The Last Legion
Encyclopedia
The Last Legion is a 2007 film directed by Doug Lefler
. Produced by Dino De Laurentiis
and others, it is based on a 2003 Italian novel of the same name written by Valerio Massimo Manfredi
. It stars Colin Firth
along with Sir Ben Kingsley
and Aishwarya Rai
, and premiered in Abu Dhabi
on April 6, 2007.
The film is loosely inspired by the events of 5th century European history, notably the collapse of the Western Roman Empire
under its last Emperor
, Romulus Augustus. This is coupled with other facts and legends from the history of Britain
and fantastic
elements from the legend of King Arthur
to provide a basis for the Arthurian legend
.
, which was hidden away from evil men. It begins shortly before the coronation of Romulus as Emperor in 460.
Having traveled through much of the known world in search of Caesar's sword, Ambrosinus has then become Romulus's tutor. A Druid
and part of a secret brotherhood protecting the sword, he at times gives the impression he is a magician, but his "magic" is usually revealed to be simple trickery. One of the running conceits of the movie surrounds the question of whether or not Ambrosinus has any actual magical abilities or simply an illusionist. Romulus's father Orestes
rules Rome but is not Emperor himself.
On the day before the coronation, Odoacer
, commander of the barbarian Goths
allied with Rome, demands a third of Italy from Orestes, but is rebuffed. The same day, Romulus meets the general of the Nova Invicta Legion, Aurelianus Caius Antonius, called "Aurelius
".
The night after Romulus is crowned, Rome is attacked by the Goths. Most of Aurelius's men, pledged to protect the emperor, are killed, though Aurelius is only stunned and left for dead. Orestes and his wife are killed by Odoacer's lieutenant Wulfila, who captures Romulus.
Next day, Odoacer, now ruler of the Western Empire, plans to have Romulus killed. However, Ambrosinus convinces Odoacer to spare the boy. Instead, Romulus is exiled to Capri
along with Ambrosinus, guarded by Wulfila and his men. His prison is a villa constructed more than four centuries earlier by the emperor Tiberius
.
With Ambrosinus's help, Romulus discovers a hidden chamber within the villa. He comes across a statue of Caesar holding the fabled sword, forged by a Chalybian
smith after his military campaigns in Britain
. Writing near the statue's feet proclaims the sword was made for "he who is destined to rule". This is interpreted as a prophecy by various characters, and Romulus keeps the weapon.
The two are rescued from Capri by the loyal Aurelius and three surviving legionaries, Vatrenus, Batiatus, and Demetrius, accompanied by a female agent of the Eastern Roman Empire - a Keralite
warrior named Mira (trained in the martial art
of Kalarippayattu
). They take Romulus to a seaport where the Eastern Roman Empire's emissary (whom Mira works for) and the senator
Nestor have promised safe passage to Constantinople
. However, they barely escape after they learn the Senate and the Eastern Empire have betrayed them and sided with Odoacer.
Ambrosinus persuades Romulus to seek refuge in Britain, where the Ninth Legion (called the Dragon Legion) may remain loyal, being far from the events. They are followed by Wulfila and his men; the Goth covets Caesar's sword after learning the prophecy. Crossing the Alps and the English Channel, the party travels to Hadrian's Wall
and initially find no evidence of the legion until a farmer approaches and reveals he was its commander. With the collapse of Roman support of Britain, the legion had decided to disband and settle as farmers. Most of the men in the legion had married and had families. They also did not want to antagonize the powerful warlord Vortgyn
.
During their stay in the small Celtic village, Romulus meets and befriends a young girl named Igraine. Aurelius and Mira practice swordfighting and become close to each other. Ambrosinus told Romulus of a scar on his chest, similar to the design on the sword hilt, which he received from Vortgyn after he refused to tell him where the sword of Caesar was.
Vortgyn also desires the sword of Caesar as he aspires to rule the whole of Britain. It is revealed that Vortgyn and Ambrosinus are old enemies. After meeting with the Goths, Vortgyn decides to either capture or kill Romulus as a gesture to Odoacer. After confronting Igraine outside of the village, he convinces her to tell everyone in the village to surrender Romulus and has several of his men kill the blacksmith's wife and sons. When a tearful Igraine tells the villagers of what has happened, Aurelius confesses that Romulus is the emperor of Rome. The blacksmith then demands revenge on his wife's and sons' deaths, and Aurelius and his men decide to lead an army to Hadrian's Wall to face Vortgyn's armies in one final battle.
Before leaving the village, Romulus receives from Igraine a suit of Roman armor which belonged to her brother, which he has since outgrown. Aurelius, wielding Caesar's sword, leads his men and a small number of Celtic warriors against Vortgyn's forces at Hadrian's Wall. Aurelius, his men, and the archers pelted the infantry with arrows, while Mira, Romulus, and several Roman and Celtic soldiers struggled to hold the enemy at the gate. Despite their casualties, Vortgyn's soldiers began to slowly overwhelm the small force on the wall. The battle appears hopeless until the rest of the Ninth Legion, having taken up their old Roman arms and uniforms, appear and turn the tide. The two warring sides cease their hostilities when Ambrosinus confronts and burns Vortgyn alive at a tree-sanctuary of his secret brotherhood near the battlefield. Romulus kills Wulfila with Caesar's sword, avenging his parents. He tells Aurelius that he fought like a dragon, whereupon Aurelius replies that Romulus fought like the son of a dragon.
Repulsed by the deaths in the battle, Romulus heaves away his sword which remarkably pierces a large rock and becomes lodged there. Many years later, Ambrosinus, now known by his Druid name, Merlin
, takes a young boy to the battlefield to describe the now legendary events. Merlin, who has visibly aged little since the battle, says that Aurelius married Mira and the two raised Romulus as their own son. He became a wise ruler, took the girl Igraine as his wife, and adopted the name "Pendragon
". The boy, Arthur, recognizes Romulus as his father and Igraine as his mother.
In a final scene, the sword of Julius Caesar is shown embedded in the stone, with moss growing on the blade, covering the original inscription, leaving only the Latin letters which, when read as a single word, read Escalibur
.
Having reunited with the last survivors of the massacre of his legion (Rufius Vatrenus, a veteran of countless battles, and Cornelius Batiatus, a black giant of enormous strength from Ethiopia) and with the aid of the beautiful Venetian Livia Prisca and former Greek soldiers Orosius and Demetrius, Aurelius takes action and assaults the house of Capri, where Romulus was held prisoner. He is freed along with his tutor Meridius Ambrosinus, and is in possession of a valuable (and much-desired) object: the legendary Calibian sword of Julius Caesar.
Pursued by Wufila, Odaocer's ruthless lieutenant, and a small force of barbarian troops, the heterogeneous group will continue to flee north. They soon realize that the Eastern Roman Empire had betrayed them and sided with Odoacer, so they could not seek refuge in its capital at Constantinople. Precluded any other way, the old Celtic tutor Ambrosinus remembered an old prophecy from his land, and decided to lead the young emperor to Britain, while the stories of Livia, Aurelius, and their comrades begin to take place in a troubled journey that led the group through the barbarized and devastated territories of Gaul and northern Italy. The group soon arrived in Britain to find that the way of the Roman past, and with it the old and legendary legion of Britain (Legio XII Draco), is not yet entirely disappeared. Still threatened by Wufila, and more by the tyrant Wortigern, who rules over most of the island, hidden by a mask of gold, the group decided to address their enemies in a final battle.
Setting a defensive position in the abandoned fort of the Twelfth Legion, Aurelius, Romulus, and their comrades faced Wufila's and Wortigern's mercenaries on the slopes of Mons Badonicus. Before all was lost, the Twelfth Legion appeared on the hilltops, holding high their dragon standard, and drove back the enemy. During the battle, one of Aurelius' faithful friends, Vatrenus was pierced by three spears and nailed to a tree. Batiatus and Livia were mortally wounded. Finally, the ruthless Herulian warrior Wufila was killed by Romulus and Aurelius, who pierced his body both with the Roman officer's sword and the Calibian sword of Julius Caesar.
The victory was won for Romulus and Aurelius, though their comrades were either dead or wounded. In his victory, Romulus launched the sword of Caesar into the air, and it stuck to the rock at the center of the lake itself. In the years that followed, Aurelius, accompanied by Livia Prisca and Cornelius Batiatus, returned to Italy to establish a new life. Romulus was called Pendragon by the Romans, and he became king of Britain. He married Ygraine, the daughter of Kustennin the commander of the Twelfth Legion, and they had a son. Their newborn son would soon be the future hero of Arthurian legend: "King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table."
, which she produced. Filming took place in Tunisia and at Spiš Castle
in eastern Slovakia
in 2005.
Valerio Massimo Manfredi
helped adapt his novel to the screen, also acting as historical consultant. In an interview he states at least four hours of footage was shot but ultimately shortened or cut, including scenes of the heroes' journey through the Alps and the English Channel.
For the role of Aurelius, executive producer Harvey Weinstein
suggested Colin Firth, known for playing Fitzwilliam Darcy
in Pride and Prejudice
(1995) and more recently, Mark Darcy in the Bridget Jones
films. Firth accepted the role due to the story, which he liked, and that it was very different from previous roles.
Thomas Sangster
(Romulus) was one of the last to be cast. He had previously worked with Firth in Love Actually
(2003) and Nanny McPhee
(2006), and their familiarity with each other benefited both.
Sir Ben Kingsley was cast as Ambrosinus/Merlin after one meeting with Lefler. Kingsley was drawn to the mystique of the character, whom Lefler describes as a "warrior shaman". Kingsley also found the story interesting.
Aishwarya Rai was cast as Mira after the filmmakers decided "somebody that had a rare beauty... who could move very well", in Lefler's words, was ideal for the role. Lefler touted Rai's training in dance as an asset for her fight scenes. Like Firth, Rai took the role as a change of pace from her previous work.
The film's costumes were designed by Paolo Scalabrino, who had worked on Gangs of New York
and Troy
.
Lefler wanted each character to have a unique fighting style. Richard Ryan served as the film's sword master, helping him plan the fight scenes; he had worked on Troy and would work on Stardust as such.
The film's score was composed by Patrick Doyle
.
based on 12 reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes
, 16% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 52 reviews (8 "fresh", 44 "rotten") and the "cream of the crop" rating was 8%.
In the novel, Aurelius (called Aurelianus Ambrosius Ventidius) is a low-ranking officer and a legionary rather than a general, and his original legion, the Nova Invicta, is destroyed much earlier. The Nova Invicta Legion was known as the Fourth Legion in the film, but in the novel it is a new legion formed by Flavius Orestes himself.
The novel's band of heroes includes three surviving legionaries (Aurelius, Vatrenus and Batiatus), a Venetian
warrior woman called Livia Prisca, and two Greek gladiators, Demetrius and Orosius. The film turns Livia into the Indian Mira, and Demetrius and Orosius into legionaries. While Demetrius remains a prominent supporting character, Orosius becomes an uncredited background extra.
The film alters the capital of the Western Empire from its historical location at Ravenna
, as depicted in the novel, to Rome. By 460, Rome had not actually been the capital of the empire for over 100 years.
The film depicts the coronation of Romulus (and subsequent fall of Rome) as having taken place in 460, while the novel correctly gives the year as 476. Romulus was Emperor for ten months, not a single day as in the film.
The "Last Legion" in the novel is a fictional Twelfth Legion (Legio XII Draco), not the Ninth. While the Ninth is called the "Dragon" Legion as in the novel, it was the "Hispanic" Legion (Legio IX Hispana
) in real life. A Twelfth Legion did exist under different names, but not as Draco. The real "Draco" Legion was actually the twenty-fourth Roman Legion in real life.
The prophecy concerning Romulus is worded differently in the novel: it speaks of a youth with a sword who will bring peace and prosperity to Britain, and the "eagle and the dragon" flying once more over the land (Manfredi makes these the dying words of the soldier-bishop Germanus
, whom he also makes the founder of the Dragon Legion).
In the novel, Ambrosinus (full Roman name Meridius Ambrosinus, originally known as Myrdin Emries in Britain, which later becomes Merlin) is a Christian and yet also a Druid. This is left unclear in the film, where he mostly speaks in generic terms of "truth" and "faith"; one exception is when he tells Vortgyn (spelled Wortigern in the novel) to "burn in Hell". In deleted scenes he uses more pagan terms to his language.
The final battle is identified as the Battle of Badon Hill in the novel but not in the film. In the novel, the opposing forces are listed here:
1. Aurelius Ambrosius Ventidius, Rufius Vatrenus, Cornelius Batiatus, Demetrius, Orosius, Livia Prisca, Romulus Augustulus, Ambrosinus, Kustennin, and the soldiers of the Twelfth Roman Legion(Legio XII Draco).
2. Wufila and two hundred barbarian horsemen, plus a contingent of Saxon mercenaries.
The deaths of Vatrenus, Batiatus, Demetrius, and Orosius take place differently between the novel and the film. In the film, Vatrenus was killed by Eastern Roman soldiers while trying to protect Romulus and Batiatus was killed by Wufila during the Battle of Badon Hill, while Demetrius survived in the end (Orosius does not appear in the film). In the novel, Vatrenus, Demetrius, and Orosius were killed during the Battle of Badon Hill, while Batiatus survived.
The standard of the Dragon Legion is depicted as a bronze dragon with a red-and-white striped tail in the film. In the novel, the standard is a silver-headed, open-jawed dragon with a purple tail.
— the senior officer of the Roman army second to the emperor. He had indeed promised his German foederati
a third of Italy to settle in but not to Odoacer personally. Orestes was himself an usurper, having used his power over the foederati to depose the legitimate emperor Julius Nepos
and inaugurate his son Romulus Augustus.
There was civil strife in the Eastern Roman Empire at the time but the Emperor alluded to would probably have been Zeno
(explicit in the novel). The Eastern Emperor eventually neutralised Odoacer when the latter became too popular with the people of Italy.
The uniforms and weapons of the Ninth Legion as depicted in the film (badly) reflect an earlier period of Roman history. By the time of the official fall of the Western Empire, Roman legionaries did not wear scarlet cloaks, nor did they carry the semi-circular shields of ancient times, and the short stabbing sword known as the gladius
had been replaced.
Mira's weapon, the Katar or Katara (कटार), had not been invented at the time in which the action is set. Katars came into use more than 1000 years later.
A few of the castles and fortified cities in the film have round spires with pointed coned roofs, when in fact this style of buildings was not common until the late Middle Ages
.
During scenes in the film where people are shown riding horses you can clearly see stirrups even though those kind of stirrups did not come into use in Europe until after 700CE.
is referred to as "the last of Julius Caesar
's line". Inconsistently, Romulus Augustus is also depicted as the last of Julius Caesar's family line and Tiberius as one of his ancestors. Tiberius was actually the second of the five Julio-Claudian emperors, succeeding to the role of emperor as the adopted son of Augustus
, who had himself been adopted by Julius Caesar. Augustus had named several of his own relatives as heirs, but as they all died, he named a son of his second wife, Livia
, by her first marriage. Thus, Tiberius was not the last of any line established by Julius Caesar (Augustus' maternal great-uncle by blood) as he had no blood relation to Caesar at all. His successors, Caligula
and Claudius
were blood relatives of Julius Caesar through a maternal blood line dating back to Augustus's older sister, Octavia. Nero
, a direct descendant of Augustus, ruled roughly twenty years after the death of Tiberius and was the final emperor of the Julio-Claudian Dynasty, thus making him the last ruler descended from Julius Caesar's family – the Julii.
In the film it is implied that Romulus' descent from Caesar's family is through his (unnamed) mother (which is presumably why Orestes cannot be Emperor himself). Historically, nothing is known about Romulus's mother, but the Julii had been extinct for more than 400 years before Romulus was born. He could only be claimed as "the last of Julius Caesar's line" if "line of office" was meant, as he was the last Western Emperor to bear the name "Caesar", which all Emperors subsequent to Nero adopted as part of their imperial title. The use of the title "Caesar" is inaccurate. By this point the term was the title for a junior, co-emperor appointed on an occasional basis. The senior or sole emperor was always referred to as "Augustus", and continued to be so until the collapse of the last remnant of the Eastern Empire in 1453.
still existing somewhere in Britain at this time, a once popular idea among British historians. The Ninth Legion disappears from Roman records from about 120 AD, by which time, it has been suggested, it was no longer serving in Britain. Rather, it has been thought that the Legion was destroyed in some unknown war near the Danube
frontier or perhaps whilst serving on the Eastern front fighting the Parthians, during or before the reign of Marcus Aurelius.
Recently, however, academics have returned to consideration of the 'destroyed in Britain' hypothesis, Dr Miles Russell of Bournemouth University
arguing that the weight of historic evidence suggests that significant numbers of Roman troops were destroyed in the province during the early years of the emperor Hadrian
: an important motivation for the building of Hadrian's Wall
.
Even if the Ninth had gone missing in the province, it is highly unlikely to have reappeared and continued in existence as a military force for the three centuries between AD 117 and 460, undocumented by the otherwise thorough Roman administration. At any rate by the late fifth century AD Britain had already been abandoned by Rome for many decades, mobile units having departed for the continent in AD 407, more static frontier units devolving into little more than a local militia
.
Arthur claims descent from Constantine and is crowned Roman Emperor after defeating its (fictional) ruler, Lucius Tiberius
.
Aurelius is based on Aurelius Ambrosius, brother of Arthur's father Uther Pendragon
. Aurelius and Uther opposed Vortigern
. Aurelius is a fictionalized version of the historical war leader Ambrosius Aurelianus
, who led the Romano-British
against the invading Saxons
.
In Geoffrey of Monmouth
's pseudohistorical
work The History of the Kings of Britain
(Historia Regum Britanniae), Merlin
, originally a figure unconnected with Arthur, is called Merlin Ambrosius after Geoffrey merged legends of Aurelius Ambrosius into the character. Ambrosius becomes Ambrosinus in the film. In the novel, Merlin's original British name Myrdin Emries is directly taken from Welsh versions of the tales.
Vortgyn's death by fire in a burning tree shelter/shrine echoes the legendary Vortigern's death, as according to Geoffrey of Monmouth the latter died in his tower when it was set aflame.
". The last shots of the film establish the fictional sword of Caesar as the legendary blade (also the Sword in the Stone, originally a different weapon).
The word Excalibur
comes from the Old French Escalibor which is itself a corruption of Caliburnus or Caliburn. The name Caliburn is often held to be Geoffrey of Monmouth's Latinized form of the original Welsh Caledfwlch, which combines the elements ("battle, hard"), and ("breach, gap, notch"). Manfredi espouses an alternative theory wherein Caliburn derives from Latin chalybs "steel
", which is in turn derived from Chalybes
, the name of an Anatolia
n ironworking tribe.
The sword bears the inscription CAI • IVL • CAES • ENSIS CALIBVRNVS. The characters "CAI. IVL. CAES." are an abbreviated form of Caius (or Gaius) Julius Caesar. Manfredi loosely translates ensis caliburnus as "sword of steel". Ensis is Latin for "sword". While in reality Geoffrey of Monmouth's Latinization Caliburn eventually developed into the form Excalibur, the film explains the origin of the name Excalibur by having the inscription obscured by moss; the remaining letters spell out E S CALIBVR.
novel Pride & Prejudice. Firth appeared in the BBC
miniseries that has been considered the closest adaptation of the work itself, portraying Fitzwilliam Darcy
. Rai has appeared in a modernized version, Bride and Prejudice
, portraying the character based on Elizabeth Bennet
. Friend appeared in the 2005 version
, where he portrayed Mr. Wickham.
Both Kevin McKidd
and Ray Stevenson
, who starred as the Roman soldiers Lucius Vorenus
and Titus Pullo
in the drama series Rome
, have gone on to play characters in historical King Arthur film adaptations; McKidd in The Last Legion and Stevenson in King Arthur
(2004). Both are set in Britain after the Romans left. Valerio Massimo Manfredi has commented on several similarities between the two films (and his book), such as a band of heroes escorting a boy of special status and a battle set at Hadrian's Wall. John Hannah later played Quintus Lentulus Batiatus, a Roman owner of a Gladitorial ludus in the Starz Television series Spartacus: Blood and Sand
In this film Thomas Sangster
plays a version of Uther Pendragon
. He earlier played another Arthurian character — young Tristan
in Tristan & Isolde
(2006).
The piece of the film's premise that deals with the missing ninth legionnaires has since been adapted into its own movie, The Eagle (2011), telling the story of the missing ninth legion as warriors who fell to Pict
warriors behind Hadrian's Wall
.
Doug Lefler
Doug Lefler is an American film director, screenwriter, film producer and storyboard artist, best known as director of the Dragonheart fantasy adventure film sequel, Dragonheart: A New Beginning, and recently The Last Legion.-Career:...
. Produced by Dino De Laurentiis
Dino De Laurentiis
Agostino "Dino" De Laurentiis was an Italian film producer.-Early life:He was born at Torre Annunziata in the province of Naples, and grew up selling spaghetti produced by his father...
and others, it is based on a 2003 Italian novel of the same name written by Valerio Massimo Manfredi
Valerio Massimo Manfredi
Valerio Massimo Manfredi is an Italian historian, writer, archaeologist and journalist.-Biography:He was born in Piumazzo di Castelfranco Emilia, province of Modena and is married to Christine Fedderson Manfredi, who translates his published works from Italian to English...
. It stars Colin Firth
Colin Firth
SirColin Andrew Firth, CBE is a British film, television, and theatre actor. Firth gained wide public attention in the 1990s for his portrayal of Mr. Darcy in the 1995 television adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice...
along with Sir Ben Kingsley
Ben Kingsley
Sir Ben Kingsley, CBE is a British actor. He has won an Oscar, BAFTA, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild awards in his career. He is known for starring as Mohandas Gandhi in the film Gandhi in 1982, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor...
and Aishwarya Rai
Aishwarya Rai
Aishwarya Rai Bachchan is an Indian film actress. She worked as a model before starting her acting career, and ultimately won the Miss World pageant in 1994...
, and premiered in Abu Dhabi
Abu Dhabi
Abu Dhabi , literally Father of Gazelle, is the capital and the second largest city of the United Arab Emirates in terms of population and the largest of the seven member emirates of the United Arab Emirates. Abu Dhabi lies on a T-shaped island jutting into the Persian Gulf from the central western...
on April 6, 2007.
The film is loosely inspired by the events of 5th century European history, notably the collapse of the Western Roman Empire
Western Roman Empire
The Western Roman Empire was the western half of the Roman Empire after its division by Diocletian in 285; the other half of the Roman Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire, commonly referred to today as the Byzantine Empire....
under its last Emperor
Roman Emperor
The Roman emperor was the ruler of the Roman State during the imperial period . The Romans had no single term for the office although at any given time, a given title was associated with the emperor...
, Romulus Augustus. This is coupled with other facts and legends from the history of Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
and fantastic
Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...
elements from the legend of King Arthur
King Arthur
King Arthur is a legendary British leader of the late 5th and early 6th centuries, who, according to Medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the early 6th century. The details of Arthur's story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and...
to provide a basis for the Arthurian legend
Matter of Britain
The Matter of Britain is a name given collectively to the body of literature and legendary material associated with Great Britain and its legendary kings, particularly King Arthur...
.
Plot of the film
The film is narrated by Ambrosinus, native to Britain, who knows of a legend concerning the sword of Julius CaesarJulius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
, which was hidden away from evil men. It begins shortly before the coronation of Romulus as Emperor in 460.
Having traveled through much of the known world in search of Caesar's sword, Ambrosinus has then become Romulus's tutor. A Druid
Druid
A druid was a member of the priestly class in Britain, Ireland, and Gaul, and possibly other parts of Celtic western Europe, during the Iron Age....
and part of a secret brotherhood protecting the sword, he at times gives the impression he is a magician, but his "magic" is usually revealed to be simple trickery. One of the running conceits of the movie surrounds the question of whether or not Ambrosinus has any actual magical abilities or simply an illusionist. Romulus's father Orestes
Flavius Orestes
Orestes was a Roman general and politician of Germanic ancestry, who was briefly in control of the Western Roman Empire in 475–6.-Early life:...
rules Rome but is not Emperor himself.
On the day before the coronation, Odoacer
Odoacer
Flavius Odoacer , also known as Flavius Odovacer, was the first King of Italy. His reign is commonly seen as marking the end of the Western Roman Empire. Though the real power in Italy was in his hands, he represented himself as the client of Julius Nepos and, after Nepos' death in 480, of the...
, commander of the barbarian Goths
Goths
The Goths were an East Germanic tribe of Scandinavian origin whose two branches, the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths, played an important role in the fall of the Roman Empire and the emergence of Medieval Europe....
allied with Rome, demands a third of Italy from Orestes, but is rebuffed. The same day, Romulus meets the general of the Nova Invicta Legion, Aurelianus Caius Antonius, called "Aurelius
Ambrosius Aurelianus
Ambrosius Aurelianus, ; called Aurelius Ambrosius in the Historia Regum Britanniae and elsewhere, was a war leader of the Romano-British who won an important battle against the Anglo-Saxons in the 5th century, according to Gildas...
".
The night after Romulus is crowned, Rome is attacked by the Goths. Most of Aurelius's men, pledged to protect the emperor, are killed, though Aurelius is only stunned and left for dead. Orestes and his wife are killed by Odoacer's lieutenant Wulfila, who captures Romulus.
Next day, Odoacer, now ruler of the Western Empire, plans to have Romulus killed. However, Ambrosinus convinces Odoacer to spare the boy. Instead, Romulus is exiled to Capri
Capri
Capri is an Italian island in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the Sorrentine Peninsula, on the south side of the Gulf of Naples, in the Campania region of Southern Italy...
along with Ambrosinus, guarded by Wulfila and his men. His prison is a villa constructed more than four centuries earlier by the emperor Tiberius
Tiberius
Tiberius , was Roman Emperor from 14 AD to 37 AD. Tiberius was by birth a Claudian, son of Tiberius Claudius Nero and Livia Drusilla. His mother divorced Nero and married Augustus in 39 BC, making him a step-son of Octavian...
.
With Ambrosinus's help, Romulus discovers a hidden chamber within the villa. He comes across a statue of Caesar holding the fabled sword, forged by a Chalybian
Chalybes
The Chalybes or Chaldoi were a tribe of proto-Georgians. Classical Antiquity credited with the invention of ferrous metallurgy....
smith after his military campaigns in Britain
Caesar's invasions of Britain
In his Gallic Wars, Julius Caesar invaded Britain twice, in 55 and 54 BC. The first invasion, made late in summer, was either intended as a full invasion or a reconnaissance-in-force expedition...
. Writing near the statue's feet proclaims the sword was made for "he who is destined to rule". This is interpreted as a prophecy by various characters, and Romulus keeps the weapon.
The two are rescued from Capri by the loyal Aurelius and three surviving legionaries, Vatrenus, Batiatus, and Demetrius, accompanied by a female agent of the Eastern Roman Empire - a Keralite
Kerala
or Keralam is an Indian state located on the Malabar coast of south-west India. It was created on 1 November 1956 by the States Reorganisation Act by combining various Malayalam speaking regions....
warrior named Mira (trained in the martial art
Indian martial arts
The Indian subcontinent is home to a variety of fighting styles. In Sanskrit they may be collectively referred to as ' or '. The former is a compound of the words and , meaning "knowledge of the sword" or "knowledge of weaponry"...
of Kalarippayattu
Kalarippayattu
Kalaripayattu is a southern Indian martial art originating in Tamil Nadu but also practiced in contiguous parts of Kerala and Karnataka.Kalari payat includes strikes, kicks, grappling, preset forms, weaponry and healing methods...
). They take Romulus to a seaport where the Eastern Roman Empire's emissary (whom Mira works for) and the senator
Roman Senate
The Senate of the Roman Republic was a political institution in the ancient Roman Republic, however, it was not an elected body, but one whose members were appointed by the consuls, and later by the censors. After a magistrate served his term in office, it usually was followed with automatic...
Nestor have promised safe passage to Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
. However, they barely escape after they learn the Senate and the Eastern Empire have betrayed them and sided with Odoacer.
Ambrosinus persuades Romulus to seek refuge in Britain, where the Ninth Legion (called the Dragon Legion) may remain loyal, being far from the events. They are followed by Wulfila and his men; the Goth covets Caesar's sword after learning the prophecy. Crossing the Alps and the English Channel, the party travels to Hadrian's Wall
Hadrian's Wall
Hadrian's Wall was a defensive fortification in Roman Britain. Begun in AD 122, during the rule of emperor Hadrian, it was the first of two fortifications built across Great Britain, the second being the Antonine Wall, lesser known of the two because its physical remains are less evident today.The...
and initially find no evidence of the legion until a farmer approaches and reveals he was its commander. With the collapse of Roman support of Britain, the legion had decided to disband and settle as farmers. Most of the men in the legion had married and had families. They also did not want to antagonize the powerful warlord Vortgyn
Vortigern
Vortigern , also spelled Vortiger and Vortigen, was a 5th-century warlord in Britain, a leading ruler among the Britons. His existence is considered likely, though information about him is shrouded in legend. He is said to have invited the Saxons to settle in Kent as mercenaries to aid him in...
.
During their stay in the small Celtic village, Romulus meets and befriends a young girl named Igraine. Aurelius and Mira practice swordfighting and become close to each other. Ambrosinus told Romulus of a scar on his chest, similar to the design on the sword hilt, which he received from Vortgyn after he refused to tell him where the sword of Caesar was.
Vortgyn also desires the sword of Caesar as he aspires to rule the whole of Britain. It is revealed that Vortgyn and Ambrosinus are old enemies. After meeting with the Goths, Vortgyn decides to either capture or kill Romulus as a gesture to Odoacer. After confronting Igraine outside of the village, he convinces her to tell everyone in the village to surrender Romulus and has several of his men kill the blacksmith's wife and sons. When a tearful Igraine tells the villagers of what has happened, Aurelius confesses that Romulus is the emperor of Rome. The blacksmith then demands revenge on his wife's and sons' deaths, and Aurelius and his men decide to lead an army to Hadrian's Wall to face Vortgyn's armies in one final battle.
Before leaving the village, Romulus receives from Igraine a suit of Roman armor which belonged to her brother, which he has since outgrown. Aurelius, wielding Caesar's sword, leads his men and a small number of Celtic warriors against Vortgyn's forces at Hadrian's Wall. Aurelius, his men, and the archers pelted the infantry with arrows, while Mira, Romulus, and several Roman and Celtic soldiers struggled to hold the enemy at the gate. Despite their casualties, Vortgyn's soldiers began to slowly overwhelm the small force on the wall. The battle appears hopeless until the rest of the Ninth Legion, having taken up their old Roman arms and uniforms, appear and turn the tide. The two warring sides cease their hostilities when Ambrosinus confronts and burns Vortgyn alive at a tree-sanctuary of his secret brotherhood near the battlefield. Romulus kills Wulfila with Caesar's sword, avenging his parents. He tells Aurelius that he fought like a dragon, whereupon Aurelius replies that Romulus fought like the son of a dragon.
Repulsed by the deaths in the battle, Romulus heaves away his sword which remarkably pierces a large rock and becomes lodged there. Many years later, Ambrosinus, now known by his Druid name, Merlin
Merlin
Merlin is a legendary figure best known as the wizard featured in the Arthurian legend. The standard depiction of the character first appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae, written c. 1136, and is based on an amalgamation of previous historical and legendary figures...
, takes a young boy to the battlefield to describe the now legendary events. Merlin, who has visibly aged little since the battle, says that Aurelius married Mira and the two raised Romulus as their own son. He became a wise ruler, took the girl Igraine as his wife, and adopted the name "Pendragon
Uther Pendragon
Uther Pendragon is a legendary king of sub-Roman Britain and the father of King Arthur.A few minor references to Uther appear in Old Welsh poems, but his biography was first written down by Geoffrey of Monmouth in his Historia Regum Britanniae , and Geoffrey's account of the character was used in...
". The boy, Arthur, recognizes Romulus as his father and Igraine as his mother.
In a final scene, the sword of Julius Caesar is shown embedded in the stone, with moss growing on the blade, covering the original inscription, leaving only the Latin letters which, when read as a single word, read Escalibur
Excalibur
Excalibur is the legendary sword of King Arthur, sometimes attributed with magical powers or associated with the rightful sovereignty of Great Britain. Sometimes Excalibur and the Sword in the Stone are said to be the same weapon, but in most versions they are considered separate. The sword was...
.
Plot of the novel
In 476, the Western Roman Empire is under attack by the barbarian armies under the Heruli General Odoacer. Forces loyal to the empire were destroyed and the Emperor Romulus Augustus, a child at the age of 13, was arrested, deposed, and exiled to the island of Capri. Meanwhile in Dertona, where stands the castrum of the last legion, the "Nova Invicta", the battle rages against the Heruli and Skyrian horsemen. The officer Aurelianus Ambrosius Ventidius, detached from his friends, rides desperately toward the villa of the noble Orestes for help, but the villa was attacked and destroyed by Odoacer's barbarians. Aurelius soon finds Orestes fatally wounded and can only receive the last request of Orestes' dying breath to save and protect Romulus Augustus, his son, the last emperor of Rome.Having reunited with the last survivors of the massacre of his legion (Rufius Vatrenus, a veteran of countless battles, and Cornelius Batiatus, a black giant of enormous strength from Ethiopia) and with the aid of the beautiful Venetian Livia Prisca and former Greek soldiers Orosius and Demetrius, Aurelius takes action and assaults the house of Capri, where Romulus was held prisoner. He is freed along with his tutor Meridius Ambrosinus, and is in possession of a valuable (and much-desired) object: the legendary Calibian sword of Julius Caesar.
Pursued by Wufila, Odaocer's ruthless lieutenant, and a small force of barbarian troops, the heterogeneous group will continue to flee north. They soon realize that the Eastern Roman Empire had betrayed them and sided with Odoacer, so they could not seek refuge in its capital at Constantinople. Precluded any other way, the old Celtic tutor Ambrosinus remembered an old prophecy from his land, and decided to lead the young emperor to Britain, while the stories of Livia, Aurelius, and their comrades begin to take place in a troubled journey that led the group through the barbarized and devastated territories of Gaul and northern Italy. The group soon arrived in Britain to find that the way of the Roman past, and with it the old and legendary legion of Britain (Legio XII Draco), is not yet entirely disappeared. Still threatened by Wufila, and more by the tyrant Wortigern, who rules over most of the island, hidden by a mask of gold, the group decided to address their enemies in a final battle.
Setting a defensive position in the abandoned fort of the Twelfth Legion, Aurelius, Romulus, and their comrades faced Wufila's and Wortigern's mercenaries on the slopes of Mons Badonicus. Before all was lost, the Twelfth Legion appeared on the hilltops, holding high their dragon standard, and drove back the enemy. During the battle, one of Aurelius' faithful friends, Vatrenus was pierced by three spears and nailed to a tree. Batiatus and Livia were mortally wounded. Finally, the ruthless Herulian warrior Wufila was killed by Romulus and Aurelius, who pierced his body both with the Roman officer's sword and the Calibian sword of Julius Caesar.
The victory was won for Romulus and Aurelius, though their comrades were either dead or wounded. In his victory, Romulus launched the sword of Caesar into the air, and it stuck to the rock at the center of the lake itself. In the years that followed, Aurelius, accompanied by Livia Prisca and Cornelius Batiatus, returned to Italy to establish a new life. Romulus was called Pendragon by the Romans, and he became king of Britain. He married Ygraine, the daughter of Kustennin the commander of the Twelfth Legion, and they had a son. Their newborn son would soon be the future hero of Arthurian legend: "King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table."
Partial cast
- Colin FirthColin FirthSirColin Andrew Firth, CBE is a British film, television, and theatre actor. Firth gained wide public attention in the 1990s for his portrayal of Mr. Darcy in the 1995 television adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice...
... AureliusAmbrosius AurelianusAmbrosius Aurelianus, ; called Aurelius Ambrosius in the Historia Regum Britanniae and elsewhere, was a war leader of the Romano-British who won an important battle against the Anglo-Saxons in the 5th century, according to Gildas... - Thomas SangsterThomas SangsterThomas Brodie Sangster is an English film and television actor, best known for his roles in Love Actually, Nanny McPhee, The Last Legion, and voice of Ferb Fletcher in Phineas and Ferb.-Personal life:...
... Romulus AugustusRomulus AugustusRomulus Augustus , was the last Western Roman Emperor, reigning from 31 October 475 until 4 September 476...
/PendragonUther PendragonUther Pendragon is a legendary king of sub-Roman Britain and the father of King Arthur.A few minor references to Uther appear in Old Welsh poems, but his biography was first written down by Geoffrey of Monmouth in his Historia Regum Britanniae , and Geoffrey's account of the character was used in... - Sir Ben KingsleyBen KingsleySir Ben Kingsley, CBE is a British actor. He has won an Oscar, BAFTA, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild awards in his career. He is known for starring as Mohandas Gandhi in the film Gandhi in 1982, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor...
... Ambrosinus/MerlinMerlinMerlin is a legendary figure best known as the wizard featured in the Arthurian legend. The standard depiction of the character first appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae, written c. 1136, and is based on an amalgamation of previous historical and legendary figures... - Aishwarya RaiAishwarya RaiAishwarya Rai Bachchan is an Indian film actress. She worked as a model before starting her acting career, and ultimately won the Miss World pageant in 1994...
... Mira - Peter MullanPeter MullanPeter Mullan is a Scottish actor and film-maker who has been appearing in films since 1990.-Early life:Mullan, the sixth of eight children, was born in Peterhead in the northeast of Scotland, the son of Patricia, a nurse, and Charles Mullan, a lab technician who worked at Glasgow University. He...
... OdoacerOdoacerFlavius Odoacer , also known as Flavius Odovacer, was the first King of Italy. His reign is commonly seen as marking the end of the Western Roman Empire. Though the real power in Italy was in his hands, he represented himself as the client of Julius Nepos and, after Nepos' death in 480, of the... - Kevin McKiddKevin McKiddKevin McKidd is a Scottish television and film actor and director. Before playing the role of Owen Hunt in Grey's Anatomy, McKidd starred as Lucius Vorenus in the historical drama series Rome, and provided the voice of Captain John "Soap" Mactavish in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and the sequel...
... Wulfia - John HannahJohn Hannah (actor)John David Hannah is a Scottish actor of film and television. He has appeared in Stephen Sommers' Mummy Series, Richard Curtis' Four Weddings and a Funeral and Sliding Doors with Gwyneth Paltrow...
... Nestor - Owen TealeOwen TealeOwen Teale is a Welsh actor.Trained at the Guildford School of Acting, Teale made his television debut in The Mimosa Boys in 1984. He later appeared in Knights of God , Great Expectations , Waterfront Beat and Boon before being cast as Will Scarlet in the 1991 TV movie Robin Hood...
... Vatrenus - Rupert FriendRupert FriendRupert Friend is an English film actor, who is best known for his roles as Mr. Wickham in the 2005 film Pride and Prejudice, Lieutenant Kurt Kotler in the 2008 film The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, and Prince Albert in the 2009 film The Young Victoria.-Career:He made his debut in the film The...
... Demetrius - Nonso AnozieNonso AnozieNonso Anozie is a British actor who has appeared in several stage plays and four films to date.In the summer of 2002 he became the youngest person in history to play William Shakespeare's "King Lear" and won the Ian Charleson Award in 2005 for his performance as Othello.Anozie was hired in 2006 to...
... Batiatus - Harry Van Gorkum ... VortgynVortigernVortigern , also spelled Vortiger and Vortigen, was a 5th-century warlord in Britain, a leading ruler among the Britons. His existence is considered likely, though information about him is shrouded in legend. He is said to have invited the Saxons to settle in Kent as mercenaries to aid him in...
- Robert PughRobert PughRobert Pugh is a Welsh film and television actor.Pugh was born in Cilfynydd and graduated from Rose Bruford College in 1976. In 2007, he co-starred alongside Genevieve O'Reilly and Geraldine James in ITV1 drama The Time of Your Life, where he played a parent whose 36-year-old daughter was...
... Kustennin - James CosmoJames CosmoJames Cosmo is a prolific Scottish actor, with numerous credits in film and television since the late 1960s and Cosmo is still currently acting. Cosmo was born in Clydebank, Scotland, the son of actor James Copeland...
... Hrothgar - Alexander SiddigAlexander SiddigSiddig El Tahir El Fadil El Siddig Abderrahman Mohammed Ahmed Abdel Karim El Mahdi is a Sudanese-born English actor, also known as Siddig El Fadil and his stage name Alexander Siddig. He is known for playing Dr...
... Theodorus Andronikos - Murray McArthurMurray McArthurMurray McArthur is a British stage, television and film actor born in Devon in the South West of England on 4 May 1966. The son of a mushroom farmer, of Scottish parentage and red-haired, he often plays Scottish roles. He attended King's School Ottery St...
... Tertius - Iain GlenIain GlenIain Glen is a Scottish film and stage actor.Iain Glen was born in Edinburgh, Scotland and trained at RADA where he won the Bancroft Gold Medal. He was married to Susannah Harker from 1993 to 2004; they have one son, Finlay...
... Orestes
Production notes
The film's producers include Dino De Laurentiis, Martha, his second wife, and Raffaella, his daughter by his first wife. Raffaella suggested director Doug Lefler due to his work on Dragonheart: A New BeginningDragonheart: A New Beginning
Dragonheart: A New Beginning is a 2000 direct-to-video sequel of the 1996 film Dragonheart. The film is directed by Doug Lefler and stars Christopher Masterson, Harry Van Gorkum, and the voice of Robby Benson.-Plot:...
, which she produced. Filming took place in Tunisia and at Spiš Castle
Spiš Castle
The ruins of Spiš Castle in eastern Slovakia form one of the largest castle sites in Central Europe. The castle is situated above the town of Spišské Podhradie and the village of Žehra, in the region known as Spiš...
in eastern Slovakia
Slovakia
The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...
in 2005.
Valerio Massimo Manfredi
Valerio Massimo Manfredi
Valerio Massimo Manfredi is an Italian historian, writer, archaeologist and journalist.-Biography:He was born in Piumazzo di Castelfranco Emilia, province of Modena and is married to Christine Fedderson Manfredi, who translates his published works from Italian to English...
helped adapt his novel to the screen, also acting as historical consultant. In an interview he states at least four hours of footage was shot but ultimately shortened or cut, including scenes of the heroes' journey through the Alps and the English Channel.
For the role of Aurelius, executive producer Harvey Weinstein
Harvey Weinstein
Harvey Weinstein, CBE is an American film producer and movie studio chairman. He is best known as co-founder of Miramax Films. He and his brother Bob have been co-chairmen of The Weinstein Company, their film production company, since 2005...
suggested Colin Firth, known for playing Fitzwilliam Darcy
Fitzwilliam Darcy
Fitzwilliam Darcy, generally referred to as Mr Darcy, is one of the two central characters in Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice. He is an archetype of the aloof romantic hero, and a romantic interest of Elizabeth Bennet, the novel's protagonist...
in Pride and Prejudice
Pride and Prejudice (1995 TV serial)
Pride and Prejudice is a six-episode 1995 British television drama, adapted by Andrew Davies from Jane Austen's 1813 novel Pride and Prejudice. Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth starred as Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy. Produced by Sue Birtwistle and directed by Simon Langton, the serial was a BBC...
(1995) and more recently, Mark Darcy in the Bridget Jones
Bridget Jones
Bridget Jones is a franchise based on the fictional character with the same name. English writer Helen Fielding started her Bridget Jones's Diary column in The Independent in 1995, chronicling the life of Bridget Jones as a thirtysomething single woman in London as she tries to make sense of life...
films. Firth accepted the role due to the story, which he liked, and that it was very different from previous roles.
Thomas Sangster
Thomas Sangster
Thomas Brodie Sangster is an English film and television actor, best known for his roles in Love Actually, Nanny McPhee, The Last Legion, and voice of Ferb Fletcher in Phineas and Ferb.-Personal life:...
(Romulus) was one of the last to be cast. He had previously worked with Firth in Love Actually
Love Actually
Love Actually is a 2003 British romantic comedy film written and directed by Richard Curtis. The screenplay delves into different aspects of love as shown through ten separate stories involving a wide variety of individuals, many of whom are shown to be interlinked as their tales progress...
(2003) and Nanny McPhee
Nanny McPhee
Nanny McPhee is a 2005 fantasy film starring Emma Thompson and Colin Firth. Thompson also wrote the screenplay, which is adapted from Christianna Brand's Nurse Matilda books.-Plot:...
(2006), and their familiarity with each other benefited both.
Sir Ben Kingsley was cast as Ambrosinus/Merlin after one meeting with Lefler. Kingsley was drawn to the mystique of the character, whom Lefler describes as a "warrior shaman". Kingsley also found the story interesting.
Aishwarya Rai was cast as Mira after the filmmakers decided "somebody that had a rare beauty... who could move very well", in Lefler's words, was ideal for the role. Lefler touted Rai's training in dance as an asset for her fight scenes. Like Firth, Rai took the role as a change of pace from her previous work.
The film's costumes were designed by Paolo Scalabrino, who had worked on Gangs of New York
Gangs of New York
Gangs of New York is a 2002 historical film set in the mid-19th century in the Five Points district of New York City. It was directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Jay Cocks, Steven Zaillian, and Kenneth Lonergan. The film was inspired by Herbert Asbury's 1928 nonfiction book, The Gangs of New...
and Troy
Troy (film)
Troy is a 2004 epic war film written by David Benioff and directed by Wolfgang Petersen based on the events of the Trojan War. Its cast includes Brad Pitt as Achilles, Eric Bana as Hector.It was nominated for the Academy Award for Costume Design.-Plot:...
.
Lefler wanted each character to have a unique fighting style. Richard Ryan served as the film's sword master, helping him plan the fight scenes; he had worked on Troy and would work on Stardust as such.
The film's score was composed by Patrick Doyle
Patrick Doyle
Patrick Doyle is a Scottish musician and film score composer. A longtime collaborator of actor/director Kenneth Branagh, Doyle is known for his work scoring such critically acclaimed films as Henry V , Sense and Sensibility , Hamlet , and Gosford Park , as well as noteworthy blockbusters as Harry...
.
Reception
The film had a relatively poor reception by the public and critics. As of June 2010, the film had an average score of 37 out of 100 on MetacriticMetacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
based on 12 reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
, 16% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 52 reviews (8 "fresh", 44 "rotten") and the "cream of the crop" rating was 8%.
Differences from the novel
The film departs from the novel in several ways; so much so that its credits state it to be "based in part" on the original.In the novel, Aurelius (called Aurelianus Ambrosius Ventidius) is a low-ranking officer and a legionary rather than a general, and his original legion, the Nova Invicta, is destroyed much earlier. The Nova Invicta Legion was known as the Fourth Legion in the film, but in the novel it is a new legion formed by Flavius Orestes himself.
The novel's band of heroes includes three surviving legionaries (Aurelius, Vatrenus and Batiatus), a Venetian
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
warrior woman called Livia Prisca, and two Greek gladiators, Demetrius and Orosius. The film turns Livia into the Indian Mira, and Demetrius and Orosius into legionaries. While Demetrius remains a prominent supporting character, Orosius becomes an uncredited background extra.
The film alters the capital of the Western Empire from its historical location at Ravenna
Ravenna
Ravenna is the capital city of the Province of Ravenna in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy and the second largest comune in Italy by land area, although, at , it is little more than half the size of the largest comune, Rome...
, as depicted in the novel, to Rome. By 460, Rome had not actually been the capital of the empire for over 100 years.
The film depicts the coronation of Romulus (and subsequent fall of Rome) as having taken place in 460, while the novel correctly gives the year as 476. Romulus was Emperor for ten months, not a single day as in the film.
The "Last Legion" in the novel is a fictional Twelfth Legion (Legio XII Draco), not the Ninth. While the Ninth is called the "Dragon" Legion as in the novel, it was the "Hispanic" Legion (Legio IX Hispana
Legio IX Hispana
Legio Nona Hispana was a Roman legion, which operated from the first century BCE until mid 2nd century CE. The Spanish Legion's disappearance has raised speculations over its fate, largely of its alleged destruction in Scotland in about 117 CE, though some scholars believe it was destroyed in the...
) in real life. A Twelfth Legion did exist under different names, but not as Draco. The real "Draco" Legion was actually the twenty-fourth Roman Legion in real life.
The prophecy concerning Romulus is worded differently in the novel: it speaks of a youth with a sword who will bring peace and prosperity to Britain, and the "eagle and the dragon" flying once more over the land (Manfredi makes these the dying words of the soldier-bishop Germanus
Germanus of Auxerre
Germanus of Auxerre was a bishop of Auxerre in Gaul. He is a saint in both the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches, commemorated on July 31. He visited Britain in around 429 and the records of this visit provide valuable information on the state of post-Roman British society...
, whom he also makes the founder of the Dragon Legion).
In the novel, Ambrosinus (full Roman name Meridius Ambrosinus, originally known as Myrdin Emries in Britain, which later becomes Merlin) is a Christian and yet also a Druid. This is left unclear in the film, where he mostly speaks in generic terms of "truth" and "faith"; one exception is when he tells Vortgyn (spelled Wortigern in the novel) to "burn in Hell". In deleted scenes he uses more pagan terms to his language.
The final battle is identified as the Battle of Badon Hill in the novel but not in the film. In the novel, the opposing forces are listed here:
1. Aurelius Ambrosius Ventidius, Rufius Vatrenus, Cornelius Batiatus, Demetrius, Orosius, Livia Prisca, Romulus Augustulus, Ambrosinus, Kustennin, and the soldiers of the Twelfth Roman Legion(Legio XII Draco).
2. Wufila and two hundred barbarian horsemen, plus a contingent of Saxon mercenaries.
The deaths of Vatrenus, Batiatus, Demetrius, and Orosius take place differently between the novel and the film. In the film, Vatrenus was killed by Eastern Roman soldiers while trying to protect Romulus and Batiatus was killed by Wufila during the Battle of Badon Hill, while Demetrius survived in the end (Orosius does not appear in the film). In the novel, Vatrenus, Demetrius, and Orosius were killed during the Battle of Badon Hill, while Batiatus survived.
The standard of the Dragon Legion is depicted as a bronze dragon with a red-and-white striped tail in the film. In the novel, the standard is a silver-headed, open-jawed dragon with a purple tail.
Historical notes
Orestes, who was partly of German blood, was historically the magister militumMagister militum
Magister militum was a top-level military command used in the later Roman Empire, dating from the reign of Constantine. Used alone, the term referred to the senior military officer of the Empire...
— the senior officer of the Roman army second to the emperor. He had indeed promised his German foederati
Foederati
Foederatus is a Latin term whose definition and usage drifted in the time between the early Roman Republic and the end of the Western Roman Empire...
a third of Italy to settle in but not to Odoacer personally. Orestes was himself an usurper, having used his power over the foederati to depose the legitimate emperor Julius Nepos
Julius Nepos
Julius Nepos was Western Roman Emperor de facto from 474 to 475 and de jure until 480. Some historians consider him to be the last Western Roman Emperor, while others consider the western line to have ended with Romulus Augustulus in 476...
and inaugurate his son Romulus Augustus.
There was civil strife in the Eastern Roman Empire at the time but the Emperor alluded to would probably have been Zeno
Zeno (emperor)
Zeno , originally named Tarasis, was Byzantine Emperor from 474 to 475 and again from 476 to 491. Domestic revolts and religious dissension plagued his reign, which nevertheless succeeded to some extent in foreign issues...
(explicit in the novel). The Eastern Emperor eventually neutralised Odoacer when the latter became too popular with the people of Italy.
The uniforms and weapons of the Ninth Legion as depicted in the film (badly) reflect an earlier period of Roman history. By the time of the official fall of the Western Empire, Roman legionaries did not wear scarlet cloaks, nor did they carry the semi-circular shields of ancient times, and the short stabbing sword known as the gladius
Gladius
Gladius was the Latin word for sword, and is used to represent the primary sword of Ancient Roman soldiers. Early ancient Roman swords were similar to those used by the Greeks. From the 3rd century BC, the Romans adopted swords similar to those used by the Celtiberians and others during the early...
had been replaced.
Mira's weapon, the Katar or Katara (कटार), had not been invented at the time in which the action is set. Katars came into use more than 1000 years later.
A few of the castles and fortified cities in the film have round spires with pointed coned roofs, when in fact this style of buildings was not common until the late Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
.
During scenes in the film where people are shown riding horses you can clearly see stirrups even though those kind of stirrups did not come into use in Europe until after 700CE.
The Last of the Line
The Emperor TiberiusTiberius
Tiberius , was Roman Emperor from 14 AD to 37 AD. Tiberius was by birth a Claudian, son of Tiberius Claudius Nero and Livia Drusilla. His mother divorced Nero and married Augustus in 39 BC, making him a step-son of Octavian...
is referred to as "the last of Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
's line". Inconsistently, Romulus Augustus is also depicted as the last of Julius Caesar's family line and Tiberius as one of his ancestors. Tiberius was actually the second of the five Julio-Claudian emperors, succeeding to the role of emperor as the adopted son of Augustus
Augustus
Augustus ;23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14) is considered the first emperor of the Roman Empire, which he ruled alone from 27 BC until his death in 14 AD.The dates of his rule are contemporary dates; Augustus lived under two calendars, the Roman Republican until 45 BC, and the Julian...
, who had himself been adopted by Julius Caesar. Augustus had named several of his own relatives as heirs, but as they all died, he named a son of his second wife, Livia
Livia
Livia Drusilla, , after her formal adoption into the Julian family in AD 14 also known as Julia Augusta, was a Roman empress as the third wife of the Emperor Augustus and his adviser...
, by her first marriage. Thus, Tiberius was not the last of any line established by Julius Caesar (Augustus' maternal great-uncle by blood) as he had no blood relation to Caesar at all. His successors, Caligula
Caligula
Caligula , also known as Gaius, was Roman Emperor from 37 AD to 41 AD. Caligula was a member of the house of rulers conventionally known as the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Caligula's father Germanicus, the nephew and adopted son of Emperor Tiberius, was a very successful general and one of Rome's most...
and Claudius
Claudius
Claudius , was Roman Emperor from 41 to 54. A member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, he was the son of Drusus and Antonia Minor. He was born at Lugdunum in Gaul and was the first Roman Emperor to be born outside Italy...
were blood relatives of Julius Caesar through a maternal blood line dating back to Augustus's older sister, Octavia. Nero
Nero
Nero , was Roman Emperor from 54 to 68, and the last in the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Nero was adopted by his great-uncle Claudius to become his heir and successor, and succeeded to the throne in 54 following Claudius' death....
, a direct descendant of Augustus, ruled roughly twenty years after the death of Tiberius and was the final emperor of the Julio-Claudian Dynasty, thus making him the last ruler descended from Julius Caesar's family – the Julii.
In the film it is implied that Romulus' descent from Caesar's family is through his (unnamed) mother (which is presumably why Orestes cannot be Emperor himself). Historically, nothing is known about Romulus's mother, but the Julii had been extinct for more than 400 years before Romulus was born. He could only be claimed as "the last of Julius Caesar's line" if "line of office" was meant, as he was the last Western Emperor to bear the name "Caesar", which all Emperors subsequent to Nero adopted as part of their imperial title. The use of the title "Caesar" is inaccurate. By this point the term was the title for a junior, co-emperor appointed on an occasional basis. The senior or sole emperor was always referred to as "Augustus", and continued to be so until the collapse of the last remnant of the Eastern Empire in 1453.
The Missing Ninth Legion
The film uses the premise of the missing Ninth LegionLegio IX Hispana
Legio Nona Hispana was a Roman legion, which operated from the first century BCE until mid 2nd century CE. The Spanish Legion's disappearance has raised speculations over its fate, largely of its alleged destruction in Scotland in about 117 CE, though some scholars believe it was destroyed in the...
still existing somewhere in Britain at this time, a once popular idea among British historians. The Ninth Legion disappears from Roman records from about 120 AD, by which time, it has been suggested, it was no longer serving in Britain. Rather, it has been thought that the Legion was destroyed in some unknown war near the Danube
Danube
The Danube is a river in the Central Europe and the Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is classified as an international waterway....
frontier or perhaps whilst serving on the Eastern front fighting the Parthians, during or before the reign of Marcus Aurelius.
Recently, however, academics have returned to consideration of the 'destroyed in Britain' hypothesis, Dr Miles Russell of Bournemouth University
Bournemouth University
Bournemouth University is a university in and around the large south coast town of Bournemouth, UK...
arguing that the weight of historic evidence suggests that significant numbers of Roman troops were destroyed in the province during the early years of the emperor Hadrian
Hadrian
Hadrian , was Roman Emperor from 117 to 138. He is best known for building Hadrian's Wall, which marked the northern limit of Roman Britain. In Rome, he re-built the Pantheon and constructed the Temple of Venus and Roma. In addition to being emperor, Hadrian was a humanist and was philhellene in...
: an important motivation for the building of Hadrian's Wall
Hadrian's Wall
Hadrian's Wall was a defensive fortification in Roman Britain. Begun in AD 122, during the rule of emperor Hadrian, it was the first of two fortifications built across Great Britain, the second being the Antonine Wall, lesser known of the two because its physical remains are less evident today.The...
.
Even if the Ninth had gone missing in the province, it is highly unlikely to have reappeared and continued in existence as a military force for the three centuries between AD 117 and 460, undocumented by the otherwise thorough Roman administration. At any rate by the late fifth century AD Britain had already been abandoned by Rome for many decades, mobile units having departed for the continent in AD 407, more static frontier units devolving into little more than a local militia
Militia
The term militia is commonly used today to refer to a military force composed of ordinary citizens to provide defense, emergency law enforcement, or paramilitary service, in times of emergency without being paid a regular salary or committed to a fixed term of service. It is a polyseme with...
.
Connections to Arthurian legend
The movie shows King Arthur as a descendant of the last Roman imperial line. In Le Morte d'ArthurLe Morte d'Arthur
Le Morte d'Arthur is a compilation by Sir Thomas Malory of Romance tales about the legendary King Arthur, Guinevere, Lancelot, and the Knights of the Round Table...
Arthur claims descent from Constantine and is crowned Roman Emperor after defeating its (fictional) ruler, Lucius Tiberius
Lucius Tiberius
Lucius Tiberius is a fictional Roman Emperor from Arthurian legend appearing first in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae. No Roman Emperor of that name ever existed; Geoffrey either heard of him from folk tradition or made him up...
.
Aurelius is based on Aurelius Ambrosius, brother of Arthur's father Uther Pendragon
Uther Pendragon
Uther Pendragon is a legendary king of sub-Roman Britain and the father of King Arthur.A few minor references to Uther appear in Old Welsh poems, but his biography was first written down by Geoffrey of Monmouth in his Historia Regum Britanniae , and Geoffrey's account of the character was used in...
. Aurelius and Uther opposed Vortigern
Vortigern
Vortigern , also spelled Vortiger and Vortigen, was a 5th-century warlord in Britain, a leading ruler among the Britons. His existence is considered likely, though information about him is shrouded in legend. He is said to have invited the Saxons to settle in Kent as mercenaries to aid him in...
. Aurelius is a fictionalized version of the historical war leader Ambrosius Aurelianus
Ambrosius Aurelianus
Ambrosius Aurelianus, ; called Aurelius Ambrosius in the Historia Regum Britanniae and elsewhere, was a war leader of the Romano-British who won an important battle against the Anglo-Saxons in the 5th century, according to Gildas...
, who led the Romano-British
Romano-British
Romano-British culture describes the culture that arose in Britain under the Roman Empire following the Roman conquest of AD 43 and the creation of the province of Britannia. It arose as a fusion of the imported Roman culture with that of the indigenous Britons, a people of Celtic language and...
against the invading Saxons
Saxons
The Saxons were a confederation of Germanic tribes originating on the North German plain. The Saxons earliest known area of settlement is Northern Albingia, an area approximately that of modern Holstein...
.
In Geoffrey of Monmouth
Geoffrey of Monmouth
Geoffrey of Monmouth was a cleric and one of the major figures in the development of British historiography and the popularity of tales of King Arthur...
's pseudohistorical
Pseudohistory
Pseudohistory is a pejorative term applied to a type of historical revisionism, often involving sensational claims whose acceptance would require rewriting a significant amount of commonly accepted history, and based on methods that depart from standard historiographical conventions.Cryptohistory...
work The History of the Kings of Britain
Historia Regum Britanniae
The Historia Regum Britanniae is a pseudohistorical account of British history, written c. 1136 by Geoffrey of Monmouth. It chronicles the lives of the kings of the Britons in a chronological narrative spanning a time of two thousand years, beginning with the Trojans founding the British nation...
(Historia Regum Britanniae), Merlin
Merlin
Merlin is a legendary figure best known as the wizard featured in the Arthurian legend. The standard depiction of the character first appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae, written c. 1136, and is based on an amalgamation of previous historical and legendary figures...
, originally a figure unconnected with Arthur, is called Merlin Ambrosius after Geoffrey merged legends of Aurelius Ambrosius into the character. Ambrosius becomes Ambrosinus in the film. In the novel, Merlin's original British name Myrdin Emries is directly taken from Welsh versions of the tales.
Vortgyn's death by fire in a burning tree shelter/shrine echoes the legendary Vortigern's death, as according to Geoffrey of Monmouth the latter died in his tower when it was set aflame.
Excalibur
One of the movie's taglines is "Before King Arthur, there was ExcaliburExcalibur
Excalibur is the legendary sword of King Arthur, sometimes attributed with magical powers or associated with the rightful sovereignty of Great Britain. Sometimes Excalibur and the Sword in the Stone are said to be the same weapon, but in most versions they are considered separate. The sword was...
". The last shots of the film establish the fictional sword of Caesar as the legendary blade (also the Sword in the Stone, originally a different weapon).
The word Excalibur
Excalibur
Excalibur is the legendary sword of King Arthur, sometimes attributed with magical powers or associated with the rightful sovereignty of Great Britain. Sometimes Excalibur and the Sword in the Stone are said to be the same weapon, but in most versions they are considered separate. The sword was...
comes from the Old French Escalibor which is itself a corruption of Caliburnus or Caliburn. The name Caliburn is often held to be Geoffrey of Monmouth's Latinized form of the original Welsh Caledfwlch, which combines the elements ("battle, hard"), and ("breach, gap, notch"). Manfredi espouses an alternative theory wherein Caliburn derives from Latin chalybs "steel
Steel
Steel is an alloy that consists mostly of iron and has a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most common alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used, such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten...
", which is in turn derived from Chalybes
Chalybes
The Chalybes or Chaldoi were a tribe of proto-Georgians. Classical Antiquity credited with the invention of ferrous metallurgy....
, the name of an Anatolia
Anatolia
Anatolia is a geographic and historical term denoting the westernmost protrusion of Asia, comprising the majority of the Republic of Turkey...
n ironworking tribe.
The sword bears the inscription CAI • IVL • CAES • ENSIS CALIBVRNVS. The characters "CAI. IVL. CAES." are an abbreviated form of Caius (or Gaius) Julius Caesar. Manfredi loosely translates ensis caliburnus as "sword of steel". Ensis is Latin for "sword". While in reality Geoffrey of Monmouth's Latinization Caliburn eventually developed into the form Excalibur, the film explains the origin of the name Excalibur by having the inscription obscured by moss; the remaining letters spell out E S CALIBVR.
Connections to other films
Colin Firth, Aishwarya Rai and Rupert Friend have all appeared in adaptations of the Jane AustenJane Austen
Jane Austen was an English novelist whose works of romantic fiction, set among the landed gentry, earned her a place as one of the most widely read writers in English literature, her realism and biting social commentary cementing her historical importance among scholars and critics.Austen lived...
novel Pride & Prejudice. Firth appeared in the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
miniseries that has been considered the closest adaptation of the work itself, portraying Fitzwilliam Darcy
Fitzwilliam Darcy
Fitzwilliam Darcy, generally referred to as Mr Darcy, is one of the two central characters in Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice. He is an archetype of the aloof romantic hero, and a romantic interest of Elizabeth Bennet, the novel's protagonist...
. Rai has appeared in a modernized version, Bride and Prejudice
Bride and Prejudice
Bride and Prejudice is a 2004 romantic musical film directed by Gurinder Chadha. The screenplay by Chadha and Paul Mayeda Berges is a Bollywood-style adaptation of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. It was filmed primarily in English, with some Hindi and Punjabi dialogue. The film released in...
, portraying the character based on Elizabeth Bennet
Elizabeth Bennet
Elizabeth Bennet, later Elizabeth Darcy, is the protagonist in the 1813 novel Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. She is often referred to as Eliza or Lizzy by her friends and family...
. Friend appeared in the 2005 version
Pride & Prejudice (2005 film)
Pride & Prejudice is a 2005 British romance film directed by Joe Wright. It is a film adaptation of the 1813 novel of the same name by Jane Austen and the second adaption produced by Working Title Films. It was released on September 16, 2005, in the UK and on November 11, 2005, in the...
, where he portrayed Mr. Wickham.
Both Kevin McKidd
Kevin McKidd
Kevin McKidd is a Scottish television and film actor and director. Before playing the role of Owen Hunt in Grey's Anatomy, McKidd starred as Lucius Vorenus in the historical drama series Rome, and provided the voice of Captain John "Soap" Mactavish in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and the sequel...
and Ray Stevenson
Ray Stevenson (actor)
George Raymond "Ray" Stevenson is a Northern Irish-born English film and television actor. He is known for playing Titus Pullo in the BBC/HBO television series Rome , and in film as Dagonet in King Arthur and as Frank Castle/The Punisher in Punisher: War Zone and The Super Hero Squad Show...
, who starred as the Roman soldiers Lucius Vorenus
Lucius Vorenus
Lucius Vorenus was one of the two soldiers of the 11th Legion mentioned in the personal writings of Julius Caesar. The other soldier mentioned was Titus Pullo....
and Titus Pullo
Titus Pullo
Titus Pullo was one of the two Roman centurions of the 11th Legion mentioned in the writings of Julius Caesar. The other soldier mentioned was Lucius Vorenus; they appear in Caesar's Commentarii de Bello Gallico, Book 5, Chapter 44....
in the drama series Rome
Rome (TV series)
Rome is a British-American–Italian historical drama television series created by Bruno Heller, John Milius and William J. MacDonald. The show's two seasons premiered in 2005 and 2007, and were later released on DVD. Rome is set in the 1st century BC, during Ancient Rome's transition from Republic...
, have gone on to play characters in historical King Arthur film adaptations; McKidd in The Last Legion and Stevenson in King Arthur
King Arthur (film)
King Arthur is a 2004 film directed by Antoine Fuqua and written by David Franzoni. It stars Clive Owen as the title character, Ioan Gruffudd as Lancelot, and Keira Knightley as Guinevere....
(2004). Both are set in Britain after the Romans left. Valerio Massimo Manfredi has commented on several similarities between the two films (and his book), such as a band of heroes escorting a boy of special status and a battle set at Hadrian's Wall. John Hannah later played Quintus Lentulus Batiatus, a Roman owner of a Gladitorial ludus in the Starz Television series Spartacus: Blood and Sand
Spartacus: Blood and Sand
Spartacus: Blood and Sand is a Starz television series that premiered on January 22, 2010. The series is inspired by the historical figure of Spartacus , a Thracian gladiator who from 73 to 71 BC led a major slave uprising against the Roman Republic. Executive producers Steven S...
In this film Thomas Sangster
Thomas Sangster
Thomas Brodie Sangster is an English film and television actor, best known for his roles in Love Actually, Nanny McPhee, The Last Legion, and voice of Ferb Fletcher in Phineas and Ferb.-Personal life:...
plays a version of Uther Pendragon
Uther Pendragon
Uther Pendragon is a legendary king of sub-Roman Britain and the father of King Arthur.A few minor references to Uther appear in Old Welsh poems, but his biography was first written down by Geoffrey of Monmouth in his Historia Regum Britanniae , and Geoffrey's account of the character was used in...
. He earlier played another Arthurian character — young Tristan
Tristan
Tristan is one of the main characters of the Tristan and Iseult story, a Cornish hero and one of the Knights of the Round Table featuring in the Matter of Britain...
in Tristan & Isolde
Tristan & Isolde (film)
Tristan & Isolde is a 2006 romantic drama film based on the medieval romantic legend of Tristan and Isolde. It was produced by Ridley Scott and Tony Scott, directed by Kevin Reynolds and stars James Franco and Sophia Myles, with an original music score composed by Anne Dudley...
(2006).
The piece of the film's premise that deals with the missing ninth legionnaires has since been adapted into its own movie, The Eagle (2011), telling the story of the missing ninth legion as warriors who fell to Pict
PICT
PICT is a graphics file format introduced on the original Apple Macintosh computer as its standard metafile format. It allows the interchange of graphics , and some limited text support, between Mac applications, and was the native graphics format of QuickDraw.The original version, PICT 1, was...
warriors behind Hadrian's Wall
Hadrian's Wall
Hadrian's Wall was a defensive fortification in Roman Britain. Begun in AD 122, during the rule of emperor Hadrian, it was the first of two fortifications built across Great Britain, the second being the Antonine Wall, lesser known of the two because its physical remains are less evident today.The...
.
See also
- List of historical drama films
- List of films set in ancient Rome
- Late AntiquityLate AntiquityLate Antiquity is a periodization used by historians to describe the time of transition from Classical Antiquity to the Middle Ages, in both mainland Europe and the Mediterranean world. Precise boundaries for the period are a matter of debate, but noted historian of the period Peter Brown proposed...
- Romulus Augustulus
- OdoacerOdoacerFlavius Odoacer , also known as Flavius Odovacer, was the first King of Italy. His reign is commonly seen as marking the end of the Western Roman Empire. Though the real power in Italy was in his hands, he represented himself as the client of Julius Nepos and, after Nepos' death in 480, of the...
- Battle of Mons BadonicusBattle of Mons BadonicusThe Battle of Mons Badonicus was a battle between a force of Britons and an Anglo-Saxon army, probably sometime between 490 and 517 AD. Though it is believed to have been a major political and military event, there is no certainty about its date, location or the details of the fighting...
- Anglo-Saxon settlement of BritainAnglo-Saxon settlement of BritainThe Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain was the invasion and migration of Germanic peoples from continental Europe to Great Britain during the Early Middle Ages, specifically the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons in Britain after the demise of Roman rule in the 5th century.The stimulus, progression and...