His relationship with
Claudia Acte is altered, and its influence on his divorce from
Claudia Octavia exaggerated. In fact after Nero's divorce from Octavia he married his pregnant mistress
Poppaea Sabina who had married twice before marrying Nero (
Rufrius Crispinus and the future Emperor
Otho). Poppaea Sabina's death is portrayed differently than how it reportedly occurred. According to the historical sources, she was kicked to death by Nero in a vicious rage. The film also omits Nero's other reported attempts to kill his mother
Agrippina the Younger, first by poisoning. In his second attempt he had his mother's mattress fixed so that when she lay down, a decoration on the ceiling would fall onto the bed. A third attempt involved sabotaging a ship Agrippina was traveling on, but she managed to swim to shore. The fourth attempt, in which a soldier killed her on the spot, is shown in the movie as Agrippina walks toward the soldier and tells him, "Strike the womb that bore him". In the film Nero is shown to have a fixation on playing the
harp, which is only partly true. In a late part of the movie Nero is shown playing his harp in the center of a Roman Theatre as
Emperor around 62 A.D. This is fiction, because Nero never played his
harp in front of a large audience. He usually played it in isolation or within a small group of friends. At the end, Nero escapes from the city by himself and slits his wrists where he is embraced by Acte. In reality, Nero escaped from the city in disguise to the house of one of his loyal freedmen; there he committed suicide by stabbing himself in the neck. However, he botched the job and had to have a slave finish him act off for him. The Emperor
Caligula is also altered. In the film, Caligula banishes
Agrippina, Nero's mother, as he did in reality, but in reality, both Agrippina and
Julia Livilla were exiled, yet Livilla is not even mentioned in the film. The assassination of Caligula is also depicted inaccurately. In the film, Caligula is lured to a brothel by his attendants, where he is assassinated. Historically, he was killed in a
cryptoporticus underneath a
Palatine Hill theater by
praetorian guards led by
Cassius Chaerea,
Marcus Vinicius, and
Lucius Annius Vinicianus. After Caligula was murdered, his
wife and
daughter were eliminated. The film's budget was around €800,000. It was filmed on location in
Sicily and
Tunisia in late 2004 and early 2005. == Cast ==