Fact-checking 'Gladiator II': Were there really sharks in the Colosseum?

Spoiler alert! We're discussing plot points of 'Gladiator II' (in theaters now), so if you haven't seen it yet, retreat.

Pack up your dusty sandals and brutal weapons, folks. It's time for "Gladiator II" and our collective return to glorious if savage ancient Rome. (And if you're really into it, "Gladiator III" could be on the way.)

Get ready for gory scenes of gladiators fighting crazed monkeys, oversized rhinos, hungry sharks and ... wait, what? There were sharks swimming around in the Colosseum?

"Well," says director Ridley Scott when asked about the movie's accuracy, "the short answer to that is, were you there?"

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This time around, the action unfolds 16 years after we closed the book on Russell Crowe's valiant gladiator Maximus, who shuffled off this mortal coil at the end of 2000's "Gladiator," leaving behind his lover Lucilla (a returning Connie Nielsen) and young son Lucius (now a buff twentysomething played by Paul Mescal).

To sum up a couple of hours of brutal fighting (the Colosseum has never looked more dangerous) and vicious betrayal (courtesy of Denzel Washington as the savagely conniving Macrinus), "Gladiator II" finds Lucius an imprisoned slave for whom victory in the Roman arena is the only promise of freedom.

Here's how "Gladiator 2" massages history in the name of cinematic drama:

Were there ever naval battles with sharks in the Colosseum?

Unknown. But Scott is willing to believe it was within the realm of possibility, especially since the Colosseum and other parts of ancient Rome, such as what is now Piazza Navona, were in fact flooded in order to accommodate flat-bottomed boats and stage re-enactments of ancient sea battles.

"Have you been to the Colosseum? It would be a challenge to build that today, let alone then," he says. "So if they could do that, then could they get water into it? Of course. And if you could do that, I'm sure you could get a damn shark in there."

Did gladiators really take on raging monkeys and men riding rhinoceri?

It is well known that the Colosseum hosted brutal to-the-death battles between gladiators. But a different category of fighter, not a gladiator but more of a hunter, would sometimes be put in the arena and challenged to hunt down a wide range of beasts that would appear in the ring. These could include rhinos and monkeys. Lions, of course, are most associated with the arena, often finding innocent Christians as their prey.

In "Gladiator II," a fighter is seen riding into the Colosseum on a giant rhino. This isn't likely to have happened, given that the animals were mostly there to be tracked and killed.

Did twin emperors Caracalla and Geta really exist? And did one have the other killed?

Yes and no. In the year 211 A.D., presumably also when "Gladiator II" takes place, brothers named Caracalla and Geta briefly ruled as dual emperors of Rome after their father, Septimius Severus, appointed them as such on his deathbed.

But the boys ? who are depicted as twins, though history suggests were separated by a year ? disliked each other, and without their father as a buffer, spun out of control. Eventually, Caracalla had his brother murdered in front of their mother, as shown in the movie. "Their father (Septimius) was not a bad guy and actually did some decent things," says Scott. "But the two sons were as bonkers as anyone in the Sex Pistols."

Was a monkey really the right hand (OK, paw) of a Roman emperor?

One of the most striking scenes in "Gladiator II" is when Caracalla, who has become sole emperor after killing his brother, announces his right-hand man before a rapt audience of Roman senators. His pick? Not any of them, but rather his pet Capucin monkey, Dundus.

"Dundus was great, wasn't he?" Scott asks. While there isn't much in the history books about a monkey being part of the ruling class in ancient Rome, the director's gesture almost feels like a poke in the direction of current American politics.

"There it is, dude, that was intentional," he says, laughing. "But if you want to ask me which (political) side I'm landing on, I'm not saying."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Is 'Gladiator 2' real history? The true story behind the movie