Review: Adam Ruins Everything “An Ancient History of Violence”

Everything we knew was a lie!

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Gladiator

Adams shares that it was against the rules for gladiators to kill opponents. So the movie Gladiator? Horseshit. The sporting events even had umpires making sure that gladiators followed the rules. The warriors were well-trained and had a similar end of match procedures to say UFC. Fights to the death DID happen, but they were rare, and not very popular, instead of giving way to fandom for fighters that had long winning streaks.

GO CELTICS!

Not Larry Bird, but the story of a Celtic woman who brought the Roman Empire to its knees after years of oppression. Enter Boudica who was able to unite a bunch of Britannic tribes and drove away the Romans from her homeland, but couldn’t finish the job. As a result, the Romans had to be nice to the Celts and Boudica died a martyr.

300

The brave 300 Spartans number closer to 7,000…which means 300 is bullshit. Turns out the Spartans had a few other contingents to help out. Furthermore, Sparta has a darker history than first thought. “Defective” babies were killed, boys were forced into the army, and the ones that couldn’t cut it became sex slaves. We also come to learn that Xerces was a way more legit ruler of Persia than what the Spartans had. We come to learn that Greek historians wouldn’t exactly note-take the truth and dispel myth that would eventually become fuel for pop culture and for an “East vs West” mantra that still lives today.

Same Time, Different Place

A man in China invents paper. Trees everywhere hide and of course, the first thing we do with paper is turn it into the National Enquirer. 

Our Take

Who woulda thought that Hollywood films inspired by real-life events were highly stylized for the purposes of entertainment? I was actually very disappointed that the whole act about the 300 movie gave no mention to the legendary graphic novel of which inspired the movie written by the great Frank Miller. I would’ve also liked to have seen more insight about the Celts, but overall. a rather informative week of truths.