus filled an arena with wine instead of water, but this is likely a myth. However, the sharks that swam in the trailer’s battle can be debated and are probably made up, but what the self-proclaimed historian had the most opinions on is therefore based on reality (or perhaps rather on water). The Romans were resourceful, skilled and in many ways insane.
There are undeniably things to criticize in the Gladiator 2 trailer, but the water fights in the Colosseum in particular are very real.
