Gladiator 2: The incredible true history of Colosseum water battles

When Ridley Scott’s Gladiator 2 arrives in cinemas this week, some viewers may assume that the spectacular scenes of the Colosseum in Rome being flooded in order to host naval battles are merely figments of the director’s overactive imagination.

Indeed, classics professor Dr Shadi Bartsch recently described some elements of the film as “total Hollywood bulls***.”