Dondas The Monkey, And The Real Animal That Became Counsel To A Roman Emperor

The following contains spoilers for Gladiator 2, now playing in theaters

Gladiator 2 makes some wild tweaks to history, including giving a Roman Emperor a pet monkey. Played by Fred Hechinger, Caracalla is one of the twin Emperors who has taken control of the Roman Empire in the sixteen years that have passed since Maximus killed Commodus. The more unpredictable of the pair, Caracalla’s only really humanizing element is his clear affection for his pet monkey, Dondas. The monkey is often seen climbing around Caracalla, and is even named his official consul after Macrinus convinces him to kill his brother Geta.

Gladiator 2 takes a lot of liberties with historical fact, including in its portrayal of Caracalla and Geta. While the two are indeed inspired by real life brothers who briefly ruled together before turning on one another, their actual real-life equivalents had some very specific differences with their on-screen counterparts. Gladiator 2‘s characters are more designed by their thematic role in the story over their historical accuracy, and that can definitely be seen in the film’s approach to Caracalla and his monkey.

Did Caracalla Have A Pet Monkey In Real Life?

The Real Life Caracalla Was Very Different From His On-Screen Counterpart

The real life Roman Emperor that Gladiator 2‘s Caracalla is inspired by did not have a pet monkey named Dondas. Despite being one of the only humanizing elements of Caracalla in Gladiator 2, there are no historical records that suggest Caracalla actually did have a pet monkey. In fact, many specific details about Caracalla in Gladiator 2 are different from his true life inspiration, as the film uses Caracalla as an extension of the poor qualities in leadership that have come to define Gladiator and Gladiator 2‘s worst villains.

Rather than be the foppish and unpredictable hedonist that he’s portrayed as in the film, the real-life Caracalla was a far more hardened figure with plenty of experience on the battlefield. The real-life Caracalla actually had more in common with Pedro Pascal’s military commander, leading ambitious efforts to expand the empire. The real life Caracalla didn’t live in Rome as much as his cinematic counterpart, meaning he didn’t have the time to be at home in a palace with a beloved monkey.

What We Know About The Monkey Who Played Dondas

Dondas is played by a real monkey in Gladiator 2, giving the animal some realistic qualities that would have been missing from a CGI creation like the baboons that attack Lucius early in the film. As Fred Hechinger revealed during an interview with Cinema Blend, Dondas was played by a female monkey named Sherry. Hechinger reportedly arrived on set early to practice his scenes with the animal, and quickly formed a bond with the monkey. While co-stars were preparing for action sequences, Hechinger has described his time on set as “monkey trainer.”

The two were in sync by the time of filming, even apparently improvising off of one another’s actions. Denzel Washington even complimented the monkey, noting that it could pick up on the body language and tone of Hechinger’s increasingly unstable performance and would respond accordingly. Several critics have held up Dondas as one of the highlights of Gladiator 2, speaking to the amount of work and craft the animal trainer was able to bring to the film.

Was Dondas Inspired By Caligula’s Horse?

Caligula’s Most Infamous Moment Might Be What Inspired Gladiator 2‘s Caracalla

Dondas being a beloved pet of a Roman Emperor who decided to place them in a position of genuine power may not be inspired by the actual Caracalla, but it does have some connection to history. Dondas the monkey was seemingly inspired by Caligula’s horse Incitatus. Ruling Rome over a century before Caracalla came into power, Caligula is said to have loved his favorite horse enough to treat him as a treasured member of the Roman upper-class. Stories from that era even suggest that Caligula had tried to install Incitatus as the official consul to the Emperor, seemingly inspiring Dondas.

The true history of Incitatus has been debated for centuries, with many modern historians believing that stories of Caligula’s unwell mentality were actually attempts by rivals to discredit him. However, the stories of Caligula’s horse lingers into the present-day as a prime example of the flawed rule of Roman Emperors, which is likely how it became used as an inspiration behind the fictional version of Caracalla in Gladiator 2. Even when he’s not in the story, events surrounding Caligula seem to have been reinterperted as one of the more memorably bizarre aspects of Gladiator 2‘s take on the archetype.

Source:Cinema Blend