History ArtisticLicenseHistory / SpartacusBloodAndSand

* [[spoiler: Tiberius']] motivation for raping [[spoiler: Caesar]] and the latter's silence about it afterwards only make sense in a modern context. In Ancient Rome, the rape of any ''free-born citizen'' held the [[SeriousBusiness death penalty]] - and while the rape of an adult male wouldn't be directly punished through courts[[note]]Unlike the rape of a maiden, matron or any sexual contact between a man and a citizen boy who wasn't yet declared an adult, which usually happened at 15.[[/note]], the victim would be full within his rights to kill his attacker.[[note]] We have a historical case where a soldier got a ''medal'' for killing his superior officer while the latter tried to sexually assault him.[[/note]] And even if it came to a political scandal over this incident: [[spoiler: Caesar]] is the ''pater familias'' of an old, respected (though somewhat impoverished) noble house, with a young daughter to ally himself to another by engagement[[note]]He eventually marries her to Pompey, to cement the Triumvirate involving him, Pompey and Crassus.[[/note]], and has already served his country as a priest, minor official and by wiping out some pirates, whereas [[spoiler: Tiberius]] is the barely adult, completely undistinguished son of nouveau riche [[spoiler: Crassus]], whom the entire Senate hates for not "knowing his place". Who do you think they'd side with in a legal battle? Also, aside from signing his own death warrant and dooming his family, [[spoiler: Tiberius's]] threat of making the humilation public and thus harming [[spoiler: Caesar's]] reputation doesn't make sense with this particular victim, as the real [[spoiler:Caesar]] was rumored to have had an affair as a teenager with King Nicomedes of Bithynia while on a diplomatic mission (most historians doubt the rumor and think it was most likely concocted by his rivals in an attempt to discredit him—[[{{Troll}} or at least piss him off]], but you never know), leading his enemies to quip that he was "a man to any woman, and a woman to any man".[[note]]Which, despite general expectations that Roman men should want to fuck AnythingThatMoves, ''was'' a genuine problem, as proof of voluntary bottoming - i.e. acting "like a woman" - would have saddled the man so accused with the legal status of "infamy", which among other losses in civil rights, would prevent him from ever holding public office. Since Caesar would have been the younger and lower-ranking partner in that affair, the Romans automatically assumed that he would have bottomed, because in their society, the person of lower social rank ''always'' was supposed to "serve the pleasure" of the higher-ranking one. Free-born male citizens couldn't have a sexual relationship with each other ''because'' they were of equal social rank.[[/note]] Friends and enemies alike happily repeated the rumors throughout [[spoiler: Caesar's]] life, much to his annoyance, but they still never seriously harmed his career or stopped him winning the respect of his legions. It also doesn't fit with what we know of the historical [[spoiler: Caesar's]] personality: badass who was personally brave and supremely self-confident, a man who after being kidnapped and ransomed by pirates (after first doubling his own ransom), hunted them all down and crucified them, and elsewhere also received the very rare honor of the ''corona civica'' (civic crown), awarded for saving the life of a fellow citizen.

* To deter runaways, slaves were commonly tattooed on the forehead, although some covered this up by wearing a headband. No slaves are shown with such a tattoo in the show.

* While slaves were indeed drawn from foreign peoples, either captured in war with the Romans or sold to them, mostly they were themselves Romans or at least from Italy. The Romans did not base slavery on race, and happily enslaved their own. Furthermore, the majority of slaves that weren't Italian were Greek, who looked similar enough to them to make for a visual distinction. As a consequence, the percentage of non-Roman and non-white slaves in the show is much higher than reality (and watch out also for this whiteness - Roman characters are played by actors that in many cases are fairer than most Romans were, vice versa for Gauls and so on).

* While runaways were sometimes killed, usually the punishment was branding and or a flogging. After all, slaves were valued as property, if nothing else, and losing one was still an important economic loss.

* The pilot episode portrays the Getae people as inhuman savages, in comparison to the noble Thracians. In reality, the Getae were so similar to the Thracians that historians are still a little unsure what the difference was.

* The type of Roman armor known today as ''lorica segmentata'' (segmented plate armor) appears in the show but it was invented much later in the days of the Roman Empire. It is however, the most easily ''recognisable'' Roman armour, so chalk this one up to SmallReferencePools (along with the over-representation - and occasional misapplication! - of their famous ''testudo'' formation).
* Gladiator matches were usually not to the death, except if against common criminals (as shown). Instead they were largely to first blood. Only if a gladiator made a particularly poor showing would they usually be killed. Gladiators were of very high value, with years of money and effort put into their training. Killing them off this casually would be a huge waste, if nothing else.