Expert: Maria - 1/12/2011

Question
Hi Maria,
I was wondering if the Roman army armor used in the movie gladiator was historically accurate.

Answer
Hello,

Sorry, but I cannot help you with this question firstly because Roman armours are not my field of expertise, secondly because I have to point out that most of  the movies set in the ancient Roman world are almost often historically inaccurate.

For example,  in the movie Gladiator the emperor Marcus Aurelius was not murdered by his son Commodus, but died possibly of plague on  March 180 AD in the city of Vindobona (modern Vienna in Austria); also, though Commodus engaged in show combat in the Colosseum, he was not killed in the arena, but strangled on December 192 AD  by an athlete named Narcissus in his bath.


As for military discrepancies go to:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_deviations_in_Gladiator_(2000_film)#Military
where you can read that:

1-Stirrups can be seen used on some of the Roman cavalry, but while they were invented in Asia during the Roman Empire period, the Romans never adopted them. They are used in the movie for obvious safety reasons, a proper Roman saddle being difficult to ride.

2-The forest of the opening battle would not have appeared in Roman times as it does on film. The scenes were shot at a managed spruce forest near Farnham in England. Since modern forestry was not applied in Europe before roughly the 16th century, a forest consisting of a single species of tree (a monoculture) would have been an unlikely sight in Germania in AD 180.

3-The legionaries of the opening battle are shown holding their pila even as the Germans approach their line. Roman soldiers would have thrown the spears before impact. The shank of the pilum was soft and useless in close combat.

4-Catapults and Ballistas would not have been used in a forest. They were rarely used in open battles and reserved primarily for sieges.

5-Much of the infantry combat is shown as one-on-one dueling between individuals. The highly organized Romans would not have allowed this to happen, as there was a higher chance of an individual legionnaire falling in single combat than if he was fighting as part of a unit. The organized, cohort-based fighting style of the post-Marian army would have been used to outlast the Germans.

Best regards,
Maria