The movie Gladiator with Russell Crowe starts off in the same part of the world as this movie; the Roman army are fighting the barbarians in the north by the Danube River abiyt 150 C.E. It is cold and mountainous, snowing, and Ceasar is dying and wants to leave the empire to someone other than his son. His daughter is in love with this person. Both movies have these elements in common, but take them in very different directions.
Technically, the older movie is much slower moving, with more distance, wide angle shots. Gladiator has more complex battle scenes and moves quicker with shots that are rarely slow moving. At times, when I was watching the movie made in the sixties, I thought I was watching a silent movie; no dialogue and a lot of long distance shots of armies, horses, etc.
