@vashtanerada88: Leonidas is from a movie that dwells in fantasy and looks for epicity. He fights stronger enemies, has better feats and survives in more hostile battles.
Maximo tries to be more realistic. He may defeat gladiators, but he doesnt fight vampiric immortals, giants and hordes of enemies.
Leonidas takes this if we go movie wise. Gear helps, but Maximo wore Centurion gear and not the full Lorica Segmentata legionaires used. Centurions and high ranking officer were normally behind the phalanx, therefore their gear used to be a bit lighter as they needed to move and command the lines. Theres some moments during the movie that he wears full lorica, so it depends on what "standard" means for the OP. Still, theres not enough gear difference to give Maximo an edge over a fantasy character. Remember 300 Leonidas wore his shield like if it was made of tissue, one shotted most enemies and was so good with the javelin that he managed to hit Jerjes just were he wanted while being showered with arrows. Leonidas in 300 is a fantasy characters, Maximus in gladiator is a realistic character. That should settle the fight as theres not enough gear difference to give Maximo enough lead.
Romans Scutum didnt came from the Spartan shield, basically cause thats the greek shield you are talking about. It was used in most parts of greece and thats what influenced romans on their early shields. And still, the early Scutum was oval, not rounded. The imperial Scutum design has nothing to do with the Greek round shield, its square shapped, and actually a lot better for formations, although more expensive. Also, greek werent the only ones using round shields in their age.
@dewin50 As i said before, Maximo's standard gear isnt enough to compensate the fact that leonida's is a fantasy epic character that fought and won against harder odds.
If this was a "real" fully geared Leonidas (Royal Spartan King/General) vs a fully geared Roman lets say Praetorian Praefect (high ranking General from the elite Praetoria troops), the match would go 7/10 for the Roman general. Not only he has better gear, but he also ahs better training. Theres a general misunderstanding that spartans warrior were the best trained. Yes, they were the best trained GREEK warriors, but Rome excelled for many reasons: Military tactics, logistics and warfare theory. Romans basically grabbed what the Greeks had done in military aspects and improved it in all levels. Training included. Roman armies are full profesional armies. Even Auxiliaries were profesionals.
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