Factual error: In reality, Commodus did not die in the arena - he was strangled in his apartments in 192 A.D. by an athlete who was hired by a group of Senators conspiring against him.
The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964)
1 factual error - chronological order
Directed by: Anthony Mann
Starring: James Mason, Alec Guinness, Sophia Loren, Stephen Boyd
Factual error: In reality, Commodus did not die in the arena - he was strangled in his apartments in 192 A.D. by an athlete who was hired by a group of Senators conspiring against him.
Closing Narrator: This was the beginning of the fall of the Roman Empire. A great civilization is not conquered from without, until it has destroyed itself from within.
Trivia: Alec Guinness plays Marcus Aurelius, the father of Commodus (Christopher Plummer). In real life, Guinness was only 15 years older than Plummer.
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