In 2000, a director named Ridley Scott tried to portray Roman culture through the film Gladiator. Some historians argue if this film was 90% accurate versus a mere 20%. Whether it was the best historical film or the worst. Many artists, directors and writers scour the world for historical evidence to support their films, but in the end all they really need are good paying customers who want to see the film. In one of the first scenes, there was a big battle with Germanic tribes on the night of Marcus Aurelius' death. This did not happen in the real Roman Empire. In 179 AD there was a long and hard battle that lasted one day, during the election campaign season. Marcus Aurelius however just as he was about to launch another campaign on March 17, 180 AD A German Shepherd was also used in this scene, but the German Shepherd would not even have existed in the past at that time in the Roman Empire. Many have argued that because it is such a long film, they could have simply cut this sketchy scene. So we have one less inaccuracy. The timeline of Commodus' reign was also drastically shortened, thus causing inaccuracies throughout the film. On December 31, 192 AD Commodus was assassinated. This meant that he reigned for 12/13 years when he took over his father's reign in 180 AD Even though the time period was up, the director included some historical facts about Commodus. Commodus was known to enjoy spectacles including beast hunting, gladiatorial combat, death, and even chariot racing. He later trained in all these areas and defeated 620 gladiators, then bragged about it in a later found script. In the film it was described that Commodus was a bit horrible... a paper boy... convincing to those who were not well educated in the field of Roman times. As far as anyone who has evidence of what reality was in that era, it's easily a horrible movie because it's not accurate. In the end unfortunately it all boils down to the point of view of the question and what can be represented as real and what was false. Bibliography: Ward, A 2001 The Movie "Gladiator" in Historical Perspective, AbleMedia. [email protected], accessed 25 April 2014, .Rollmops, P 2011 Gladiator & the Portrayal of the Roman Empire in the Cinema, Tragicomedia, accessed 25 April 2014, .“Gladiator”: Good drama, bad History, 2011 Word Press, accessed April 25 2014, .