Rome. For centuries, the historical spectacle of the rise of Rome from its humble beginnings as a village on the River Tiber in Italy to become the model of a republic, then its transformation into an empire which ruled ancient Europe for centuries, to be followed by a slow disintegration, has fascinated scholars for over a thousand years, nearly as long as the empire existed. It has been used as an example, a metaphor, and a warning, countless times by philosophers, historians, jurists and religious leaders over the generations. Its legacy has reached out to our time and has retained such clarity that people today can envision that long dead symbol of greatness. We see the grandeur that was once Rome, and we also see its degeneracy and ultimate fall.
Rome has been as popular a subject for big budget cinema as any theme exploited by Hollywood. It's the greatest empire that's ever been done on film. Rome has been at the center of religious spectacles such as Ben-Hur, The Robe, King Of Kings and The Greatest Story Ever Told. It has featured in huge epics such as Cleopatra, in musicals such as A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum, and has been the subject of satire in Carry On Cleo and Monty Python And The Life Of Brian. In a more serious vein, the example of Rome has also been used as a vehicle to tell the story of the fight for freedom and as political and social warning. The signal example of the former was, of course, Spartacus (1960). As for the latter, that story was conveyed in the 1964 epic, The Fall Of The Roman Empire.
Featuring a script touted to have been based upon the histories of Suetonius, Tacitus, Cassius Dio and Edward Gibbon's The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire, the movie tells its story of the beginning of Rome's degeneration. To help guide the production, the historian Will Durant was brought in as historical consultant. Durant, the author of the multi-volume The Story Of Civilization, drew material from Volume III of that series, Caesar And Christ, to provide screenwriters Ben Barzman and Basilio Franchina with scholarly backup for their story. What followed was, of course, not a completely accurate picture of Rome's steady fall in every historical detail but rather a sense of the dynamic behind that fall.
"Two of the greatest problems in history are how to account for the rise of Rome and how to account for her fall. We may come nearer to understanding the truth if we remember that the fall of Rome, like her rise, had not one cause but many. And it was not an event but a process spread over three-hundred years. Some nations have not lasted as long as Rome fell."
With this prologue, the audience is then launched into the moment this movie deems the beginning of that long process. The opening scene takes place on the Danube Frontier. Emperor Marcus Aurelius (Alec Guiness), perhaps the wisest of all Roman emperors and the living model of a true philosopher-king, has been leading Rome's armies in a ten year war against the Germanic tribes of the northern lands. Now in his late fifties, tired and aware that he is dying, the Emperor realizes that he has little time left to make a permanent change in the Empire in order to secure its future. Calling a conclave of his generals, provincial governors and proconsuls, as well as his allied tribal chieftains and kings, Aurelius intends that Rome shall pursue peaceful co-existence with the nationalities comprising the empire and those out beyond the borders of the empire, to create new "human frontiers" upon which a thousand year true Pax Romana may be based. It is a sweeping vision few in the Empire can comprehend, particularly his son and principal heir Commodus (Christopher Plummer), who believes the only reason the wars have lasted so long is because his father wasn't ruthless enough. Hiding his disappointment in the son who has never matured even after being given an army command of his own, Aurelius turns to his most trusted general, Gaius Metillus Livius (Stephen Boyd), to become his heir and assume the Imperial throne after his death. It is upon Livius that the old Emperor has pinned his hopes for the realization of his vision of a New Rome that would build a world of never-ending peace and prosperity. Livius shares the Emperor's vision but doubts he is the man to carry it out.
Unfortunately, Marcus Aurelius has even less time than he imagines. While the Emperor is trying to persuade Livius to become the next Caesar, several of his own officers who are cronies of Commodus realize the threat to their own positions should this New Rome ever materialize. Seeing how their own futures will be curtailed if Commodus is bypassed as heir, they decide that Aurelius must die and connive to feed Caesar a poisoned apple. The plot succeeds. Caesar dies before he can name Livius his heir and successor, and the throne ends up in the hands of Commodus.
At the funeral of the late emperor, Livius hands the torch over to Commodus and proclaims him "Undoubted Caesar", confirming him as Emperor before the entire Roman Army. Livius does this in order to ensure the peaceful transition of rulership and thereby neutralize any possibility of political chaos threatening the survival of the Empire. A grateful Commodus awards Livius' loyalty by naming him a consul and his colleague, to rule Rome jointly. With the support and strength of the respected commander of the Northern Army, the reign of Commodus should have gotten off to a proper start. He enjoys a triumphal return to Rome as the population hail him their new Emperor and vanquisher of the Germans, and the Senate proclaims his ascension to the throne before the whole nation.
Sadly, Commodus immediately begins living down to his late father's low expectations. A man obsessed with gladiators, games, and ruthless punishment toward all who defy his rule, he orders that the provinces shall send more wheat and gold to Rome even if they should be impoverished and reduced to famine as a result. Any province or tribe that resists, Commodus casually remarks, shall be destroyed. In every way, Commodus very quickly demonstrates that he is a man of very small vision and even smaller mind, who in no way should ever have become Emperor. Unfortunately, a large faction of the Senate are in agreement with Commodus' vision regarding the provincials, who are regarded by them as little better than slaves existing only to feed the ever growing appetites of Rome. They quickly attach themselves to Commodus to secure their own wealth and power. In the process, the honor and true glory of Rome, and the grand vision of its founders, is forgotten.
While Rome has been sinking under the weight of Commodus' degeneracy, Livius has been doing his best to make the vision of Marcus Aurelius a reality. Finally cornering the barbarian chieftain Ballomar (John Ireland), the wisdom and bravery of Livius' trusted aide, the Greek philosopher and teacher Timonides (James Mason), sways him and his people into accepting the peace offer Livius has made to them in Rome's name. Returning to the capital, Livius and Timonides succeed in persuading the Senate, despite itself, to accept the peace plan and allow the barbarian peoples to settle in the abandoned farmlands and villages of the northern frontiers and to become Romans. This enrages Commodus, who sees the peace as a personal defeat for himself. He exiles Livius to the outmarches, never to return to Rome again. But when Commodus' actions spark revolt in the East, he hastily recalls Livius to assume command of the remaining loyal armies which have not joined in rebellion. Livius warns Commodus not to give him that kind of power, which he could easily use to lead a military coup, but Commodus dismisses the warning, convinced that the gods are with him. Livius can see clearly that the Emperor is a megalomaniac, but his first duty is to save Rome from the revolt in the East, which threatens to open the door to a Persian invasion if the tribes make alliance with Rome's great rival.
But even as Livius is fighting to save Rome, Commodus is destroying it. He sets his legions to exterminate the barbarian tribespeople Livius made peace with, burning out their villages and taking captive all those who were not massacred. The noble Timonides is killed in one of the attacks, and Ballomar and his people are dragged off to Rome, to be sacrificed to its newest god, Commodus. The very mad emperor proclaims new festivals and games to entertain the people, who quickly fall into revelry, blindly celebrating their own degradation and that of their nation.
Livius succeeds in quelling the revolt, aided by the Roman legions which had first mutinied but then switched sides when the Persians attacked Livius' army. As Livius leads his troops back, a trail of devastation greets their sight. They pass through village after village destroyed by Commodus. Livius now realizes that the only way to save Rome is to overthrow Commodus. But he resolves to go into Rome himself to give Commodus one last chance to abdicate before he orders his army to march into the city and remove him by force. Returning to Rome, Livius is horrified to discover that the Senate is begging permission of the Emperor to rename the city Commodus and the Roman Empire the Empire of Commodus. Livius then makes his last appeal:
"Honorable Fathers of Rome, what have you done? What have you become? You are the Senate of the people of Rome! The voice, the conscience of the Empire! Stand up! Rid yourselves of this man who has imperiled the life of the Empire! The Northern Army is at the gates of Rome. The army will support you."
Livius' words go unheard. Even while he is being denounced as a traitor to Rome by the Senate, Commodus has sent aides to bribe Livius' troops with gold. Not having been paid in months, the soldiers and officers start grabbing at the gold being tossed to them. Livius' legions disintegrate.
Commodus, who has long fancied himself the greatest gladiator of all time, decides to challenge Livius to a duel to the death in the Forum, with the lives of the Germanic provinicals, chained up to be burned alive upon a vast sacrificial pyre, at stake. If Livius wins, he wins their lives and the throne of Rome in the bargain. Surrounded by legionnaires who form an enclosed shield wall for the combat, the fight begins. But even as Livius and Commodus battle, one Roman senator who had been a loyal supporter of Commodus approaches Victorinus, Livius' former tribune, to bribe him into killing the winner and then proclaim him the new Emperor. He quite literally bids for the throne, upping each offer by a half-million dinars. Meanwhile, Livius finally kills Commodus. But with his dying breath, the Emperor manages to order the tribespeople burned. Torches land on the pyres, and before Livius can do much of anything, they are consumed in the flames. Livius then confronts the treacherous officer and senator on the podium, who are ready to proclaim him emperor. Disgusted, exhausted by the combat and demoralized by all his efforts coming to nothing, he contemptuously rejects the throne and leaves Rome to its fate. The senator then continues bidding for the throne. "Emperor of the greatest empire in history? From Britain to Egypt? Ruler of the world?" says an incredulous Victorinus as the senator ups his bid to three million. At the very end of the movie, Rome has literally become a commodity to be bought and sold, with no one left to care about the nation at all.
Now, The Fall Of The Roman Empire, as said before, takes some liberties with the actual history. Events are severely compressed and some significant details are altered. Commodus actually reigned for eleven years before his assassination. Commodus' successor, Pertinax, was assassinated by the Praetorian Guard in CE 193 after sitting only three months on the throne when his attempted reforms of that body were deemed by them a threat to their own power. The immediate successor of Pertinax, Didius Julianus, was the man who literally bought the throne from the Praetorians for a bribe of 25,000 sesterces. Julianus would himself survive only nine weeks on that throne before Septimus Severus deposed him in a military coup and had him executed for treason. After his death, Septimus' tyrannical son Caracalla became Emperor, with his misrule helping to set Rome on the path toward the Crisis of the Third Century, as it is known in history.
Despite how the movie plays fast and loose with historical detail, however, it does indeed present to the audience a memorable picture of Rome's slide from grand empire to degenerate spectacle. We see the loss of belief in the overarching vision of Rome. We witness the demoralization of the people, the Senate, and the army. Parallel to this, the audience watches the rise of intellectually and emotionally immature men heedless of the destruction they will cause while grasping for a false vision of glory based only upon force and the hoarding of wealth. The resulting cinematic tapestry reveals a picture of how these forces all combined to drain Rome of its vitality and its moral power. The movie shows how an increasingly debauched Rome became more violent and corrupt as excesses went unchecked, and how the very institutions which had been established to safeguard the political life of Rome instead were turned into instruments of its destruction. The scenes depicting a Roman population celebrating the death of their once great nation are rather frightening to witness. Because when a people no longer can be bothered to care about their own society, there is no longer any kind of society worth fighting for and nothing any one person can do will save it, as Livius finally came to realize for himself. And for those who look to Rome as an object lesson, it is very tempting to see in current events some very uncomfortable parallels between Rome's downfall and our own situation in the present day.
"This then 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."
