Visible crew/equipment: In the "Battle of Carthage" in the Colosseum, one of the chariots is turned over. Once the dust settles you can see a gas cylinder in the back of the chariot. (01:22:55)
Visible crew/equipment: After the battle with the Germanians, the next morning after the tavern, Maximus is walking in the army camp and he feeds a horse a piece of apple. If you look closely between him and the horse, there is a crewman wearing a pair of blue jeans. (00:21:00)
Revealing mistake: After the final fight scene, where Maximus is dead and on his back in the sand, his armour would have made his head droop horribly backwards. To avoid that, the filming crew put a pillow of sand under his head to raise it about three inches. (02:20:10)
Deliberate mistake: In the fight scene with the chariots Maximus takes one of the horses from a chariot and jumps on it. The horse already has a saddle complete with stirrups despite the fact it was pulling a chariot and not carrying a rider. (01:23:30)
Continuity mistake: During the enactment of the Battle of Zama, Maximus rides his horse around a bend with his sword in his left hand. When we cut to close up, it's back in his right. Looking at the left-handed shot in freeze-frame, you can see the frame has been flipped, left-to-right (check the armor). This was probably for continuity reasons. Similarly, Maximus jumps on the horse and his shoulder protector is clearly on his injured left shoulder. However, a few frames later, the protector is on his right shoulder, then it moves yet again back the correct spot, the left shoulder. (01:24:45)
Continuity mistake: After Maximus and Tigris' battle, Tigris falls to the ground and we see his mask is already up. Maximus then pulls the mask up which has magically come down over Tigris' face again. (01:42:35)
Visible crew/equipment: During the scene where Maximus throws the sword into the crowd and yells "are you not entertained," the camera pans around, and in the crowd, for a split second, you can see a cameraman in jeans and a shirt standing next to a camera. This is visible on the big screen, but hard to see on video, unless you see it on DVD and can zoom in. (01:04:50)
Revealing mistake: After the first battle in the Colosseum (The Battle of Carthage), Commodus decides to meet "The Spaniard" in the arena. When Quintus (the head of the Praetorian Guard) is telling the slaves to drop their weapons, we can see one of the spectators hiding a plastic bottle of water (right upper corner of the screen). (01:25:58)
Revealing mistake: In the scene where the Praetorians attacks the gladiator's quarters and the gladiators are forced to fight in order to hide Maximus' escape, Hagen is shot full of arrows. Note the blocky silhouette of his torso area? What kind of padding is he wearing under that canvas jerkin? (02:07:10)
Visible crew/equipment: In the first battle in the Colosseum, right before the female gladiator gets chopped in half by the chariot, you can see someone in a black outfit wearing what looks like safety or hiking boots driving the chariot. (01:22:50)
Revealing mistake: When the chariot crashes in to the gladiators, we can see the shield in which the chariot crashes in to. It's not shaped like the other shields which are shaped in a perfect bow. This shield is rectangular shaped most likely to balance better on what ever is supporting it when the chariot runs over it making the chariot tip over. (01:30:00)
Continuity mistake: When we get to the comedy play fight between Maximus and Commodus, we look at the front of the stage and we see the actor playing Maximus is standing in the middle of the stage and the one playing Commodus on the right side. When we get a view from back of the stage 'Maximus' is standing on the left side of the stage and 'Commodus' in the middle. They have suddenly switched sides. (01:49:55)
Revealing mistake: When Proximo is killed by the troops, right after he pronounced his motto "Shadows and Dust", he's replaced by a dummy when they're about to stab him, as revealed by his different hairstyle and thinner build. (02:27:41)
Chosen answer: Because they would be the ranking soldiers, and accustomed to being given orders. Being disciplined, they would obey Quintus without question. The legions would necessarily have soldiers assigned to following orders at different times, similar to how a captain would give an order to a full room, and the first mate would be the one to carry out the order.
rswarrior