Quintus and the Praetorians would simply seize control for themselves.
No. Cut off the head and the snake cannot strike.
Lucilla, Gaius is right.
Until we can neutralize the Praetorians, we can achieve nothing.
- So we do nothing? - No, child.
We keep our counsel.
We prepare.
As long as the people support him, we are voices without steel.
We are air.
But with every day that passes, he makes enemies.
One day, he'll have more enemies than friends.
And on that day, we will act.
Then we will strike.
But until then,
we are docile.
We are obedient.
And we are treacherous.
Come on. Get out of the way.
Pick me.
I want to cover you in kisses.
All right, that's enough.
The emperor wants battles. I don't want to sacrifice my best fighters.
The crowd wants battles, so the Emperor gives them battles.
- And you get the battle of Carthage. - The massacre of Carthage.
Why not go down to the prison and round up all the beggars and thieves?
We've done that.
If you want to give away the best gladiators in the whole of the Empire,
I want double the rates.
You'll get your contract rates, or you'll get your contract cancelled.
You don't like it?
Then you can crawl back down that shithole that you came from.
Cassius, please. Please, Cassius.
Gladiator, are you the one they call the Spaniard?
Yes.
They said you were a giant.
They said you could crush a man's skull with one hand.
A man's? No.
A boy's.
- They have good horses in Spain? - Some of the best.
This is Argento, and this is Scarto.
They were my horses.
- They were taken from me. - I like you, Spaniard.
- I shall cheer for you. - They let you watch the games?
- My uncle says it makes me strong. - What does your father say?
My father's dead.
Master Lucius, it is time.
- I have to go. - Your name is Lucius?
Lucius Verus, after my father.
Lower.
- Claudius. - Yes, sir?
More shields.
When the Emperor enters,
raise your weapons, salute him and then speak together.
Face the Emperor and don't turn your back on him.
Go, and die with honor.
Hail, mighty Caesar.
We who are about to die salute you.
On this day,
we reach back to hallowed antiquity,
to bring you a recreation of the second fall
of mighty Carthage.
On the barren plain of Zama,
there stood the invincible armies
of the barbarian, Hannibal.
Ferocious mercenaries and warriors
from all brute nations,
bent on merciless
destruction, conquest.
Your Emperor is pleased to give you
the barbarian horde.
- Anyone here been in the army? - Yes.
I served with you at Vindobona.
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.
I'm pleased to bring you the legionnaires of Scipio Africanus.
To the death.
Stay close.
Come together.
Staggered columns.
- Soon all your men will be slain. - You don't have a chance.
- Lock your shields. Stay as one. - As one.
Hold.
As one.
Well done.
Hold.
Diamond.
Haken.
This column to the chariots. This column stay with me.
Quickly.
- Get out there. - Hurry.
Single column.
We win.
My history's a little hazy, Cassius.
But shouldn't the barbarians lose the battle of Carthage?
Yes, sire.
- Forgive me, sire. - No, I rather enjoy surprises.
- Who is he? - They call him the Spaniard, sire.
- I think I'll meet him. - Yes, sire.
Hail to the barbarians.
Forward.
Drop your weapons.
Gladiator, the Emperor has asked for you.
I'm at the Emperor's service.
Rise.
Your fame is well deserved, Spaniard.
I don't think there's ever been a gladiator to match you.
This young man insists you are Hector reborn.
Or was it Hercules?
Why doesn't the hero reveal himself and tell us all your real name?
- You do have a name? - My name is Gladiator.
How dare you show your back to me?
Slave.
You will remove your helmet and tell me your name.
My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius,
commander of the armies of the north, general of the Felix Legions.
Loyal servant to the true emperor, Marcus Aurelius.
Father to a murdered son,
husband to a murdered wife,
and I will have my vengeance.
In this life or the next.
Arms.
Live. Live. Live.
Arms at rest.
Father.
Why is he still alive?
I don't know.
He shouldn't be alive.
It vexes me.
I'm terribly vexed.
I did what I had to do.
If Father had had his way, the Empire would have been torn apart.
You do see that?
Yes.
What did you feel when you saw him?
I felt nothing.
He wounded you deeply, didn't he?
No more than I wounded him.
They lied to me in Germania.
They told me he was dead.
If they lie to me, they don't respect me.
If they don't respect me, how can they ever love me?
Then you must let the legions know their treachery will not go unpunished.
Poor sister, I wouldn't want to be your enemy.
What will you do?
This way.
Rich matrons pay well to be pleasured by the bravest champions.
I knew your brother would send assassins.
I didn't realize he would send his best.
Maximus, he doesn't know.
My family was burned and crucified while they were still alive.
- I knew nothing. - Don't lie to me.
- I wept for them. - As you wept for your father?
As you wept for your father?
I have been living in a prison of fear since that day.
To be unable to mourn your father for fear of your brother.
To live in terror every moment of every day,
because your son is heir to the throne.
I have wept.
My son was innocent.
So is mine.
Must my son die, too, before you will trust me?
What does it matter if I trust you or not?
The gods have spared you. Don't you understand?
Today I saw a slave become more powerful than the Emperor of Rome.
The gods have spared me?
I am at their mercy, with the power only to amuse a mob.
That is power. The mob is Rome.
While Commodus controls them, he controls everything.
Listen to me.
My brother has enemies, most of all in the Senate.
But while the people follow him,
no one would dare stand up to him until you.
They oppose him, yet they do nothing.
There are some politicians who have dedicated their lives to Rome.
One man above all.
If I can arrange it, will you meet him?
Do you not understand?
I may die in this cell tonight, or in the arena tomorrow. I am a slave.
What possible difference can I make?
This man wants what you want.
Then have him kill Commodus.
I knew a man once,
a noble man, a man of principle, who loved my father.
And my father loved him.
This man served Rome well.
That man is gone.
- Your brother did his work well. - Let me help you.
Yes, you can help me.
Forget you ever knew me, and never come here again.
Guard. The lady has finished with me.
What's your name?
Julian Crassus.
Name?
Marcus, sire.
My father's name.
They must have known of Maximus' escape
when they found the bodies of the four men.
They thought it was a barbarian raid.
These are good men, sire. Loyal to the Emperor.
Load arrows.
Prepare to fire.
Then perhaps it was you who knew.
- And never told me. - I didn't know.
You didn't know?
But a general is always in control.
Always in command.
Isn't he?
Yes, Caesar.
Then give the command. Say it.
Fire.
Maximus?
You commanded legions? You had many victories?
- Yes. - In Germania?
In many countries.
General.
You have a great name.
He must kill your name before he kills you.
Yes, at the far end.
- Senator Gaius. - Hello.
Senator Gracchus.
Don't often see you enjoying the pleasures of the vulgar crowd.
I don't pretend to be a man of the people, Senator.
But I do try to be a man for the people.
Caesar! Caesar! Caesar!
People of Rome.
On the fourth day of Antioch,
we can celebrate the 64th day of the games.
And, in his majestic charity,
the Emperor has deigned this day to favor the people of Rome
with an historical final match.
Returning to the Colosseum today after five years in retirement,
Caesar is pleased to bring you
the only undefeated champion in Roman history,
the legendary Tigris of Gaul.
He knows too well how to manipulate the mob.
Marcus Aurelius had a dream that was Rome, Proximo.
This is not it.
Marcus Aurelius is dead, Maximus.
We mortals are but shadows and dust.
Shadows and dust.
Representing the training lyceum of Antonius Proximo,
Caesar is proud to give you
Aelius Maximus.
They embrace him like he's one of their own.
The mob is fickle, Brother. He'll be forgotten in a month.
No, much sooner than that.
It's been arranged.
Maximus! Maximus! Maximus!
We who are about to die salute you.
We're with you, Maximus.
Come on, finish him.
Loose. Loose.
- Get him. - Kill him.
Kill.
Maximus the Merciful.
Forward, guards. On battery.
What am I going to do with you?
You simply won't die.
Are we so different, you and I?
You take life when you have to, as I do.
I have only one more life to take. Then it is done.
Then take it now.
They tell me your son
squealed like a girl
when they nailed him to the cross.
And your wife
moaned like a whore
when they ravaged her again and again
and again.
The time for honoring yourself will soon be at an end.
Highness.
Maximus! Maximus! Maximus!
General.
- Get back. - General.
Cicero.
- General. - Where are you camped?
Ostia.
- We love you, Maximus. - Praise the victor.
Tell the men their general lives. Find me.
- Move along. - Find me.
Can they hear you?
- Who? - Your family, in the afterlife.
- Oh, yes. - What do you say to them?
To my boy,
I tell him I will see him again soon.
To keep his heels down when he's riding his horse.
To my wife...
That is not your business.
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.
He is defying you.
His every victory is an act of defiance.
The mob sees this, and so do the Senate.
Every day he lives, they grow bolder.
- Kill him. - No.
I will not make a martyr of him.
When I went to the Senate today,
I purposely told them about using the grain reserves to pay for the games.
And did you note what happened?
- Nothing. - Exactly.
Nothing.
Not a single word of protest.
Even the insolent senator Gracchus was silent as a mouse.
Why?
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.
So, we will lie still,
and let our enemies come to us and nibble.
Have every senator followed.
Cicero, my old friend. I thought perhaps I'd seen you for the last time.
- I thought you were dead. - Close.
- How long have the men been in Ostia? - All winter.
- And how do they look? - Fat and bored.
- Who's in command? - Some fool from Rome.
- How soon could they be ready to fight? - For you, tomorrow.
I need you to do something for me.
Come see. Witness.
If you haven't been in the arena, you can see the show here.
Giant Maximus is defeating our Emperor Commodus. What are we to do?
He's defying everyone. Why are you doing this?
He got him!
Give way! Give way!