Was Lucilla from Gladiator real? What her tragically short life tells us about women in ancient Rome

Lucilla in Gladiator and Gladiator II

In Gladiator (2000), Lucilla, played with great depth and intensity by Connie Nielsen, is the daughter of emperor Marcus Aurelius (Richard Harris) and sister to Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix).

She’s caught between loyalty to her father’s vision of a republic and her complex relationship with her increasingly unhinged brother Commodus, who becomes Roman emperor after their father’s death. Over time, she subtly aids the betrayed general Maximus Decimus Meridius (Russell Crowe) in his quest for revenge, eventually ensuring Commodus's well-deserved downfall.

She reappears in the newly released sequel, Gladiator II, and while we won’t spoil the plot for you – you can do that yourself with our spoiler-filled assessment of Gladiator II’s historical accuracy – she’s central to the action again, not least because this time it’s her son Lucius stepping into Maxiumus’s sandals. Or you can watch our spoiler-free historian reaction before scrolling down:

However, the real-life Lucilla didn’t survive her role in the attempt to overthrow Commodus. She was banished, then executed; she was only around 34 years old when she died in AD 182.

Her bold attempt to influence Roman politics means she makes several appearances in the works of Roman historians like Cassius Dio, who usually didn’t concern themselves with telling the stories of ‘mere’ women.

But by putting her head above the parapet in the (fatal) way she did, she offered a vital insight into what life was like for Roman women at that time.

Who were Lucilla’s husbands?

Lucilla’s early years were, in many ways, typical for a Roman woman at any level of society, in that she was subject to an arranged marriage while still just a teenager.

Her father Marcus Aurelius promised her to his co-emperor, Lucius Verus, when she was around 11 years of age. They were married three years later. Lucius Verus was 34, while Lucilla would have only been about 14.

This exemplifies how even elite women were political pawns; tools used to cement vital alliances. Lower-class Roman women didn’t have much choice when it came to husbands, either: their fathers or guardians usually chose their spouses, too.

However, they did get to participate in Roman society to a larger extent; contributing to the household economy by going out into the world and taking jobs, for example market workers, seamstresses or midwives.

The physician Soranus, who wrote in the early second century AD, makes it clear that midwives were held in particularly lofty regard, as child mortality in ancient Rome was staggeringly high by modern standards.

The death of a woman in labour, or her baby, was an all-too-common occurrence. Christian Laes, an expert on children in the Roman empire, estimates that between 30-35 per cent of newborns did not survive the first month and less than 50 per cent reached 15.

Elite women weren’t immune to these grim statistics. Ancient sources such as the Historia Augusta mention that Lucilla bore Lucius Verus several daughters. One of these daughters was reportedly betrothed to Commodus, Lucilla's younger brother and future emperor. However, the engagement did not lead to marriage, with the likely reason being the child's death.

Lucius Verus also died a few years after he and Lucilla were married at the age of around 38, in March AD 169.

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His death stripped Lucilla of her title of empress. However, she wasn’t permitted to stay single for very long. Her father quickly married her to a favoured general, Tiberius Claudius Pompeianus. The marriage folded Pompeianus into the imperial family and was, again, a political move: a way for Marcus Aurelius to solidify his vital ties with the military.

What did Lucilla think about all of this? It’s impossible to know for sure. But the powerlessness she must have felt as she was gifted to another man shortly after the death of her husband, and the reduction in her social must have been hard to swallow.

Did Lucilla have a son called Lucius?

Yes, in fact she had two sons called Lucius, which makes pinpointing which one appears in the Gladiator movies all the more difficult.

Lucilla had three children with her first husband Lucius Verus, two daughters and a son, who confusing was also called Lucius Verus. He would have been an heir to the Roman empire as Lucius is in the original Gladiator, but he died as a child, around the same time as his father.

But Lucilla had another son with her second husband, Tiberius Claudius Pompeianus, and his name was Lucius Aurelius Commodus Pompeianus; this Lucius may have survived into the period in which Gladiator II is set – AD 211, which we know because this only year that co-emperors Caracalla and Geta rule together.

Did the real Lucilla plot against Commodus?

Yes she did, and one of the more detailed sources we have about Lucilla’s decision to plot against Commodus comes from the historian Herodian – who we need to take with a pinch of salt.

He came after Cassius Dio and has been accused of altering Dio’s original Roman History to make it – essentially – livelier. He’d have made a good soap opera writer if he’d lived in modern times.

“When Commodus married Crispina, custom demanded that the front seat at the theater be assigned to the empress. Lucilla found this difficult to endure, and felt that any honor paid to the empress was an insult to her; but since she was well aware that her husband Pompeianus was devoted to Commodus, she told him nothing about her plans to seize control of the empire.”

Heroditan is essentially saying that Lucilla decided to kill her brother because, after he got married, she could no longer sit in her favourite spot at the theatre, which possibly seems extreme.

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However, what’s relevant about this story is how it again highlights Lucilla’s almost complete lack of agency. Elite women, and women in general, were completely shut out of Roman political life, which must have been even harder to bear if you were at the heart of it. They couldn’t vote, and couldn’t hold public office in the Roman empire. But that didn’t mean Lucilla had no influence at all.

Elite Roman women had one advantage lower born women did not: access to some of the Empire’s most powerful men. They could use this access to their advantage in an attempt to turn their views, wishes and ideas into reality.

This wasn’t a new development, either. Writing about politics in the Late Republic (133-27 BC) classicist Sir Ronald Syme notes: "the daughters of the nobilitas could not be cheated of the real and secret power that comes from influence. They count for more than does the average senator.”

How did Lucilla try to overthrow Commodus?

It seems that Lucilla followed in the footsteps of her female ancestors, as both Cassius Dio and Heroditan agree that she did, indeed, plot to overthrow Commodus – and she enlists the help of some senators (but no gladiators) to do so.

Dio says that Lucilla persuaded senator Claudius Pompeianus Quintianus to do it, while Herodian spins a tale of secret, murderous love affairs that wouldn’t be out of place in an episode of reality TV:

“(Lucilla) was well aware that her husband Pompeianus was devoted to Commodus… instead, she tested the sentiments of a wealthy young nobleman, Quadratus, with whom she was rumored to be sleeping in secret… Quadratus… prevailed upon Quintianus, a bold and reckless young senator, to conceal a dagger beneath his robe and, watching for a suitable time and place, to stab Commodus.”

Whether it was Pompeianus, Quadratus or Quintianus – whoever actually tried to assassinate Commodus wasn’t successful in doing anything other than making him very, very angry.

Dio says that Lucilla was first banished to Capri, and later executed there. She was only in her mid-30s, and had paid the ultimate price for trying to be more than just a pawn; moved around the board against her will to suit the very specific political needs of a deeply patriarchal society.

Hilary Mitchell is a journalist with a Masters degree in Classics from Edinburgh University, where she specialised in the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age of Greece

Gladiator II is in cinemas now. For more content like this, check out our best historical movies of all time, the historical TV series and films streaming now, and our picks of the new history TV and radio released in the UK this week.