Movies
‘Gladiator 2’s water coliseum really did exist: what were the Naumachia
Naumachia were a grandiose celebration of battles in the coliseum started by Julius Caesar, which will be a part of ‘Gladiator 2′
The first trailer for ‘Gladiator 2′ has finally been released, and it’s already become one of the most exciting movies of the year. With an amazing cast of stars that include Denzel Washington, Pedro Pascal, Paul Mescal, Joseph Quinn and many more, among the three minutes of the trailer there is one scene that shocked fans in which a naval battle is recreated inside of a coliseum. But that seems like something completely fictitious, no? As it turns out, it really did happen, and they were called “Naumachia”.
What were the naumachia and how did they come to be?
The naumachia were nothing more than precisely that, reenactments of epic naval battles that had actually taken place when the Romans faced Persian, Greek, Egyptian, and of other armies. To do this, hydrographic basins,(basically enormous swimming pools) were created, or even the course of some rivers was diverted to make such an event possible.
It is said that the first emperor to organize a naumachia was Julius Caesar, in the year 46 BC, creating an artificial lake in the Campus Martius, recreating a battle between Phoenicians and Egyptians. This would come to gather a whopping 22 ships, 4,000 rowers, and 2,000 soldiers, but almost a century later it would be surpassed.
It was Claudius in the year 52 AC when he built a silver triton in Lake Fucino and celebrated a naumachia in which no less than 50 ships and 19,000 slaves. They were also organized in the Roman Coliseum, but after the last one, held in the year 85 by Domitian, a network of underground corridors was built that connected the exit of the gladiators and other participants, making it impossible to flood the land and ending the organization of more naumachia. Before that, it remains a mystery to know how the environment in which they were held was flooded.
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