20 Things You Didn’t Know About Gladiator

That wasn't the only little slice of inauthenticity on the movie, of course: Gladiator is a historical epic drama, not a documentary.

Take the murder of Emperor Marcus Aurelius. In real life, the man died of the plague, not patricidal strangling. Commodus wasn't despised by his people, either - at least, not at first. Much loved by both the army and the lower classes, Commodus fell from favour over time because of his increasingly bizarre, arrogant behaviour.

He was known to his people as a 'Gladiator Emperor' due to his performances in the Colosseum, routing wild animals for the entertainment of the masses. However, the Emperor would charge the Senate a vast amount of money for each of these public appearances, leading to a fall in the value of the currency. His behaviour worsened in the arena - he segued from wild animals to the vicious clubbing to death of disabled and sick prisoners, many of whom he roped together. The people saw their fighting Emperor reduce himself to the status of torturer, and were not entertained.

Eventually, Rome had had enough of its Emperor. The Senate arranged for him to be poisoned, but he threw up the contaminated food: so when that didn't work, they arranged for notorious gladiator Narcissus to strangle him in his dressing room at the Colosseum.