The Aeneid and Gladiator
December 2014
The epic genre is grandiose in proportion, with massive battles scenes and books upon books describing worlds filled with muses, mistresses, conquests, and victories. Vergil’s Aeneid is an example of an epic that transports its readers to a time of love, war, and places left behind, following hero Aeneas, as he flees the destruction of Troy. In today’s cinematic world, “epic” movies arrive on the scene frequently, often mimicking the famous ancient events spelled out by poets like Homer and Vergil himself. Most times though, these movies fall short of appropriately demonstrating the highs and lows of the ancient world, the ferocity of battle and the lives, both innocent and guilty, that are lost in the crossfires. And yet, there is one modern epic adaptation that does deliver a story of a hero that is as close to the ancient epic world as we are going to get. Gladiator (2000), directed by Ridley Scott, is a deliberate attempt at portraying the epic world, and a good one at that. The Aeneid’s Aeneas, and the Gladiator’s’ Maximus, share some striking similarities in their heroic characters. Both surviving torturous events, these heroes move forward into the present with an undying devotion to the past and to the father figures who guided them to where they are.
The Aeneid chronicles the story of the Trojan prince Aeneas as he sets out in search of a new home after the destruction of Troy. As Aeneas navigates difficult seas and divine intervention from grudge-holding goddesses, he experiences a number of false starts. After trying to recreate his beloved Troy in three different cities before arriving in Carthage, Vergil reveals an interesting pattern in his poem. The false starts in Thrace, Crete and Epirus, all start out with a sense of calm, but after sometime, an interlude occurs and disaster strikes. After seven summers of “drifting across the wide world’s land and seas” (Book 1, Line 756), the Trojan prince is eager to reestablish his lost kingdom. But because Aeneas is in search of a land that no longer exists, he is quick to jump at opportunities that he has convinced himself of. This undying devotion to a place and time long gone is a thread running throughout the Aeneid.
The idea of holding on to a time and place is also seen in the Aeneid through the storyline of the goddess Juno. With no explanation as to why she is so attached to it, Juno displays ownership over Carthage. In epic terms, it is common among gods to have a favorite place, as it is reflective of the real world where cities have local gods. And this holds true for Juno. Carthage is hers, and this accepted fact is supported by the temple that was built there in her honor. Based on the events of the epic world, there is a lot of history, both past and future, wrapped up in city of Carthage. Juno’s actions in the time of the Aeneid are all for the sake of saving the city from future destruction. Juno knows, in the long run, that there is nothing she can do to save Carthage, yet still, she is persistent in her efforts to push off the inevitable, regardless of the human cost. For example, Juno and Venus are the goddesses responsible for making Aeneas fall in love with Dido, queen of Carthage. Juno hopes that this strategic move will ensure that Aeneas remains in Carthage and prevents anything tragic from happening to her city. But, Juno is a goddess and knows full well that Aeneas will not stay. His departure is emotionally catastrophic, and the epic quickly escalates to the suicide of Dido. This disregard for consequence is an important trend to note. Juno does whatever she feels is necessary to ensure a less daunting future for Carthage, yet in the process, she wreaks havoc on the humans entangled in her mission. It is Juno’s unquestionable devotion to the future, of what has yet to happen, that lies parallel to Aeneas’s connection to his unattainable past.
Books two and three of the Aeneid are narrated by the Trojan prince himself. These books are a thorough recount told to “Dido the lovely queen” (Book 1, Line 496) of Carthage, and they illustrate “the death agony of Troy” (Book 2, Line 11). At the slightest mention of Troy, Aeneas’ “heart shrinks back from memory” (Book 2, Lines 12-13), but by allowing him to narrate, Vergil shows his audience the unwavering attachment that Aeneas has to Troy. The passion and vigor in his words is clear when Aeneas describes seeing “the horror of the war…pushing forward” (Book 2, Line 301). As he witnesses crops and rooftops going up in flames, Aeneas recounts, “My heart burned to gather friends and rush to some high place. Rage, furor pitches my mind ahead” (Book 2, Lines 315-316). This rage from within, this need to save his city, never seems to die out. Aeneas’ narration of the destruction of Troy is told from the “experiencing I” perspective, translating to an intense recall of events. This intentional choice by Vergil brings the reader in to what Aeneas is feeling and seeing as it plays out, instead of discussing the sequence of events in hindsight. From this perspective, the story is not overtaken by what is to come, or with what has already happened, but is a clear and insightful look at how Aeneas reacts to the fall of his beloved city in real time. For Aeneas, no matter how far he travels, no matter how hard the gods try to knock him off course, his heart and his mind will always burn for the love of his city, Troy. It is this struggle that lies at the crux of the Aeneid, between whether Aeneas will choose to continue living for a world and a life that no longer exists, or going after the future he is promised.
Gladiator, in all of its bloody glory, also demonstrates similar themes of clutching on to the past as a means of self-preservation. Maximus, also known as ‘The Spaniard,’ is the most impressive general that Rome has ever seen, and through his years of loyal service to his empire, he is rewarded with the promise of the throne after the death of Marcus Aurelius. Upon winning the battle against the barbarian tribes in Germania, Marcus Aurelius asks Maximus what he would like in return for his relentless defense. Instead of requesting mistresses or gold, Maximus requests that he be able to go home. After two years away from his wife and son, all this man wants to do, is return to the life that he left behind. In the early scenes of the Gladiator, when Maximus is asked to describe his wife, son, and home, his eyes light up with this fire and hope that only true love can evoke. When Maximus humbly accepts the position to become the next Emperor of Rome, trouble brews with the true son of Marcus Aurelius. After learning that he is no longer heir to the throne, jealous Commodus murders his father, orders Maximus and his wife and child to be killed, and demands that their house be burned to the ground. Maximus survives this wretched attack, but unsurprisingly loses all will to live when he realizes that he has lost all that matters to him. After helping to save and expand the Roman Empire for years without a waver, Maximus has to live knowing he could not be there to save his own family.
Maximus falls into darkness, but the will to get revenge on the man who took everything from him brings him back to life. As Maximus is driven by the past and his need to be reunited with his family, he quickly establishes himself as a fighting force to be reckoned with. It is not before long that Maximus is put up against the best gladiators in the empire, in the biggest stage of all: the Coliseum. Maximus is so superior to any other fighter entering the ring, allowing Emperor Commodus to notice him after only two matches. Though Maximus has lost everything, he is living on for revenge, seeking to kill the man that stripped him of his whole world. When Caesar demands to meet ‘the Spaniard,’ he is shocked to learn that the monster behind the mask is none other than “Maximus Decimus Meridius. Commander of the armies of the North, general of the Felix Legions, loyal servant to the true emperor Marcus Aurelius. Father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife, and I will have my vengeance in this life or the next.” This important line, which comes at the moment of their encounter, shows the depths of Maximus’s pain and the lengths he will go to get revenge. He is so absorbed in the past, in the life that he lost, that the only life worth living is one where revenge is served. But this fire for retaliation blinds Maximus from calculating the grave costs of revenge. Like traditional revenge literature, the Gladiator plays into the idea that once revenge is served, there is nothing else left to do but die. Revenge literature also suggests the ambiguity of revenge itself; that in seeking revenge, the revenger is ultimately corrupted. For Maximus, only part of his revenge story is consistent with traditional beliefs. He choses to get revenge and die to be reconnected with his family in the next life, but he dies just as humble and moral as he was before the death of his family left him unable to let go of the past and move forward into the future.
Revenge is also present in the Aeneid and it is a much more typical revenge story. After a poem filled with complicated relationships and tumultuous events, the Aeneid closes with Aeneas killing Turnus. There are casualties all throughout this epic poem, but this particular, climactic killing has deeply-embedded significance. Earlier on in the poem, Turnus is responsible for killing Pallas, who is the son of Evander, but the foster-son to Aeneas. When Turnus and Pallas are face-to-face in battle, Turnus kills Pallas by sticking “the spearhead, striking, shaking, pounded though the shield—all of the bronze and iron sheets, all of the bull-hide layers wrapping it—into the breastplate, into that strong chest. Out of the wound he tore the heated shaft, but with it came his lifeblood and soul” (Book 10, Lines 482-487). After watching Pallas fall to the ground dead, Turnus “stripped the giant swordbelt with its story of crime etched in” (Book 10, Line 496). This act, of Turnus taking off Pallas’s belt and wearing it as his own, is a deliberate move on the part of Vergil. And it becomes clear two books later, when Turnus is at the hands of Aeneas, at the conclusion of the Aeneid. At this moment, Aeneas is faced with an important choice—he can show Turnus mercy and spare his life, or kill him in cold blood. But as soon as Aeneas recognizes that Turnus is wearing Pallas’s belt, the choice Aeneas has to make disappears. Aeneas has the chance to seek revenge on the man who killed his foster son Pallas, and instead of preserving his morality and good nature, Aeneas kills Turnus without a second thought, (though that was not his original intention). This culminating moment shows the ultimate sacrifice Aeneas makes for revenge. Throughout the poem, Aeneas aims to be the modernizer: the hero who unifies all of the disjointed states. Not only that, but his actions across the poem are consistently political and strategic; he chooses to work through politics as opposed to war, like marrying Lavinia to guarantee himself control of Latium. That being said, by seeking revenge on Turnus–by killing him instead of saving him–Aeneas acts on his overwhelming emotion and kills him because of revenge, instead of strategy. For Aeneas, this revenge came with a very large price tag—making him lose sight of his overall goals for the sake of his emotions and the people he has lost along the way.
The strong currents of revenge running throughout the Aeneid and Gladiator are similar, but there is a fundamental difference in what revenge means for both Aeneas and Maximus. When Maximus kills Commodus with every last bit of strength he can muster, the audience knows that Maximus’s ultimate death is not in vain. By killing Commodus, Maximus fulfills his purpose of reestablishing the empire. He, unlike typical revenge literature, maintains his true character—a mad made of true loyalty. He earns his revenge against Commodus and has the chance, albeit short, of living out the dream of former Caesar, Marcus Aurelius. By handing over the empire to the senate, Maximus dies with a purpose—to reconnect with his family who were so brutally taken away from him. Until his dying breath, all Maximus wants is to be reconnected with the past, to once again see his wife and son. He lives on for revenge against Commodus, knowing it was the only thing standing between him and his family. Overall, there is never any question as to who Maximus is. As complicated as the Gladiator is, this hero never falters in his love, loyalty or devotion.
Aeneas, on the other hand, is a more finely drawn character. His story relates closely to the revenge literature that suggests the revenger is corrupted by the acts of revenge itself. When Aeneas is standing over Turnus, he pleads: “I deserve it—I won’t grovel for my life. Use your good luck. But if an anguished parent (As Anchises was, who gave you life) can move you, Then pity Daunus—please—in his old age. Send me, or else my corpse, back to my family. You’ve triumphed: the Italians see me asking for mercy, and Lavinia is your wife. Lay down your hatred” (Book 12, Lines 931-938). But even this desperate last plea is not enough to change Aeneas’s mind. His emotions towards Pallas are so strong that revenge overcomes him and all of the efforts he has made thus far in the poem. Aeneas kills Turnus, thrusting his sword through his chest (Book 12). This revenge killing corrupts Aeneas. A man true to his word, devoted to his family and former empire, looses sight of his goals, throwing into question his good nature.
Another parallel that can be drawn between the Aeneid and Gladiator is the close relationship that both Maximus and Aeneas have with their fathers. In the Aeneid, Vergil goes to great lengths to show Aeneas’s devotion to his father. From carrying his father out of their house on his shoulders to holding funeral games in his father’s honor after his death, the bond between the father and son pair is unbreakable. But could Aeneas’s consuming love for his father be a way of compensating for his lack of a mother? Venus, the goddess of sexual desire, is Aeneas’s mother, but she is completely removed and out of touch. In Book 1, when Aeneas realizes his mother is helping him from a distance, he calls out: “I am your child—must you keep torturing me with these illusions? Let me take your hand—let there be words between us, as we are!” And even after this desperate plea, his mother walks away and disappears into the dark air. Vergil writes that Venus is always helping and pleading for her son from a distance, but Aeneas does not like the physical and emotional space between them. This empty relationship with his mother leaves Aeneas with only one true parent, making his undying dedication to Anchises understandable. When Anchises dies, Aeneas must bury him and continue on in search of a new Troy, but Aeneas never forgets his father and the precious relationship that they shared. Though he does continue on his journey, Aeneas makes a detour to Hades in order to speak to his father once more. This visit into the underworld proves that Aeneas cannot seem to leave his father–or his past–behind. As the father and son talk at length about the souls of great and famous Romans who have yet to be born, Vergil creates an interesting paradox by placing Aeneas between his past and the future. With his deceased father on one side and the souls of future heroes on his other side, Aeneas is forced to realize that he is in search of a place long gone and that the future he must confront is an unavoidable, irreversible fate.
For Maximus, the audience never truly learns who his biological parents are, but early on in the movie, it becomes clear that Marcus Aurelius is very much a father figure to him. Their close relationship, built on loyalty and trust, is the foundation for Marcus Aurelius’ decision to make Maximus his successor. Even after his death, Maximus stays true to his “father,” making sure his dying wish is ultimately fulfilled. Upon winning the heated battle against Commodus, Maximus reestablishes the republic and hands it over to the senate. His actions are noble and deliberate as he seeks revenge on Commodus; killing him in front of 50,000 people. But, too deeply wounded and with no real reason to keep living, Maximus takes his last breath knowing he is able to return ‘home’, to let go of this meaningless life, and be reunited with the people he loves the most—his wife and his son.