Carl Rubino, The Edward North Professor of Classics, presented a paper, "Rome Outside the Beltway: Gladiator and the History of 'Roman Films' in America," at the Ancient Modern Relations section of the annual meeting of the Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association, at Pepperdine University in November.
He argued that Hollywood's "Roman epics" are as much about the America of their times as they are about ancient Rome. Focusing on the 1960 film Spartacus and Gladiator, which was released in 2000, he concluded that Gladiator steps away from its predecessors by echoing the widespread feeling that Washington's "inside the beltway" culture is destroying our nation and that America's salvation, like Rome's, lies "outside the beltway," in the good people of an imagined "heartland."
