This article includes failed For Gladiator II.
There are plenty of animals in “Gladiator II,” from a war rhinoceros ridden by the Colosseum’s undefeated champion, Gliceo the Destroyer (Chris Holloways), to hungry sharks lurking in the water during arena naval battles. But it’s the real Empire that really rules this sequel. One ape guides hero Lucius (Paul Mescal) on the path to his destiny, while the other twin plays a key role in a plot to destroy Emperors Geta (Joseph Quinn) and Caracalla (Fred Hechinger).
The first monkeys to enter the picture are a troop of baboons, who have been unleashed on Lucius and other captives from the conquered kingdom of Numidia. In ancient Rome it was considered a real form of capital punishment. damn and the best (“Condemnation of animals”), although it was more typical to use animals such as lions, leopards and dogs. Scott said the new Yorker He was inspired to include monstrous, muscular baboons after being disturbed by a video of baboons attacking tourists in Johannesburg. “Baboons are carnivores,” Scott said. “Can you hang from that ceiling by your left leg for two hours? No! A baboon can do that.”
In “Gladiator II” the baboons immediately demonstrate their carnivorous nature by biting the throat of Jugurtha (Peter Mensah), the defeated leader of Numidia. This enrages Lucius, who embraces his inner baboon. He gets on all fours, grapples a creature bare-handed, and even bites a bloody piece off its arm. This move impresses Macrinus (Denzel Washington), who decides to purchase Lucius based on his monkey-mongering abilities. Later, Macrinus’s gladiator trainer identified Lucius as “the one who eats monkeys”, and his fellow gladiators mocked the fight by making hooting noises around the dinner table.
The baboon fight is the first arena fight we see in the movie, and it definitely leaves an impression. But the wildest monkey moment in “Gladiator II” is based on a real and ridiculous Roman legend.
Did Caracalla really make his pet monkey a politician?
In “Gladiator II” Caracalla is the weaker of Rome’s two emperors. Syphilis is slowly eating away at his brain, causing him to become impulsive and irrational. A true emotional anchor in Caracalla’s life is his pet monkey, Dondas, who wears a costume and goes everywhere with him. In his first film role, Dondas was played by an actual capuchin monkey named Sherry. Hechinger said hey friends He had to undergo “monkey training” in the days before filming began. Every morning he would go to Sherry’s “little palace”, feed her, and began to develop a bond with her so that “there was a feeling of unity between the two of us when we were walking on set.”
The young emperor’s love for Dondus is so deep that the Machiavellian Macrinus convinces Caracalla to murder his brother by telling him that Gaeta is a threat to Dondus. Then, in his first act as sole emperor of Rome, Caracalla nominated Dondus as First Consul – the highest position in the Roman Senate. This action further diminishes the already unpopular Caracalla in the eyes of the rebellious Roman public, and convinces other senators to ally with Macrinus, who is named second consul.
There is nothing in the history books to indicate that Caracalla had a beloved pet monkey. In fact, the real Caracalla was very different from the giggly syphilitic monkey lover in “Gladiator II.” His enduring reputation was as a brutal tyrant who used the military to bend Rome to his will. Instead, the story of a mad and unpopular emperor granting political power to a pet is derived from a popular legend about Caligula and his beloved horse, Incitatus. The Roman biographer Suetonius writes of reports that Caligula “named [Incitatus] to the consulship.” Meanwhile, the historian Cassius Dio claimed that Caligula had planned to to make Incitatus consul, although “had he lived longer he would certainly have done so.”
Like many scandalous stories about Roman emperors, this one slipped into the history books for being too good to be fact-checked. In lieu of any actual evidence for Incitatus’s consulship, the current popular theory among historians is that Caligula simply made a joke about his senators being so useless that an animal could do a better job.
Maybe he had a point. After all, Dondas is a fast dresser, and she can hang from the ceiling by her left leg for two hours. How many politicians can do this? Hail, First Consul Dondus.
