@Innovator said:

I quote "Another Woke movie from Hollywood. There were never black (African) emperors in Roman empire... This movie is simply false propaganda."

Hello, Innovator. I've not seen Gladiator II, and have no plans to (it's just not my thing), but regarding the quote you posted--

The original poster is an idiot. My CV was History, something I continue to study to this day, decades after taking my degrees. And one of the things I learned was that-- given the diversity of the Roman Empire which spanned three continents --and the fact that beyond generic head images contained on coins and some sculpture, we don't know for sure that all Roman emperors were "white". At least one came from North Africa (I see that Macrinus, whom Denzel Washington portrays, was indeed from Algeria, apparently of non-white Berber origin). There may have been non-white Emperors. There were a lot of Emperors during the Empire's more than 400-year long existence. So, we just don't know. A Black Emperor was not outside the realm of possibility.

@northcoast said:

@Innovator said:

I quote "Another Woke movie from Hollywood. There were never black (African) emperors in Roman empire... This movie is simply false propaganda."

Hello, Innovator. I've not seen Gladiator II, and have no plans to (it's just not my thing), but regarding the quote you posted--

The original poster is an idiot. My CV was History, something I continue to study to this day, decades after taking my degrees. And one of the things I learned was that-- given the diversity of the Roman Empire which spanned three continents --and the fact that beyond generic head images contained on coins and some sculpture, we don't know for sure that all Roman emperors were "white". At least one came from North Africa (I see that Macrinus, whom Denzel Washington portrays, was indeed from Algeria, apparently of non-white Berber origin). There may have been non-white Emperors. There were a lot of Emperors during the Empire's more than 400-year long existence. So, we just don't know. A Black Emperor was not outside the realm of possibility.

I agree. Regardless, there were two prominant black people in this film, Peter Mensah played an African ruler of an African city, and Denzel Washington played a gladiator owner with high ambitions. Neither played Roman Emperors at any point in the movie.

@Innovator said:

I agree. Regardless, there were two prominant black people in this film, Peter Mensah played and African ruler of an African city, and Denzel Washington played a gladiator owner with high ambitions. Neither played Roman Emperors at any point in the movie.

Thanks for the correction, Innovator. I have modified my original post. I confused Denzel Washington's character's name with the actual historical Macrinus, who was, briefly, Emperor of the Empire, hailed from Algeria, and was, apparently, of non-white Berber descent. Thanks again for the correction.

Saw the movie last night and from my quick "How close to history?" searches, as well as Macrinus probably being dark, but not necessarily what we would consider "black" today, the two pale faced emperors were probably not at all that pale.

@M.LeMarchand said:

Saw the movie last night and from my quick "How close to history?" searches, as well as Macrinus probably being dark, but not necessarily what we would consider "black" today, the two pale faced emperors were probably not at all that pale.

Denzel may have played a Macrinus, but the Marcinus in this movie was way different than the real Marcinus. The Macrinus in this movie was never made emperor, not even by the Roman army. They wouldn't have even known he existed if he hadn't decided to have a duel in front of them and definately had no loyalty to him, which also didn't happen with the real Macrinus. The real Marcinus ruled for a year before he was forced to flee. But yeah, the real Marcinus was Berber (North African) so would have had darker skin than most in Rome.

A bad film

Unfortunately some people say such things on autopilot now.