a“Gladiator II,” which grossed about $400 million, will be available to streaming viewers on Christmas Eve. The sequel to Ridley Scott’s 2000 epic replaces the original Commodus with the brother emperors Caracalla and Geta, and models not only him but also Rome’s other bloodthirsty tyrants, including Caligula, Nero, and Domitian. I am.
These imperial pomposity and disregard for social norms may resonate with audiences in the wake of Donald Trump’s victory in the 2024 presidential election, but their appeal to the common people and the Roman-educated elite The same goes for the hostility it aroused among the ranks. Both films capture images of oppression portrayed by hostile intellectuals, but only the new film has other clues about the important social changes driving politics then and now. The movie contains characters of different races.
Whatever the reason for the casting decision, the Roman Empire was actually home to countless ethnic groups in provinces from Scotland to Arabia. In fact, Gladiator II shows that by the day of the film (211 AD), Rome’s ruling class had become multi-ethnic, and that this change led to — perhaps surprisingly to today’s audiences — more conservative politics. It shows exactly what will happen. The film is thus set in a world similar to modern-day America, where a multiracial, populist, conservative coalition has begun to sideline the ruling elite. The Roman Empire a century after Caracalla also provides valuable insight and warnings about what Americans can expect at the beginning of a new political era.
When the first emperor, Augustus, ended the Roman Republic in the early 1st century AD, almost all of the senators and governors were from Italy. By AD 97, about a century before the film Gladiator takes place, Spanish-born Emperor Trajan became the first non-Italian emperor. Their fellow Spaniards, Gauls (French), North Africans, and Syrians soon followed. This was not the result of bottom-up social change, but rather a reflection of how local elites were assimilated into the ruling class. For example, in 48 AD, when Emperor Claudius struggled to justify the admission of a few prominent Gallic Romans into the Senate, he realized that the Gauls had long supported the Empire and that they were already part of the Senate. It emphasized how well they were integrated into the elite.
Read more: What Gladiator II got right and wrong about the actual battle in the Colosseum
Wealthy local representatives who did not reach the Senate could still enter the small bureaucracies created by early emperors, often (but not always) from the same city or region. I needed to find an established mentor. Trajan’s father thus enjoyed the patronage of Emperor Vespasian, an Italian, but at the same time followed in the footsteps of prominent Spaniards such as the philosopher and courtier Seneca. His quick adaptation to the values of the elite meant that the genteel Roman writers did not brand Trajan a tyrant and later declared him “the greatest emperor.”
Things started out well, but by the third century AD, when the movie Gladiator is set, this assimilation was replaced by a breakdown of social class walls. Commodus, the villain of the first generation of gladiators, was succeeded as emperor by Pertinax, the son of a former slave. When Pertinax gave up his career as a teacher and joined the army, his superior talent caught the attention of his superiors as the frontier wars decimated the ranks. It was widely accepted at the time that Pertinax’s rise was a harbinger of more acute tensions with the collapse of social barriers, which would erupt under Gladiator II’s co-villain Caracalla.
Although Caracalla was a product of the empire’s unified elite—his parents, the Emperor and Empress, were from prominent families in North Africa and Syria, respectively—Caracalla disliked the old aristocracy and was a member of the military. He favored a working-class constituency, and even granted Roman citizenship to all citizens. Free inhabitants of the empire. This removed one of the last obstacles preventing poor locals from governing the empire. By the late third century, most emperors and many of their senior officials had risen through the military ranks from rural peasantry.
They soon faced a spiraling crisis. Foreign invaders were difficult to defeat, with constant civil war and rule that sometimes lasted only a few months. By mid-century, the Goths had killed Emperor Decius, the Persians had captured his near-successor Valerian, and the empire had split into three.
A new elite has risen to the occasion. By the early fourth century, they had reunited the empire, restored its frontiers, and slowed the rapid succession of emperors. The government accomplished this through a mass military recruitment and fortification program financed by increased taxes and an expanded bureaucracy to support a larger state apparatus. The number of salaried civil servants in the empire increased from a few hundred in the early years of the empire to more than 30,000.
Read more: How to connect the Gladiator II to the original Gladiator
On the other hand, the Romans, perhaps influenced in part by the democratization of their political culture, began to favor socially conservative values that emphasized personal austerity. Many have tried fasting, sleep deprivation, and vegetarian diets while frequently taking vows of celibacy. By 450 AD, emperors and empresses were even entering into chaste marriages. Having shown little patience for the rumored sexual depravity of their predecessors, most of Caracalla’s successors prioritized repelling the constant invasions. Their efforts postponed the collapse of the Western empires for centuries.
The values that overtook ancient Rome brought much-needed seriousness, but the Romans still paid a harsh price.
While the early imperial nobility saw the locals as client states with their own cultures, their replacement working class saw the Romans as a single people and expected them all to share the same values. I was doing it. These demands were harsh for minorities, especially Christians. Although the pagan Romans had always strictly prohibited Christianity, Emperor Trajan stated in a famous correspondence that the Roman elites of the time were content to leave Christians alone with little regard. It is clear that he continued to do so. The ruling class of the 3rd century empire felt otherwise and sanctioned three pogroms by the empire’s largest religious minority. Fragments of the debate over the sanctioning of persecution show that courtiers were far more concerned with monitoring daily life than their predecessors. Emperor Decius required all Romans to present a certificate as proof that they had made sacrifices to pagan gods.
And while the Romans may have needed to expand their military, increased state intervention in the economy had serious consequences. Legislation aimed at stopping inflation by fixing the price of everything sold in the empire failed spectacularly. When the scions of elite families left to take valuable government jobs in the imperial capital, the expansion of the bureaucracy bankrupted small cities.
In a moment that resembles the aftermath of the 2024 presidential election, the ending of Gladiator II captures the beginning of this process, with cheering soldiers outside Rome celebrating the overthrow of the old ruling class. This marked the beginning of a more conservative political consensus that helped the empire meet its challenges, but ultimately at the cost of freedom.
Jeffrey E. Schulman is a Ph.D. A student at the University of Groningen, he studies the political history of the Roman Empire.
Made by History guides readers beyond the headlines with articles written and edited by expert historians. Learn more about Made by History at TIME. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of TIME editors.
