I first described this series as excellent in the TV thread, part enactments and part documentary, with ample nudity 
, and historians commenting on events periodically. Although the acting is adequate for TV, History Channel standards, what I like is that this is or at least I assumed this is accurate history along with the acknowledgement that dialogs in a show like this are fictitious, more or less they must be.
Watching Season 1- Commodus, the same Commodus portrayed in the Gladiator (2000). The series starts in Germania with Marcus Aurelius (121- 180AD) teaching his son Commodus how to be a warrior and military leader. On the Germanic Frontier, the old man died of Antonine Plague that knocked the Roman Empire back on it’s heals, although some sources suspect that he may have been murdered by his son. After Aurelius dies, Commodus says to hell with this decade+ long war, signs a treaty with the Germanic Tribes and heads for Rome as Emperor.
Spoiler Highlights of this season:
I do like the comparison to the movie Gladiator (2000). The writers of the screenplay did some research, but the movie Gladiator is best described as a collage. If you watched Gladiator there is no Spaniard General, and no snuffing the old man with a pillow, although some scholars suspect Commodus of killing his Father.
However in real life there was a gladiator/wrestler name Narcissus who could be the equivalent of Maximus, assassinates Commodus after Commodus’s slave mistress poisons him. And in Gladiator, his sister did plot against him, Commodus did cheat while fighting in the Colosseum in both portrayals, but in this series they either had dull blades, his adversaries submitted to him because he was emperor, and according to one of the articles below, he allowed them to live.
Interesting Reading:
, and historians commenting on events periodically. Although the acting is adequate for TV, History Channel standards, what I like is that this is or at least I assumed this is accurate history along with the acknowledgement that dialogs in a show like this are fictitious, more or less they must be.Watching Season 1- Commodus, the same Commodus portrayed in the Gladiator (2000). The series starts in Germania with Marcus Aurelius (121- 180AD) teaching his son Commodus how to be a warrior and military leader. On the Germanic Frontier, the old man died of Antonine Plague that knocked the Roman Empire back on it’s heals, although some sources suspect that he may have been murdered by his son. After Aurelius dies, Commodus says to hell with this decade+ long war, signs a treaty with the Germanic Tribes and heads for Rome as Emperor.
Spoiler Highlights of this season:
- Commodus take over for his father and ends the war with the Germanic tribes.
- The Senate screws with him by announcing a gift to the army in their name.
- Comodus counters by having games and tax the senate to pay for it.
- His sister with at least one Senator try to assassinate Commodus.
- This attempt failed, and Commodus in return has his sister sent into exile and then quietly has her killed.
- His best friend in on the assassination attempt, kills Comodus’s other best friend so he can be number one, manages Rome for Commodus and engineers a grain shortage.
- His wife fails to deliver him a son, and she is exiled to Cypress (I think Cyoress).
- In a second set of games Commodus fights in the Colosseum to prove himself as worthy to the people, on several occasions, but he cheats.
- He disbands the Senate.
- Narcissus, a real Gladiator/wrestler assassinates Commodus.
I do like the comparison to the movie Gladiator (2000). The writers of the screenplay did some research, but the movie Gladiator is best described as a collage. If you watched Gladiator there is no Spaniard General, and no snuffing the old man with a pillow, although some scholars suspect Commodus of killing his Father.
However in real life there was a gladiator/wrestler name Narcissus who could be the equivalent of Maximus, assassinates Commodus after Commodus’s slave mistress poisons him. And in Gladiator, his sister did plot against him, Commodus did cheat while fighting in the Colosseum in both portrayals, but in this series they either had dull blades, his adversaries submitted to him because he was emperor, and according to one of the articles below, he allowed them to live.
Interesting Reading:
- Commodus the gladiator: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodus#Commodus_the_gladiator
- Cassius Dio, the senator prominently featured in this season: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassius_Dio
- Gladiator the real story: https://ancientromanhistoryrevival.com/gladiator-the-real-story/
- Narcissus: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcissus_(wrestler)
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