crankySpartacus
Marcus Licinius Crassus is in his bath, with his body servant Antoninus washing him.
Crassus
Do you steal, Antoninus?Antoninus
No, master.Crassus
Do you lie?Antoninus
Not if I can avoid it.Crassus
Have you... ever dishonored the gods?Antoninus
No, master.Crassus
Do you refrain from these vices out of respect for the moral virtues?Antoninus
Yes, master.
Crassus looks at Antoninus greedily
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, is it?
He looks up at Antoninus again, who is clearly made ill at ease by the attentions of his master.
Crassus
Hmmmm...?Antoninus
(uncomfortable)
It could be argued so, master.Crassus
My robe, Antoninus.
Antoninus goes and gets the garment as Crassus emerges from his bath.
Crassus
My taste includes both snails and oysters.
They exit the bath and enter Crassus' atrium.
Crassus
Antoninus, look. Across the river. There is something you must see.
He walks over to a large window overlooking the skyline of Rome, which he looks at hungrily.
Crassus
There, boy, is Rome. The might, the majesty, the terror of Rome. There is the power that bestrides the known world l.ike a colossus. No man can withstand Rome, no nation can withstand her. How much less a boy! Hmm?(chuckles)
There's only one way to deal with Rome, Antoninus. You must serve her. You must abase yourself before her. You must grovel at her feet. You must... love her.
Isn't that so, Antoninus?
Antoninus is nowhere to be seen.
Crassus
Antoninus?
The first portion of this scene was cut from the original theatrical presentations of this film because of the subtext. When it was James Katz and Robert Harris were preparing the 70 millimeter restoration prints in 1991, the audio was lost. They brought in Tony Curtis to dub in Antoninus' lines again, and teaked his voice to match that of his younger self. Unfortunately, Laurence Olivier had died, so Anthony Hopkins supplied the lines for Crassus. The scene has now been reintegrated into the film in all current editions of the film, the best of which is the Criterion Collection DVD, which features copious extras about the making of the film and how it effectively broke the blacklist by giving screen credit to scipter Dalton Trumbo, one of the Hollywood Ten who would not give testify to the House of Un-American Activities.
