These staged naval battles had been referred to as naumachia. They used actual ships and gladiators and, in and amongst many spectacular Roman blood sports activities, this will likely nicely have been essentially the most extreme of all of them. In response to the official web site for The Colosseum in Rome, these kind of staged battles had been often held in arenas specifically constructed for this function, or massive channels or man-made our bodies of water. On some events although, they had been certainly held in Roman amphitheaters.
The uncommon Roman amphitheater naumachia seems to be what Scott goes for in “Gladiator II,” a film he lastly determined to make after greater than 20 years. The web site additionally explains that these particularly over-the-top battles had been usually held on particular events:
“Naumachia had been reserved for particular events, such because the commemoration of Julius Caesar’s triumph in 46 BC. Individuals had been usually prisoners of warfare or criminals condemned to loss of life, and the battles had been a lot bloodier than gladiatorial fight and fatality charges a lot greater.”
The Roman Colosseum held at the very least two such battles close to the date of its inauguration. In response to the Roman historical past web site Maria Milani, gladiators had been usually positioned in flat bottomed boats, which had been meant to imitate historic Roman ships. It was additionally widespread to stage a recreation of a historic occasion from Roman historical past. So there’s loads of historic priority for what Scott is doing within the movie, and there are lots of methods he might go together with it. Possibly he’s going to make use of it as an excuse to stage a bloody historic battle. Both method, this can be a scenario the place reality is stranger than fiction.