In the history of the Roman Empire, this is the only one who fought with a sword in the arena with the honor of Caesar. This is Commodus the Great, and the plot of the famous movie "Gladiator" roughly takes place during his reign.
Unlike the movie "Gladiator", in this documentary, Commodus' image is more objective. Historically, the 5-year-old Commodus was named "Caesar" by his father, the philosopher emperor Marcus Aurelius, and he did not need to rely on his father's incest to ascend to the throne. In fact, as soon as he ascended the throne, he ended decades of war through a peace agreement, and the Roman people finally ushered in a long-lost peace. However, when he returned to Rome from the front line, he experienced the rebellion of his sister, the murder of his confidant, the dictatorship of his attendants, and the infertility of the queen, and suffered setbacks. At this time, the Roman Empire was at the dividing point from prosperity to decline, and it has long been unable to expand its military. Commodus therefore hoped to hold a gladiatorial match with blood-splattered and blood-splattered blood to revive the spirit of Rome, so he dressed as a lion, incarnated as the god of Hercules, held a sharp blade, and swept the wolf on the gladiatorial arena, killing the opponent and winning the championship. , and also won the applause of the Roman people.
However, such a brave Caesar was described as a "tyrant" in contemporary history books, and all his statues and surviving work were ordered to be destroyed after his death.
A hero or a tyrant? This film is an attempt to explain this paradox.
One question is: Why was gladiatorial competition so important to the Roman Empire at this time? On the one hand, there were a large number of participants, and most of them were the rising Roman commoners, who could use them to confront the Senate; on the other hand, it was the maintenance of the lost warlike and brave Roman spirit.
Interestingly, our Emperor Qianlong, who was also a young man (who was established as an emperor by Kangxi early on), was also very keen on similar physical exercise. During his reign, he went to Chengde to participate in Mulan Qiuwei almost every year. The handed down paintings included hunting rabbits, shooting wolves, stabbing tigers, and even a bear, which was unimaginable in the previous Ming Dynasty. On the surface, Emperor Qianlong was hunting, but in fact it was to continue the Manchu military tradition of immediately conquering the world. It was really a pure need of the noble class.
Commodus was a tyrant, but Qianlong became a "Mingjun". I think it was largely related to the instability of the Roman political system.
The last question is, why do we always have the top system of monitor, secretary, and president, while ancient Rome adopted the system of Caesar, senate, and people's assembly?
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