Connie Nielsen credited as playing...
Lucilla
- Marcus Aurelius: Let us pretend that you are a loving daughter, and I am a good father.
- Lucilla: This is a pleasant fiction, is it not?
- Proximo: [to Maximus] 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 at 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: [sighs] I am tired of being strong. 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 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]
- Marcus Aurelius: If only you had been born a man. What a Caesar you would have made!
- Lucilla: Father.
- [Kisses him]
- Marcus Aurelius: You would have been strong. I wonder, would you have been just?
- Lucilla: I would have been what you've taught me to be.
- Lucilla: My father favours you now; twas not always so.
- Maximus: Many things change.
- Lucilla: Many things, not everything.
- [Maximus walks away]
- Lucilla: Maximus, stop. 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.
- Lucilla: Do you know, I still remember you in my prayers? Oh, yes. I pray.
- Maximus: I was sad to hear of your husband's death. I mourned him.
- Lucilla: Thank you.
- Maximus: And I hear you have a son.
- Lucilla: Yes, Lucius. He'll be nearly eight years old.
- Maximus: My son is also nearly eight. And thank you for your prayers.
- [Walks away]
- [about Maximus]
- Commodus: Why is he still alive? He shouldn't be alive. It vexes me. I'm terribly vexed.
- Commodus: [pause] I did what I had to do. If Father had had his way, the empire would have been torn apart. You do see that?
- Lucilla: Yes.
- Commodus: What did you feel when you saw him?
- Lucilla: I felt nothing.
- Commodus: He wounded you deeply, didn't he?
- Lucilla: No more than I wounded him.
- Commodus: 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?
- Lucilla: Then, you must let the legions know that treachery will not go unpunished.
- Commodus: Poor sister. I wouldn't want to be your enemy.
- [Lucilla tries to convince Maximus to conspire with Senator Gracchus]
- Lucilla: This man wants what you want.
- Maximus: Then have *him* kill Commodus!
- Lucilla: 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.
- Maximus: That man is gone. Your brother did his work well.
- [about Maximus' family]
- Lucilla: I wept for them.
- Maximus: As you wept for your father. As you wept for your father!
- Lucilla: 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. Oh, I have wept.
- Maximus: My son was innocent!
- Lucilla: So is mine. Must my son die too before you'll trust me?
- Commodus: Where have you been? I sent for you.
- Lucilla: Please, brother. What's troubling you?
- Commodus: Does Gracchus have a new lover?
- Lucilla: I don't know.
- Commodus: I thought you'd seen him. He infects everyone like a putrid fever. For the health of Rome, the Senate must be bled. And he will bleed too, very soon.
- Lucilla: But not tonight.
- Commodus: I will make Rome the wonder of the ages. That is what Gracchus and his friends don't understand. All my desires are splitting my head to pieces.
- Lucilla: Commodus, drink this tonic.
- Commodus: I think the time is almost right. I could announce the dissolution of the Senate at the celebration to honour our father. Do you think I should? Are the people ready?
- Lucilla: I think you need your rest now.
- Commodus: Will you stay with me?
- Lucilla: Still afraid of the dark, brother?
- Commodus: Still, always. Stay with me tonight.
- Lucilla: You know I won't.
- Commodus: Then kiss me.
- Lucilla: [Kisses him on forehead] Sleep, brother.
- Commodus: Who are *they* to lecture *me?*
- Lucilla: Commodus, the Senate has its uses.
- Commodus: What uses? All they do is talk. It should be just you and me, and Rome.
- Lucilla: Don't even think it! There's always been a Senate.
- Commodus: Rome has changed. It takes an emperor to rule an empire.
- Lucilla: Of course, but leave the people their...
- Commodus: Illusions?
- Lucilla: Traditions.
- Commodus: My father's war against the barbarians, he said it himself; it achieved nothing, but the people loved it.
- Lucilla: The people always love victories.
- Commodus: Why? They didn't see the battles. What do they care about Germania?
- Lucilla: They care about the greatness of Rome.
- Commodus: "The greatness of Rome." Well, what is that?
- Lucilla: It's an idea: greatness. Greatness is a vision.
- Commodus: Exactly, a vision. Do you not see, Lucilla? I will give the people a vision of Rome, and they'll love me for it. And they'll soon forget the tedious sermonising of a few dry, old men. I will give the people the greatest vision of their lives.