Gladiator Quotes

Lucilla: What did my father want with you?
Maximus: To wish me well before I leave for home.
Lucilla: You're lying, I could always tell when you were lying because you were never any good at it.
Maximus: I never acquired your comfort with it.
Lucilla: True, but then you never had to,

life is more simple for a soldier. Or do you think me heartless?
Maximus: I think you have a talent for survival.

Proximo: Congratulations, you have very persuasive friends.
Lucilla: My brother's had Gracchus arrested. We daren't wait any longer. We must leave tonight. Proximo will be here t midnight and take you to the gate. Your servant, Cicero will be waiting there with horses.
[Maximus nods]
Maximus: You have done all this?

Lucilla: Yes.
Maximus: [sighs] You risk too much.
Lucilla: I have much to pay for.
[Maximus shakes his head]
Maximus: You have nothing to pay for. You love your son, you are strong for him.
Lucilla: I am tired of being strong.(sighs) My brother hates all the world and you most of

all.
Maximus: Because your father chose me.
Lucilla: No because my father loved you... and because I loved you.
Maximus: A long time ago.
[kisses her hand]
Lucilla: [smiles] Was I very different then?
Maximus: (shakes his head, touches her face with his finger) You laughed

more.
Lucilla: I have felt alone all my life, except with you. I must go.
Maximus: Yes.
[kisses Lucilla one last time]

[during the fight with Maximus, Commodus loses his sword]
Commodus: Quintus, sword!
[Quintus does nothing]
Commodus: Give me your sword!
[Quintus does nothing]
Commodus: [to his guards] Sword, give me a sword!
[the guards unsheathe their swords]
Quintus: Sheathe your swords! Sheathe

your swords!
[the guards sheathe their swords]

[Inspecting the gladiators through the bars, Lucius notices Maximus and motions him closer. Amused, Maximus complies]
Lucius Verus: Gladiator, are you the one they call the Spaniard?
Maximus: Yes.
Lucius Verus: They said you were a giant. They said you could crush a man's skull with one hand.
Maximus:

[looks at his palm] A man's? No. A boy's...
[Lucius smiles, and points to the art on Maximus' armor]
Lucius Verus: They have good horses in Spain?
Maximus: Some of the best.
[points]
Maximus: This is Argento, and this is Scarto. They were my horses. They were taken from me.
Lucius Verus: I

like you Spaniard, and I shall cheer for you.
Maximus: They let you watch the games?
Lucius Verus: My uncle says it makes me strong.
Maximus: And what does your father say?
Lucius Verus: My father's dead.
Lucius' Attendant: Master Lucius, it is time.
Lucius

Verus: I have to go.
Maximus: Thy name is Lucius?
Lucius Verus: Lucius Verus, after my father.

Proximo: [addressing his new recruits] I am Proximo! I shall be closer to you for the next few days, which will be the last of your miserable lives, than that bitch of a mother who first brought you screaming into this world! I did not pay good money for your company. I paid it so that I might profit from your death. And just as your mother was there at your beginning, I shall be

there at your end. And when you die - and die you shall - your transition will be to the sound of...
[claps his hands]
Proximo: Gladiators... I salute you.

Cassius: On this day, we reach back to hallowed antiquity, to bring you a recreation of the second fall of the mighty Carthage!... On the barren plain of Zama, there stood the invincible armies of the barbarian Hannibal. Ferocious mercenaires and warriors from all brute nations, bent on merciless destruction, conquest. Your emperor is pleased to give you the barbarian horde!

[Crowd cheers]
Maximus: [while Cassius continues his introduction] Anyone here been in the army?
[an unknown gladiator responds yes and tells Maximus he served under his command at Vindobona]
Maximus: You can help me. Whatever comes out of these gates, we've got a better chance of survival if we work together. Do you understand? If we stay

together we survive.
Cassius: I'm pleased to bring to you the Legionnaires of Scipio Africanus!

Commodus: And now they love Maximus for his mercy. So I can't just kill him, or it makes me even more unmerciful! The whole thing's like some crazed nightmare.
Falco: He is defying you. His every victory is an act of defiance. The mob sees this, and so does the senate. Every day he lives, they grow bolder. Kill him.
Commodus: No. I

will not make a martyr of him.
[Commodus walks around]
Falco: I have been told of a certain sea snake which has a very unusual method of attracting its prey. It will lie at the bottom of the ocean as if wounded. Then its enemies will approach, and yet it will lie quite still. And then its enemies will take little bites of it, and yet it remains still.

Commodus: So, we will lie still, and let our enemies come to us and nibble. Have every senator followed.

Marcus Aurelius: You have proven your valor once again, Maximus. Let us hope for the last time.
Maximus: There is no one left to fight, sire.
Marcus Aurelius: There is always someone left to fight. How can I reward Rome's greatest general?
Maximus: Let me go home.
Marcus Aurelius: Ah,

home.