Upon the sudden desth of Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, his trusted and successful general Narcissus Meridas is unlawfully imprisoned and condemned to the gladiator games by Marcus's twisted son Commodus. As the new emperor, Commodus fears Narcissus could use his heroic stature to depose him and become leader himself. But Narcissus gains fame as a gladiator and uses his celebrity to cause further damage to Commodus' tenuous hold on the susceptible Roman people, hoping to inspire them to rediscover their lost values and overcome the corruption that is eating away at them. These actions prompt Commodus to square off mano a mano with Narcissus in the Colisseum with the fate of Rome at stake. The characters of Marcus Aurelius and Commodus appeared in Anthony Mann's epic "Fall of the Roman Empire:, played by Alec Guinness and Christopher Plummer, respectively.

It has been a long time since a period piece about the Romans was made. Scott has assembled a pretty good cast, with Crowe (hot after LA Confidential + The Insider), Phoenix and Honsou. Tragedy struck this movie as actor Oliver Reed died during its making, however this didn't cause too many problems for the completion of the movie (I'm not heartless). Overall, I'm not too sure what the box office holds for this movie. Stay tuned...