By Jeffrey E. Schulman / Made by History December 20, 2024 11:00 AM EST A fter grossing almost $400 million, Gladiator II will become available to streaming audiences on Christmas Eve. This sequel to Ridley Scott’s 2000 epic substitutes the brother emperors Caracalla and Geta for the original’s Commodus, modeling them not only on him, but on a host of Rome’s other reputedly bloodthirsty despots like Caligula, Nero, and Domitian. These emperors’ grandiosity and disregard for social norms may