The Eagle Inaccuracies
The film, The Eagle, follows a Roman named Marcus Flavius Aquila, played by Channing Tatum, on a quest to retrieve the eagle standard of the lost 9th legion. It is in part a personal quest by Aquila due to his father being the commander of the legion and the one to lose the eagle standard. He is joined by a slave named Esca played by Jamie Bell. It follows Aquila where he started out as the commander in a base in Britain. The base is attacked and he manages to save a group of soldiers who were taken hostage. In the process, he was wounded and from there was given an honorable discharge. He is sent to his Uncle Aquila’s villa, Aquila played by Donald Sutherland, and recuperates from there. Marcus hears rumors of the eagle being seen and sets
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The first inaccuracies was the lighting situation. In some scenes they used Roman lamps like in the scene were Marcus is praying to Mithras and when Marcus and his uncle are eating dinner with the two gentlemen. In other scenes, torches are also used when inside which is inaccurate. Another inaccuracy was the use of chairs during dinner. During dinner, people would recline upon beds with their left arm on the bed supporting them and the right arm being used to pick up food. With the characters being seated in chairs, they use bother arms to pick up their food. The food eaten during dinner was partly accurate. Their dinner consisted of boiled eggs and fish in Roman society, these were some options for people to eat. The main discrepancy was that Roman dinner or Cena was eaten at midday and in the film, it was pitch dark outside. It doesn’t get dark that early in the afternoon leading to the conclusion that the dinner that was eaten in the film took place significantly later than the normal Roman dinner time. Marcus and his Uncle also have slaves as seen with Esca and Stephanos. Slavery was a practice in Rome and so there would be slaves. Slaves could also be freed in Roman society, called manumission. Typically it took a lot more work than just saying “You’re free” like in the film. So the practice of freeing slaves was accurate but it would take more work. It
The first inaccuracies was the lighting situation. In some scenes they used Roman lamps like in the scene were Marcus is praying to Mithras and when Marcus and his uncle are eating dinner with the two gentlemen. In other scenes, torches are also used when inside which is inaccurate. Another inaccuracy was the use of chairs during dinner. During dinner, people would recline upon beds with their left arm on the bed supporting them and the right arm being used to pick up food. With the characters being seated in chairs, they use bother arms to pick up their food. The food eaten during dinner was partly accurate. Their dinner consisted of boiled eggs and fish in Roman society, these were some options for people to eat. The main discrepancy was that Roman dinner or Cena was eaten at midday and in the film, it was pitch dark outside. It doesn’t get dark that early in the afternoon leading to the conclusion that the dinner that was eaten in the film took place significantly later than the normal Roman dinner time. Marcus and his Uncle also have slaves as seen with Esca and Stephanos. Slavery was a practice in Rome and so there would be slaves. Slaves could also be freed in Roman society, called manumission. Typically it took a lot more work than just saying “You’re free” like in the film. So the practice of freeing slaves was accurate but it would take more work. It