In the Eagle, the disappearance of the Ninth Legion gives a fictional character, Lucious Flavious, the undying fire to find the missing legion and eagle. His drive for finding lost legion was for his father and his family’s honor. He struggles with the lack of support from Emperor Hadrian and his leading officials. Flavious set off to be a general of an army in Britain so that he could be stationed near the location of where the Ninth Legion disappeared under his father’s rule. Shortly after, a crazed Druid and his barbarian tribe bombarded Flavious and his army. Flavious was injured badly in this battle and was sent to his uncle to heal. He was relieved from the army with an honorary discharge. He then takes his uncle’s servant, Esca, with …show more content…
The movie gave a false representation of historical facts regarding chariots, time periods, tribes, apparel, characters, location and even the overall history of the Ninth Legion. First, the Eagle represents war chariots as a fully loaded combat machine with spinning blades firing from the sides. However, in reality, chariots were just carts on two wheels pulled by horses. The chariot was only to carry the higher end warriors during battle. The warrior was the one who did the fighting, not the chariot. Most warriors would actually leave their chariots soon after the fighting began. The chariots were not used for extreme combat weapons, but merely for transportation. Another major inaccuracy the movie got by with was the time frame of the missing Ninth Legion. The movie depicts their disappearance around A.D 140. However, the last piece of evidence of the Ninth Legion was earlier in the A.D one hundreds. The last known location of the Ninth Legion was in York dated in A.D 108. That is thirty-two year difference in the time period that the movie depicted. Time is a very important factor when it comes to history because a lot of social and political changes occur throughout small gaps of …show more content…
In the Eagle, the movie was shot in Scotland and Hungary. The movie setting was shown to be in Rome and the outskirts of Britain. However, the last documented location of the Ninth Legion was in York. The Ninth Legion did enter a battle in Britain, however that was not the last that was seen of the Ninth Legion. Also, even though the movie did well on exhibiting some of the ancient Roman attire, some of the apparel was not accurate regarding historical findings. For example, in the movie Flavious wore a breastplate with an abdominal six pack plastered to the outside. Also, the armor and clothing in the movie was brown in color. The Roman apparel in this time period actually wore armor with solid breastplates and the traditional colors of their equipment were red and an off
Prior to Augustus’s reforms, when legions were raised, they were comprised almost entirely of Italian recruits. This was out of the question with this new standing army, and filling the ranks with Italians gave way to supplementing legions with local auxiliaries, then later integrating these Romanised locals into a legions structure proper.5 This action undertaken by Augustus seems to have had ramifications as the centuries progressed, with the percentage of Italian born recruits steadily dropping, to the point where by the time of Hadrian, there were almost not Italians serving in the legions. Augustus’s methods of recruiting elsewhere to support the strength of his legions became so successful that they became the primary method of filling the requirements of the Empires new professional
While it made for a good opening scene during the movie overall it’s not very historically accurate. During my research of The Siege
The Roman military was arguably the most important factor in Rome’s illustrious history. Using your knowledge of Rome’s military from the video, text, and the document provided, make an argument for why the Roman military was so successful.
"Nike." Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th Edition 1. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed November 6, 2009).
The Portrayal of War in Charge of the Light Brigade and Dulce et Decorum Est
The Roman army is the representation of the empire’s strength, responsible for the creation, conquests, and glory of the ancient Roman Empire. It is no secret the might of the roman army came from the superior training, experience, and equipment of its individual soldiers. There were many brilliant and no so brilliant generals that owe their success and accomplishments to their battle hardened armies, but the unsung heroes are the advanced medical practices and innovations that allowed the soldiers to recover from their wounds and return to the fight. Roman military medicine was vastly superior to their enemies and is largely responsible for making sure the Roman army efficiently recovered from their wounds and returned to their duties on the battlefield.
Johnson, Michael P., and James L. Roark. "4." No Chariots Let Down. 1. ed. North Carolina: University of North Carolina, 1984. 53. Print.
Outward appearance was extremely important to the Romans and the first thing that new recruits learned was to march in perfect form. Once they knew how to march they were then assigned to the legions in which they would remain for the next 20 years of service. (the book) The legions were made up of between 5000 and 5500 men. In a legion there were 10 Cohorts and in those Cohorts there were 6 Centuries. Auxiliary troops, although not usually counted as part of a legion, were part of a legion and could raise the number of men from around 5000 to 6000. The number of legions active in the empire was consistently between 25 and 33. (internet, http://museum.simplenet.com/rome/military/military.htm) The average year for auxiliaries to serve was 25 years or less. After about 20 years in the legions they “graduated” to a veteran cohort, and continued service there for about 5 years. The soldiers who completed their 25 years of military service to Rome were given a “diploma” made of bronze. It was actually a record of their service throughout the years and a copy was kept in soldier’s files in Rome. (the book)
The movie starts off in a snowy landscape where you see a Roman soldier, introduced as Quintus Dias, fleeing from Pictish Warriors that had captured him in a Roman fort raid. Just as Dias was found by the Pictish people, soldiers from the Ninth Legion saved him and took him in as a Roman soldier. The Ninth Legion had been sent out by Gnaeus Julius Agricola, the Roman governor of Britannia, to get rid of Pictish threat and to help obtain favor with the Roman Senate. Etain, a Celtic Brigantian scout, was the female appointed, under General Titus Falvius Virilus, to guide the legion through battle with the Pict people. However, Etain betrays the legion by leading them to a Pict ambush where almost the entire legion is destroyed. The group of 7 that survived (including Quintus Dias) set out to rescue the General, who had been captured by the Picts.
As shown in document 2 written by the Roman historian, Vegtius, it declares, “But when, because of negligence and laziness, parade ground drills were abandoned, the customary armor began to seem heavy since the soldiers rarely ever wore it.” this proves that the Roman soldiers became lazy and weren’t able to fight. The document also says, “So our soldiers fought the Goths without any protection for chest and head and were often beaten by archers.” which caused them to lose many battles and the soldiers thought about running instead of fighting the opposing team. The military also became less willing to follow orders given to them and they also became unreliable to their government.
Hollywood is known for changing details of historical events in movies. Sometimes preserving historical accuracy is simply too complicated, unimportant, or confusing to replicate. The Eagle is a prime example of this, as there are many examples of details that had to be changed due to the aforementioned constraints. However, there are also many facets of the movie that do abide to the events in history – or at least do so well enough to not be an issue. In The Eagle, the events that exemplify such accuracies and inaccuracies are: the purpose of the Hadrian’s Wall, the utilization of the Roman Salute, and the notion of a “thumbs down” signifying death for a Roman gladiator.
...al events. Some events that happened in the film, didn't actually happen in history. Especially the whole romantic theme, though the scenes with romance helped develop the plot of the film, and to elaborate on the film's themes and message. Although the film seems to be mostly inaccurate, it still held some historical accuracy.
This causes the horses to kick back at the chariot and make it difficult to ride. However, after some testing a fix is found. By tightening the yolks to the harness, they prevent the mount from sliding back and change is noticeable. Throughout testing, the chariot is able to maneuver well through various terrains and is also able to move around tight corners with ease. The group gets the chariot to reach a speed of 24 mph, which is approximately 2 mph short of what a horse and a jockey normally reach. The simulated weapon test goes smoothly as well. The suspension works excellently and it is definitely possible for an experienced archer to effectively fire at enemy troops from a chariot. Also using tactics the Egyptians most likely would have used (hit and run approach) the chariot performs beautifully, allowing the archer to fire arrows with accuracy while riding toward the enemy, then maneuvering a sharp turn to prevent as little vulnerability as possible, and then allowing the archer to fire arrows while riding away from
The first reference to Julius comes from the city guard Flavius, as he tells his partner Marullus to walk through the streets and make the citizens go home as “these growing feathers plucked from Caesar’s wing, will make him fly an ordinary pitch,” (I,i, lines 73-74) It is worthy to note that the eagle is seen as a proud and majestic creature, and wa...
Foot-soldiers carrying spears and leather or wicker shields along with wearing copper helmets while others rode in chariots pulled by wild asses called onagers. Besides the normal two-wheeled chariots, four-wheel chariots also were used to transport soldiers.