Officials at American International decided that "Sign of the Gladiator" was a more exciting title than "Sign of Rome," even though there are no gladiators in the film. They simply had one of the characters make reference to "gladiator" in a line of the dubbed dialog,
The producers were unsatisfied with some of the action footage, and Michelangelo Antonioni, at the time a respected second-unit director, was called in for re-shoots of some interior scenes.