During filming of the battle sequences, many of the extras got so into their characters that they caused real injury to one another. At the end of one shooting day, a total of 60 injuries were treated at the production's hospital tent.
The Babylonian orgy sequence alone cost $200,000 when it was shot. That's nearly twice the overall budget of The Birth of a Nation (1915), another D.W. Griffith film and, at the time, the record holder for most expensive picture ever made.
D.W. Griffith was forced to reshoot the sequence of the crucifixion because certain organizations were saying that Griffith shot too many Jewish extras around the cross and not enough Romans. Griffith then burned the footage and reshot the scene with more Roman extras.
During the late 1910s, this film was a huge hit in the Soviet Union. However, D.W. Griffith never realized any financial gain as the copies being shown were pirated and distributed without his consent.
Joseph Henabery was hired to shoot some additional scenes of semi-nude slave girls when the front office declared that the film needed "more sex".