Dumb Things We Believe About Ancient Societies Because Of Hollywood

1. Roman Gladiators Were All Male, Slaves, And Battled To The Death

The Trope: Every gladiator who entered an arena was an enslaved man who battled to the death.

Why Is It Inaccurate? Despite being banned from the arena in 200 AD, Roman law initially allowed women to fight other women in spectator battles. And while the events began with criminal executions, professional gladiators rarely lost their lives.

Ancient Romans treated their fighters much like modernday boxers and mixed martial arts fighters, and had referees that ensured a fair fight. Fatalities certainly occurred, but many gladiators who lost their lives did so because they either gave up or weren't pardoned by the Emperor after losing the battle.

Because Romans treated these fighters like professional athletes, many free men and women chose to attend Gladiator schools to train and fight in arenas and amphitheaters.

Notable Offenders: Gladiator, Spartacus, Rome (series)

Warriors Wore Kilts And Painted Their Faces Blue For War In 13th Century Scotland
The Trope: During William Wallace's time, Scottish men painted their faces blue and dressed in kilts for war.

Why Is It Inaccurate? The Scottish Picts did paint their faces blue in an attempt to scare off their Roman enemies, but the tradition ended long before William Wallace and his men during the first Scottish war for independence. They most likely didn't wear kilts in battle, either, because kilts hadn't been invented yet.

Instead, Scottish warriors wore tunics to battle, colored with whatever dye ingredients were available. Saffron was the most popular color for elites and nobles, and common people tried to recreate the expensive color by soaking their clothes in anything from crushed leaves to horse urine. Once the tunic was the correct shade of yellow, warriors secured it with a belt around the waist and pulled a cowhide or deerskin jerkin on top to protect against harsh weather.

Notable Offenders: Braveheart

Persian Women Wore Skimpy Clothes
The Trope: Women in ancient Persia wore skimpy, revealing clothing.

Why Is It Inaccurate? Persian women were required by law to cover their entire bodies completely. Clothing started at the neck and traveled all the way down to a woman's feet. The dresses were never too tight or too loose, and some women chose to accent their clothing with metal strips that accentuated their shapes.

Though outfits were almost always made from chiffon, fashion and law required that outfits contain many layers of the fabric to look opaque. Often, the brightly colored fabrics were also embroidered and hand woven. The most common style of clothing was the Burqa.

Notable Offenders: Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, The Scorpion King, The Golden Voyage of Sinbad

Roman Upper-Class Women Were Considered Equals And Had Political Power
The Trope: Upper-class women were free to walk around town by themselves and had an active role in politics.

Why Is It Inaccurate? Upper-class Roman women weren't allowed to walk in the city streets alone, and rarely had any political influence. Most women in the Roman Empire were defined by the men in their lives, weren't allowed to vote or hold office, and devoted their lives to being wives and mothers.

If they received any education at all, it was a basic one, and females were expected to obey the male authority. Even the wealthiest Roman women didn't hold roles in public life; instead of participating in political debates, they worked to maintain the perfect traditional role in the household. Though some owned their own businesses, most worked as cloth spinners and homemakers.

Additionally, the clothing of Roman women in film is usually portrayed as far less conservative than what they actually wore. Roman women of means were usually covered from head to toe, in sharp contrast to the revealing outfits depicted in Gladiator or HBO's Rome.

Notable Offenders: Pompeii, Gladiator, Rome (series), Domina, Ben-Hur (2016)

The Mayans Were Blood-Thirsty, Violent Savages
The Trope: Mayans were uncivilized heathens who lived in stick huts, hunted and sold people living in other primitive villages, and committed mass murders for sacrificial rituals.

Why Is It Inaccurate? Even during the Classic period (CE 250 to 900), Mayans lived in cities in homes with stone foundations. There's no historical evidence that the Maya living within these city centers ever hunted and captured others to sell as enslaved people. Even the smaller villages were deeply tied to political groups in more populated areas.

While other indigenous tribes, like the Aztecs, sacrificed hundreds of people on column-shaped stones, archaeologists have never found evidence suggesting that Maya participated in such gruesome practices.

Though Mayan culture did torture their political adversaries by tearing off fingernails and exposing their genitalia, the practice was more about making a public statement to their enemies than providing an afternoon's entertainment, as movies suggest.

Notable Offenders: Apocalypto, The Fountain, Kings of the Sun

Ancient Egypt Was Full Of White People
The Trope: Ancient Egyptian rulers and nobility were primarily white people who had nonwhite subjects and servants.

Why Is It Inaccurate? Hollywood often chooses white actors and actresses to play leading roles in films concerning Ancient Egypt. However, the northeastern African country was a culturally diverse, ethnically-mixed population who probably more closely resembled today's nonwhite, Black, and Arab film stars.

Egyptian art featured men, women, and children with olive, reddish, and yellow skin tones, and Greek writers often referred to Egyptians as having dark skin. While Egypt was one of the first places where ethnically diverse populations regularly interacted, experts argue that no research suggests that the country's population evolved outside of Africa. Additionally, Egyptians embraced the region's cultural diversity and didn't have a class system based on skin color.

Though Hollywood claims that there aren't enough mixed-race and nonwhite actors to fulfill leading roles in the industry, diversity researchers argue that film producers still believe only white-dominated casts can produce big box office profits.

Notable Offenders: Cleopatra, Exodus: Gods and Kings, The Mummy, Gods of Egypt

Everyone Was Constantly Covered In Filth
The Trope: The entire world was a lice-infested, flea-infected, filth-covered population.

Why Is It Inaccurate? From ancient times into the Middle Ages, humans have a history of wanting to keep clean. Ancient Egyptians invented deodorant, always wore freshly laundered linen, and washed their cups and serving ware before using them.

The fees to gain entry into Ancient Roman bathhouses were so small that even the poor could afford to keep clean, and did. While the rich had more facilities and were, therefore, able to maintain an even higher level of hygiene, even the empire's enslaved people washed every day. The heated bathhouses also had piped water, flushable toilets, and handwashing stations.

Although many peasants didn't have access to running water in the Middle Ages, washing the hands and face was considered common daily practice. Canals and fountains brought relatively fresh water to the urban populations, and some castles had piping within their walls to transport water from cisterns to the kitchens.

Notable Offenders: Pretty much all modern historical epics, and Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Opposing Armies Charged At Each Other In Giant, Disorganized Mobs
The Trope: There were no battle tactics or order when opposing armies fought each other in war.

Why Is It Inaccurate? According to experts, two armies running head-on into one another isn't ideal for battle and most likely wouldn't have happened in an actual fighting scenario. Despite movies that depict fighters as savage soldiers who charge at their enemies with no regard for order, their military units were highly sophisticated and used disciplined formations during battle.

Though infantry units most likely did run toward the enemy screaming at the beginning of the fight, it was more of a tactic to get them beyond their initial mortal fear of the upcoming events than a war strategy. Once they reached the enemy, armies slowed down to attack one another face to face in even lines.

Notable Offenders: Kingdom of Heaven, Troy, Braveheart, Robin Hood (2010), Alexander, 300

Vikings Spent All Their Time Raiding And Waging War
The Trope: Vikings were basically a nomadic culture whose only jobs were to raid and wage war on their neighbors.

Why Is It Inaccurate? Even the term “viking” is misleading, since the word describes a type of behavior, not a singular culture. Scandinavian peoples would leave their homes to go “a viking” during the summertime, which could mean raiding coastlines, but also trading for goods or enlisting as mercenaries to foreign powers. But what did these northern peoples do during the rest of the year?

Surviving in what is now Denmark, Norway, and Sweden was arduous and taxing work. Most Scandinavian communities lived and survived on community farms. Most of these farms raised enough cattle and vegetables to feed the entire farm population, and cold winters meant that the community members had to grow enough hay to ensure the animals were safe and warm indoors during bad weather.

Farmers grew rye, barley, and oats, while women tended to vegetable gardens consisting of cabbages, onions, garlic, leeks, turnips, and beans. Between plowing, sowing, harvesting crops, mending broken fences, cleaning out animal stalls, and feeding livestock, most men, women, and children worked on the farm year-round.

Notable Offenders: The 13th Warrior, Outlander, Erik the Viking, How to Train Your Dragon, Beowulf

Gold Coins Were Huge And Prevalent In Every Century
The Trope: Ancient societies often carried giant gold coins for currency, jewelry, and cultural rituals.

Why Is It Inaccurate? Whether the film is set in Ancient Greece, Rome, or Egypt, it's doubtful that any of the characters featured in historical fiction used huge gold coins in their daily lives.

Ancient documents place the Trojan War somewhere between 1334 to 1135 BCE, with modern experts identifying 1180 BCE as the most likely date of the events. At the time, gold coins didn't exist (so no one would be laying coins on soldiers' eyes à la Troy). Ancient Romans living when Spartacus was alive used jewels and serving ware made from precious metals as payment.

The massive currency used as a gratuity in Gladiator was enough money for a legionary's entire year's worth of pay. Cleopatra never coined her own currency, and the fantasy coinage shown in 300 was greatly exaggerated compared to the actual money used during the period.

Hollywood rarely considers the historical accuracy and uses of money when filming because the props are harder to see compared to the costumes and architectural design.

Notable Offenders: Troy, Gladiator, 300

Dumb Things We Believe About Ancient Societies Because Of Hollywood

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