picked up the second half... didn't see the first.
A good deal of Spartacus' military power was provided by dispossed Roman soldiers, unhappily settled on the countryside.
Anyway, yeah it does have that "hercules and xena feel). Undoubtldly this is due to the "TV-quality" shots: lots of "normal angle" shots, middling focus, shooting throughout midday to economize on time, way too much dialog concentrating on explaining the visual details, instead of adding a new dimension, -- in short, uninspired camera work and direction. Kinda like "the passion" come to think of it.
hmmm caligula was emperor when ? in the 40s (CE). Christians weren't that big then. Nero was the first emperor to really start persecuting Christians, blaming the fire of Rome on them, and then going after then in the late 60s.
The Colosseum (or more properly, the "Flavian Amphitheatre") was called the "Colosseum" because of the big-ass statue originally of Nero that was at the entrance when it was built. It was started by Vespasian and finished under his son Titus in the early eighties (CE).
Human torch was a novel form of execution, but it wasn't really used for night games. Executions were usually around noon.
Current estimates of Christians publically executed in amphitheatres put them at less than 1000. Ahh, but those were the good ol' days.
