[Virginia Ridgerunner]

Nice story except that Marcus Nonius Macrinus was never a gladiator.

[stentorian conservative]

While vague, the article gets that point across.

Like the post above mine, I was also struck by how the article kept going back to the movie. It's no wonder folks have no concept of actual historical events. They rely on Hollywood to teach them all they need to know. ..gack

[Tax-chick]

Are you suggesting that historic facts are in some way relevant?

[Larry Lucido]

Maybe he was a gladiator organizer. That’s almost as good, right?

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

Nice story except that Marcus Nonius Macrinus was never a gladiator.

Gladiator was a remake of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire in which the character who was the equivalent of Russell Crowe's character never became a gladiator, but was instead sent far away to Asia as commander. I was not that familiar with the story, so did not know that the original was more historically accurate. The original movie starred Stephen Boyd, Sophia Loren, Alec Guiness, and Christopher Plummer.

[eleni121]

It's to Fox's credit that they actually have quotation marks around the word gladiator.

Your larger point it correct: Hollywood and history have had a tenuous relationship at best—one whose foundations is selling tickets and enlarging the vanities of their producers while in true leftist fashion practicing distortion and deception.

one exception is this new indie coming out next year:

http://www.nicholasofmyra-movie.com/