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tells her, and when she answers brokenly, “I have much to pay for,” he
corrects her, “You have nothing to pay for.” This single, oblique reference
to their previous affair seems to assign the blame for past hurt to Lucilla
and accords well with the depiction of Maximus as a gentleman of oldfashioned
decency. As she whispers to him, “I have felt alone all my life,
except with you,” all she gets for her declaration is a modest kiss.
In these brief meetings, Maximus and Lucilla negotiate the tricky
boundaries of their past relationship and reconstruct it tentatively within
the emotional gap created by their other broken bonds. Unlike in earlier
epics where the male hero engages in a heterosexual romance that eventually
domesticates his coarse masculinity, Maximus and Lucilla circle each
other, but never actually come back together. Only when Maximus lies
dying in her arms in the final scene are they very nearly restored once
again as a couple, since like a good husband, he has provided her with
security for herself and her son by his heroism, assuring her with his final
breath: “Lucius is safe.” While Maximus ensures the safe bond between
imperial mother and son, throughout the course of the film he longs
for and remains devoted to the memory of his own wife and child, even
when they are dead. Through the figure of Maximus as an old-fashioned
“soldier of Rome,” a gentleman cultivator of the land, and a faithful
Roman husband and father, Gladiator suggests a popular reaffirmation of
the ideals of family and the values of simplicity.
Another intriguing theme in Gladiator that reverberates with contemporary
American audiences is the portrayal of Maximus as a man of deep
personal spirituality (Cyrino, 142–4). The scenes where he is praying to
his family and caressing tiny images of his wife and son by candlelight are
some of the most moving in the film. Individual Roman families engaged
in domestic worship of the family genius, “spirit,” and their own ancestors,
known as the penates or “household gods,” in personal rites coexisting
with the official state religion of the Olympian gods. Maximus is shown at
prayer in several key moments, the first occurring in Germania after he
has just been asked by Marcus Aurelius to become the Protector of Rome.
“Ancestors, I ask you for your guidance,” he prays. “Blessed mother, come
to me with the gods’ desire for my future. Blessed father, watch over my
wife and son with a ready sword. Whisper to them that I live only to hold
them again, for all else is dust and air. Ancestors, I honor you and will try
to live with the dignity that you have taught me.” When Maximus informs
his loyal servant, Cicero, they may not be able to return home, it suggests
his prayer has inspired him to consider the old emperor’s request as an
extension of his loyal military service to Rome. The audience again hears
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