These staged naval battles have been referred to as naumachia. They used actual ships and gladiators and, in and amongst many spectacular Roman blood sports activities, this will effectively have been probably the most extreme of all of them. Based on the official web site for The Colosseum in Rome, a majority of these staged battles have been normally held in arenas specifically constructed for this objective, or giant channels or man-made our bodies of water. On some events although, they have been certainly held in Roman amphitheaters.
The uncommon Roman amphitheater naumachia seems to be what Scott goes for in “Gladiator II,” a film he lastly determined to make after greater than 20 years. The web site additionally explains that these particularly over-the-top battles have been usually held on particular events:
“Naumachia have been reserved for particular events, such because the commemoration of Julius Caesar’s triumph in 46 BC. Contributors have been usually prisoners of warfare or criminals condemned to dying, and the battles have been a lot bloodier than gladiatorial fight and fatality charges a lot greater.”
The Roman Colosseum held at the least two such battles close to the date of its inauguration. Based on the Roman historical past web site Maria Milani, gladiators have been usually positioned in flat bottomed boats, which have been meant to imitate historic Roman ships. It was additionally frequent to stage a recreation of a historic occasion from Roman historical past. So there’s loads of historic priority for what Scott is doing within the movie, and there are a lot of methods he may go along with it. Possibly he’s going to make use of it as an excuse to stage a bloody historic battle. Both means, this can be a scenario the place fact is stranger than fiction.
