Lots of moments from “Gladiator II” are fiction. But some scientists think mock naval battles in the Colosseum totally happened. This is an article from our newsletter “Science Goes To The Movies.” To ...

"Gladiator II" features a naval battle that occurs at the Colosseum for the crowd's amusement. The scene is rooted in real-life naval battles that began during Julius Caesar's reign in Rome.

When the Colosseum was opened by Emperor Titus in 80 AD, it was inaugurated with ceremonies lasting 100 days, which included two staged naval battles known as naumachiae. A naval battle taking ...

Water gushes from the Colosseum's fountains and floods the ... It's Hollywood's first re-enactment of an ancient Roman naval battle—and it's spectacular. The special effects from this sequence ...

at least until the end of the first century A.D. Modern historians are divided on whether naval battles actually took place in the Colosseum, despite there being ancient accounts of them.

Yet as you have likely heard by now, the Romans really did stage miniature naval battles for the citizenry’s amusement and distraction—including probably inside the Colosseum (though some ...

"They would usually reconstruct naval battles of the Greeks against the ... Plus, the last naumachia is believed to have taken place at the Colosseum in 89 AD, more than 100 years before the ...

The emperors want to kill him off, so they devise a naval battle in the Colosseum. The scene itself is colorful, with the boats all different colors and the senators in their togas watching from ...

When Ridley Scott’s Gladiator 2 arrives in cinemas this week, some viewers may assume that the spectacular scenes of the ...