Marcus Licinius Crassus Quotes in Spartacus (1960)

Marcus Licinius Crassus: Do you eat oysters?

Antoninus: When I have them, master.

Marcus Licinius Crassus: Do you eat snails?

Antoninus: No, master.

Marcus Licinius Crassus: Do you consider the eating of oysters to be moral and the eating of snails to be immoral?

Antoninus: No, master.

Marcus Licinius Crassus: Of course not. It is all a matter of taste, isn't it?

Antoninus: Yes, master.

Marcus Licinius Crassus: And taste is not the same as appetite, and therefore not a question of morals.

Antoninus: It could be argued so, master.

Marcus Licinius Crassus: My robe, Antoninus. My taste includes both snails and oysters.

Marcus Licinius Crassus: One of the disadvantages of being a Patrician is that occasionally you are obliged to act like one.

Marcus Licinius Crassus: You can't grieve forever.

Varinia: I'm not grieving.

Marcus Licinius Crassus: What are you doing?

Varinia: I am remembering.

Marcus Licinius Crassus: And what do you remember when you think of Spartacus?

Varinia: I remember that he started out all alone. And yet, on the day he died, thousands and thousands died in his place.

Marcus Licinius 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.

Marcus Licinius Crassus: They will fight now, for me! Here! And to the death! And the victor will be crucified!

Marcus Licinius Crassus: Great merciful bloodstained gods! Your pardon.

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?

Marcus Licinius 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?

Marcus Licinius Crassus: Yes, my dear Caesar, you.

Marcus Licinius 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?

Marcus Publius Glabrus: Sulla did.

Marcus Licinius Crassus: Sulla? To the infamy of his name! To the utter damnation of his line.

Julius Caesar: Rome is the mob.

Marcus Licinius Crassus: No! Rome is an eternal thought in the mind of God.

Julius Caesar: I'd no idea you'd grown religious.

Marcus Licinius Crassus: [laughs] It doesn't matter. If there were no gods at all I'd still revere them. If there were no Rome, I'd dream of her.

Marcus Publius Glabrus: How were you able to get my appointment without Gracchus knowing?

Marcus Licinius Crassus: I fought fire with oil. I purchased the Senate behind his back.

Julius Caesar: Is it me you want or is it the garrison?

Marcus Licinius Crassus: [laughs softly] Both.

Marcus Licinius Crassus: The enemies of the state are known, arrests are being made, the prisons begin to fill.

Caius: Sir, allow us to pledge you the most glorious triumph of your career.

Marcus Licinius Crassus: I'm not after glory, I'm after Spartacus!

Marcus Licinius Crassus: I understand - I'm informed that Spartacus once trained under your auspices.

Lentulus Biatatus: Yes. In fact, if it isn't too subversive to say so, I made him what he is today.

[Crassus, as the new Consul, addresses the legions and the Senate]

Marcus Licinius Crassus: I promise you, a new Rome. A new Italy, and a new Empire.

[pause]

Marcus Licinius Crassus: This, I have sworn by the spirits of my ancestors. This I have sworn, in the temple that guards their bones.

Marcus Licinius Crassus: 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: And where does my name appear on the list of disloyal enemies of the state?

Marcus Licinius Crassus: First.

Marcus Licinius 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?

Marcus Licinius 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?

Marcus Licinius 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!

Batiatus: But, my dear, great, all-conquering Marcus Licinius Crassus... what if it is Spartacus who crosses the battlefield, looking for you?

Marcus Licinius Crassus: In such circumstances, I have no doubt you will be helping him.

Varinia: You're afraid of him, aren't you? It's no use trying to be better than him, it won't work.

Marcus Licinius Crassus: We shall see...