Gladiator2000

Gracchus:
For you guidance, Caesar, the Senate has prepared a series of protocols, to begin addressing the many problems in the city, beginning with basic sanitation for the Greek quarter, to combat the plague which is already springing up there. So, if Caesar...

Commodus:
Shh. Don't you see, Gracchus? That's the very problem, isn't it? My father spent all his time at study, at books and learning and philosophy. He spent his twilight hours reading scrolls from the Senate. And all the while, the people were forgotten.

Gracchus:
But the Senate is the people, sire. Chosen from among the people, to speak for the people.

Commodus:
I doubt if any of the people eat so well as you do, Gracchus. Or have such splendid mistresses, Gaius. I think I understand my own people.

Gracchus:
Then perhaps Caesar will be so good as to teach us … out of his own, extensive experience.

[The Senate laughs]

Commodus:
I call it love. I am their father, the people are my children. I shall hold them to my bosom and embrace them tightly –

Gracchus:
Have you ever embraced someone dying of plague, sire?

Commodus:
No. But if you interrupt me again, I assure you that you shall.