The Real Story of Geta and Caracalla, the Roman Brother Emperors in Gladiator II

Warning: This post contains spoilers for Gladiator II.

The drama in Ridley Scott’s Gladiator II, out Nov. 22, not only takes place in the Colosseum arena floor, but also in the stands, between the emperors Geta and his older brother, Caracalla, played by Joseph Quinn and Fred Hechinger, respectively. Geta and Caracalla were real emperors, and the movie takes place during their joint rule, from 209-211.

But not much is known about the brothers and their short reign. According to Mary Beard, classicist and author of Emperor of Rome: Ruling the Ancient Roman World, most of that time would have been spent in transit to Rome from present-day York, U.K., where their father Septimius Severus had died.

Some contemporary accounts suggest that they did some scheming. “In one of the sources, it even says that they had a plan to split the Empire in the middle,” says Andrew Scott, a professor of Classical Studies at Villanova University. “One of them would take the eastern half, and one of them would take the western half.”

But that didn’t happen. Throughout the film, they spend their reign carousing and watching gladiator fights in the Colosseum. Then Caracalla turns on his brother, murdering him, and parading his head around the Roman Senate. Caracalla is indeed believed to have murdered Geta in 211.

“It is said that Geta was with his mum when he was killed, and, as the story goes, he clung to his mum's lap, saying, as his last words, ‘Mummy, mummy, I’m being killed,’” Beard says.

Read more: What Gladiator II Gets Right and Wrong About Real Fights in the Colosseum

Why Caracalla killed Geta is also unclear. “All of the sources that we have about Caracalla depict him as an evil maniac who was responsible for having his brother murdered soon after they took power together,” says Villanova’s Scott. There is nothing in the historical record to suggest that Geta did anything to deserve becoming the victim of the “evilness of his brother.” 

“It's anybody's guess what causes the apparent hatred between Caracalla and Geta,” says Beard. She points out that accounts of their relationship are not considered reliable.

It is thought that Caracalla spent most of his reign outside of Rome. In the film, he appoints a miniature pet monkey “first counsel,” and while there’s no evidence that happened, it seems to be a nod to a different Roman emperor Caligula, who, according to legend, threatened to appoint his horse counsel before he was assassinated.

Caracalla gets his, in the end. He was murdered in 217 while among his most trusted soldiers, campaigning in the eastern part of the Roman Empire. According to Beard, “he's assassinated while he's having a pee on the road.”