As Vesuvius erupts, a large gladiator statue topples in the arena. In the first view, a long shot, the statue cracks open across the chest, at the bottom of the rib cage. In the next view, from the perspective of a man about to be crushed, the torso is intact, and the crack is at the statue's neck.
Pontius Pilate committed suicide in Gaul in approximately 38 A.D. and could not have been present in Pompeii during the same year that Mt Vesuvius erupted (79 AD).
The central subplot of the meeting with Jesus is impossible, as Pompeii was destroyed after his death in 79 A.D. Given these dates, Flavius would have been a middle aged man, clearly not the youth in his 20's as portrayed in the film.