Laurence Olivier credited as playing...
Crassus
- Crassus: Do you eat oysters?
- Antoninus: When I have them, master.
- Crassus: Do you eat snails?
- Antoninus: No, master.
- Crassus: Do you consider the eating of oysters to be moral and the eating of snails to be immoral?
- Antoninus: No, master.
- Crassus: Of course not. It is all a matter of taste, isn't it?
- Antoninus: Yes, master.
- Crassus: And taste is not the same as appetite, and therefore not a question of morals.
- Antoninus: It could be argued so, master.
- Crassus: My robe, Antoninus. My taste includes both snails and oysters.
- Crassus: One of the disadvantages of being a Patrician is that occasionally you are obliged to act like one.
- Crassus: [about Antoninus and Spartacus] Let them fight now. Unchain them.
- Julius Caesar: The entire city's been told, they'll fight tomorrow in the temple of your ancestors.
- Crassus: They will fight now, for me! Here! And to the death! And the victor will be crucified!
- Crassus: Are you not aware of Rome's most ancient law? That no General may enter the city at the head of his armed legions?
- Glabrus: Sulla did.
- Crassus: Sulla? To the infamy of his name! To the utter damnation of his line. No, my young friend. One day I shall cleanse this Rome which my fathers bequeathed me. I shall restore all the traditions that made her great. It follows that I can not come to power or defend myself by an act which betrays the most sacred tradition of all. I shall *not* bring my legions within these walls. I shall *not* violate Rome at the moment of possessing her.
- Marcus Licinius Crassus: Great merciful bloodstained gods! Your pardon. I always address heaven in moments of triumph.
- Batiatus: Marcus Licinius Crassus. Most noble radiance, first general of the Republic, father and defender of Rome, honour my house. Bless it with your presence. Wine! Sweetmeats! Can't you see that Their Honours are exhausted? Have the goodness to sit. Is anything wrong, Your Nobility?
- Marcus Licinius Crassus: No.
- Batiatus: Welcome to the Lady Claudia Maria, former wife of Lucius Caius Marius, whose recent execution touched us all so deeply. Honour to the Lady Helena, daughter of the late Septimus Optimus Glabrus, whose fame shall live on forever in the person of his son, your brother, Marcus Publius Glabrus, hero of the Eastern Wars.
- Helena Glabrus: How very much he knows. Allow me to bring you up to date. We're here to celebrate the marriage of my brother to the Lady Claudia.
- Batiatus: A mating of eagles, Your Sanctity! Fan His Magnitude. He sweats.
- Julius Caesar: [about Spartacus] Did you fear him, Crassus?
- Crassus: Not when I fought him, I knew he could be beaten. But now I fear him, even more than I fear you.
- Julius Caesar: Me?
- Crassus: Yes, my dear Caesar, you.
- Crassus: Did you truly believe 500 years of Rome could so easily be delivered to the clutches of a mob? Already the bodies of 6000 crucified slaves line along the Appian Way. Tomorrow the last of their companions will fight to their death in the temple of my fathers as a sacrifice to them. As those slaves have died, so will your rabble... if they falter one instant in loyalty to the new order of affairs. Arrests are in progress. The prisons began to fill. In every city and province, lists of the disloyal have been compiled. Tomorrow, they will learn the cost of their terrible folly... their treason.
- Gracchus: Where does my name appear on the list of the disloyal enemies of the state?
- Crassus: First. Yet, I have no desire of vengeance upon you. Your property shall not be touched. You will retain the rank and title of a Roman Senator. A house... a farmhouse in Picenum has been provided for your exile. You may take your women with you.
- Gracchus: Why am I to be left so conspicuously alive?
- Crassus: Your followers are deluded enough to trust you. I intend that you shall speak to them tomorrow for their own good, their peaceful and profitable future. From time to time thereafter, I may find it useful to bring you back to Rome to continue your duty to her, to calm the envious spirit and the troubled mind. You will persuade them to accept destiny and order and trust the gods!
- Marcus Licinius Crassus: Why have you left us for Gracchus and the mob?
- Julius Caesar: I've left no one, least of all Rome. This much I've learned from Gracchus, Rome is the mob.
- Crassus: No! Rome is an eternal thought in the mind of God.
- Julius Caesar: I had no idea *you'd* grown religious.
- Crassus: That doesn't matter. If there were no gods at all, I'd revere them. If there were no Rome, I'd dream of her as I want you to do.
- Caius: Sir, allow us to pledge you the most glorious victory of your career.
- Marcus Licinius Crassus: I'm not after glory! I'm after Spartacus. And, gentlemen, I mean to have him. However, this campaign is not alone to kill Spartacus. It is to kill the legend of Spartacus.
- Marcus Licinius Crassus: You tread the ridge between truth and insult with the skill of a mountain goat.
- Marcus Licinius Crassus: What position have we, I wonder, for a boy of such varied gifts? You shall be my body servant. Instruct him.