Gladiator II: A historian on the real north African kingdom of Numidia—and the men who ruled it

Dec 17, 2024

"Gladiator II" opens with a Roman fleet brutally laying siege to a city in the north African kingdom of Numidia. On the big screen we see ships set ablaze by pots of burning oil and defenders impaled by man-sized iron bolts. The so-called barbarian inhabitants are eventually enslaved and carted off back to Rome.