Contrary to the "strength and honor" depicted in Hollywood films "Gladiator" and "Gladiator II," some ancient Romans considered gladiators the embodiment of amoral tyranny.

The Monte Carlo of Ancient Rome was a resort city where emperors and other elites could indulge their wild side amid affairs ...

The most famous martyr of the Roman republic—Marcus Tullius Cicero—used gladiators’ physiques not to celebrate the republic’s valiant heroes, but to deride their bloated muscles as the ...

Life in Ancient Times. Gladiators, Sports and Entertainment in the Roman Era. ... Of course, the most famous entertainment venue in Rome was the Colosseum, and this was an icon.

Gladiators were embodiment of tyranny to some ancient Romans By John M. Oksanish, Wake Forest University Paul Mescal portrays a Roman gladiator in "Gladiator II," a sequel to the 2000 film ...

Neither “Gladiator” nor its cinematic sequel is particularly concerned with historical fact. For one thing, the emperor Marcus Aurelius had no intention of restoring the republic. Gladiatorial ...

(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.) But I’m most interested in how the two films misrepresent the way Roman ...