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Marcus Aurelius. Commodus embraces Maximus, stabbing him with a
poisoned dagger to ensure an unfair fight. As the pulleys raise the two
combatants to the arena covered in rose petals, Maximus grows weak
from the dagger wound. The Praetorians form a circle of shields around
the pair, as the fight begins. Maximus, staggering, knocks the emperor’s
sword to the ground, and Quintus refuses to give Commodus another
weapon. Maximus stumbles and drops his sword. When Commodus draws
a knife, Maximus wrestles him down easily; he turns the knife on him and
cuts the emperor’s throat. Maximus falters, but has enough strength to
order his old comrade Quintus to free the gladiators and the imprisoned
Senator Gracchus: “There was a dream that was Rome – it shall be realized.
These are the wishes of Marcus Aurelius.”
As Maximus falls on the petal-strewn sand, Lucilla rushes to his side.
She weeps as she watches him die, then closes his eyes. Lucilla commands
the men to honor him as “a soldier of Rome.” Gracchus, the gladiators,
and the Praetorians carry the body of Maximus out of the arena, followed
by young Lucius. That evening, Juba buries the little statues of Maximus’
family in the sand of the Colosseum, with a promise to see his friend again
someday.
Ancient Background
The film Gladiator begins in the year ad 180, during the period of transition
between the emperor Marcus Aurelius, who died in that year, and the
succession of his young son, Commodus, as Caesar. When the Flavian
imperial dynasty came to an end with the death of Domitian in ad 96, the
stability established by the Flavian emperors continued into the next
period of the Principate (Grant, 293–304). The emperors Nerva, Trajan,
Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Aurelius, whose imperial reigns
covered the years ad 96 to 180, are often referred to by historians as the
“Five Good Emperors.” These benevolent rulers, four of whom ruled for
periods of two decades each, were genuinely committed to advancing the
interests of the empire and guaranteeing its security, while promoting
the welfare of the Roman people and their provincial subjects. In a span of
eighty-five years, the Roman Empire achieved its peak and enjoyed the
longest stretch of uninterrupted peace, prosperity, and good government
in its entire history.
After Domitian was assassinated in a court conspiracy, a smooth transfer
of authority was achieved when the senators promoted a former consul
in his sixties, Marcus Cocceius Nerva, who ruled as emperor from ad 96
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