One of these is closer in likeness to the actual figure. Yeah you guessed it!

Dr David Dunkley Gyimah
2 min readAug 29, 2024

--

It’s a film, Gladiator II, that you’re likely looking forward to, starring Academy winner Denzel Washington as Emperor Macrinus. Now of course you’ve come to expect it by now the dome-heads and some critics lost it.

Film never claims to be representative of the past, and like Ridley Scott cares anyway. His last outing with Napoleon, he told critics, **ck em.

But one google click away, researching “Macrinus” reveals this passage on Wiki. It may not be the same Macrinus, but it’s some coincidence.

“Macrinus was born in Caesarea (modern Cherchell, Algeria) in the Roman province of Mauretania Caesariensis to an equestrian family of Berber origins.[2][3] According to David Potter, his family traced its origins to the Berber tribes of the region and his pierced ear was an indication of his Berber heritage.[4] He received an education which allowed him to ascend to the Roman political class.[5] Over the years, he earned a reputation as a skilled lawyer; and, under Emperor Septimius Severus, he became an important bureaucrat. Severus’ successor Caracalla later appointed him a prefect of the Praetorian Guard.[5][6]. Link here

A search for people of Berber origin yields the following

Notwist, CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Emperor Septimius Severus from Libya is a figure I wrote about couple of days ago regarding his Hadrian Wall sojourn.

But look at the two images side by side. The right image is from the Capitoline Museums in Piazza del Campidoglio, in Rome, Italy, you’d never guess Macrinus’ background.

--

--

Dr David Dunkley Gyimah
Dr David Dunkley Gyimah

Written by Dr David Dunkley Gyimah

Creative Technologist & Associate Professor. International Award Winner Cinema journalist. Ex BBC/C4News. Apple profiled Top Writer,