Corrections

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Quotes

Commodus: They told me your boy squealed like a girl when they nailed him to the cross, and your wife moaned like a whore when they ravaged her again and again and again.

The opening battle is wildly inaccurate. The Roman legions were trained to fight as a regimented force, and to maintain formation for mutual support. In the film, the formation collapses instantly upon contact with the enemy; in addition to being inaccurate, this would have almost certainly led to a Roman defeat, as, on a solo basis, the barbarians were by far the better warriors. Further, the Roman legions used spears called pila. Doctrine called for them to be thrown while the enemy closed. The Romans would then draw their swords and fight, while remaining in formation. Though the Romans are shown holding their pila in the opening scenes, they are never used against the barbarians, and we see no pila-riddled shields and/or corpses in the background. See more...

Trivia

When Maximus talks to Lucious about his two horses on his armour, the names he gives them (Argento and Scarto) can be translated as "Silver" and "Trigger". See more...

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The entry you are correcting is:

Title	Gladiator
Original entry	The tattoo Maximus has, the so-called 'mark of the legion', is wrong. In the time of Marcus Aurelius, the legionnaires were given an identification tag made of bronze or lead. The tattoo was introduced decades later. [There was also at no point in Roman history a general called Maximus Decimus Meridius, nor was Emperor Commodus killed during a gladiator battle in front of a crowd (in reality he was strangled in his sleep by a man named Narcissus). Rome did not return to a period of republicanism as it does at the end of the film, either, nor was there a senator Gracchus to lead the new Roman regime. The film script purposefully adds or alters certain elements of Roman history whenever it suits the plot, as the tattoo's presence decades before being introduced did.]

Title

Gladiator

Original entry

The tattoo Maximus has, the so-called 'mark of the legion', is wrong. In the time of Marcus Aurelius, the legionnaires were given an identification tag made of bronze or lead. The tattoo was introduced decades later. [There was also at no point in Roman history a general called Maximus Decimus Meridius, nor was Emperor Commodus killed during a gladiator battle in front of a crowd (in reality he was strangled in his sleep by a man named Narcissus). Rome did not return to a period of republicanism as it does at the end of the film, either, nor was there a senator Gracchus to lead the new Roman regime. The film script purposefully adds or alters certain elements of Roman history whenever it suits the plot, as the tattoo's presence decades before being introduced did.]

Read very carefully

ALL corrections of corrections must be in the following format, with NO EXCEPTIONS. Write a sentence or two explaining why the existing correction is wrong, then type "Reworded text: " (you don't need the quotes) followed by how the mistake should be worded to avoid someone correcting it the same way again. For example:

Existing corrected entry

"Kate and Charlie live in Toronto. When we first see them in their car, at the beginning of the movie, it has no license plate in the front. In Ontario, cars are required by law to have a plate in the front as well as in the back. [This isn't really a mistake. I live in California where the same law exists and I, as well as many other Californians, don't have a front license plate on my car.]"

What you'd write:

California might be lax about that law, but Ontario definitely isn't. Reworded text: Kate and Charlie live in Toronto. When we first see them in their car, at the beginning of the movie, it has no license plate in the front. In Ontario, cars are required by law to have a plate in the front as well as in the back. While some other jurisdictions may be lax in applying their two-plates law, Ontario isn't.

ANY recorrection submitted in the wrong format will be automatically dismissed. The short explanation of why the correction's wrong is just as important as providing the reworded text - if that's not included your entry will just be deleted. If an existing correction is complete garbage and the original entry doesn't need any rewording, explain why the correction's garbage, then just write "Reworded text: none needed." If the correction is fundamentally valid, but is worded badly or contains wrong information, just use the "change text" option.

To reiterate: What you write after "Reworded text:" should essentially be the existing mistake, clarified where necessary so no-one will misunderstand it and correct it wrongly again. If it's anything else, your recorrection will be ignored, so DON'T JUST WRITE A CORRECTION - WHAT YOU WRITE NEEDS TO BE A COMPLETE SUBMISSION. If you have any queries, please contact me.

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