Macrinus is one in all Rome’s wealthiest businessmen, who purchases Lucius (Paul Mescal) as a gladiator after being impressed by his baboon-biting expertise. Since “Gladiator II” is basically a retread of the unique movie’s plot, the viewers is led to imagine that Macrinus is an analog for Oliver Stone’s Proximo: a slave turned freedman who turns into an ally for the protagonist. Macrinus definitely presents himself as such, even providing Lucius the pinnacle of his enemy in change for his service.
By the third act, nonetheless, Macrinus is revealed because the true villain of the film, who has been plotting to develop into emperor himself. In a monologue to Lucilla (Connie Nielsen), Macrinus reveals that he was as soon as a slave of her father, Marcus Aurelius, however has since risen to the function of a rich man, second consul, and in the end claimed the best seat of energy in Rome — which, by extension, makes him probably the most highly effective man on the earth. Inconceivable as it would sound, this is not removed from the reality.
Whereas sure corners of the web groused about an African-American actor enjoying a Roman elite — not to mention an emperor — there is a slight problem with their outrage: Macrinus truly was African. He wasn’t even the primary African Roman emperor (that might be Geta and Caracalla’s father, Septimius Severus). The gold earrings that Washington wears in “Gladiator II” aren’t simply Hollywood embellishment, however have been a conventional piercing for the Berber individuals of North Africa. A bust of the true Macrinus in Rome’s Corridor of the Emperors sports activities comparable earrings. He was by no means a slave, however he was the primary ever member of the equestrian class (roughly equal to knights in medieval Europe) to develop into emperor of Rome — and that was controversial on the time.
In line with historian Edward Gibbon, Macrinus was a person of “artful ambition” who used his enterprise savvy to raised himself to a excessive place in Caracalla’s court docket. After discovering out that he’d in some way ended up on the emperor’s hit record, Macrinus persuaded a soldier with a grudge in opposition to Caracalla to stab him within the again whereas he “had stopped on the street for some vital warning” (that is historian for “pee break”).Â
Macrinus is the ultimate villain of “Gladiator II,” however historical past remembers him extra fondly, as the person who lastly introduced an finish to Caracalla’s reign of blood and terror. Gibbon wrote that, upon studying of the previous emperor’s dying, the Roman senate initially “exulted of their surprising deliverance from a hated tyrant.” Nonetheless, they weren’t joyful about Macrinus being chosen as the brand new emperor by the military as a substitute of the senate, particularly since he was not himself a senator. He dominated for little greater than a 12 months earlier than being assassinated and changed with Geta and Caracalla’s cousin, Elagabalus.
