Spartacus Quotes
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Source: Spartacus
Speaker: Antonius
"I'm Spartacus!"
Herald: I bring a message from your master Marcus Licinius Crassus, commander of Italy. By command of His Most Merciful Excellency, your lives are to be spared. Slaves you were and slaves you remain. But the terrible penalty of crucifixion has been set aside on the single condition that you identify the body or the living person of the slave called Spartacus.
Antoninus: I'm Spartacus!
Slaves: I'm Spartacus! I'm Spartacus! I'm Spartacus! I'm Spartacus! I'm Spartacus! I'm Spartacus! I'm Spartacus!
Context
This line is spoken by Antoninus, played by Tony Curtis, in the film Spartacus, directed by Stanley Kubrick (1960).
It's the end of the movie and the Romans have won. Spartacus and his fellow slaves have fought bravely for their freedom, but the Roman army is a pretty tough bunch. The slaves have been defeated and the rebellion is over. Now, the powers that be just need to find Spartacus and have him crucified. Easy, right?
Not quite.
When the herald announces to the crowd of slaves that they'll all be allowed to live if they'll just kindly point towards their ringleader, Spartacus stands up to turn himself in, but his friend, Antoninus, quickly leaps up and shouts, "I'm Spartacus!" This causes the other men to immediately do the same. Pretty soon, the whole group is shouting that they're the man the Romans are looking for. What are you gonna do, Rome? Crucify them all?
Okay, yeah. That is actually what they're gonna do. Yikes.
Where you've heard it
This is a pretty darn significant quote, so you've probably heard people saying it when they're showing solidarity. Saying you're Spartacus is just another way of telling the world that you stand with the accused.
Additional Notable References:
- Pepsi used footage of this scene during one of their commercials. A Roman solider finds a bag lunch with a Pepsi inside and goes looking for his owner. Naturally, everyone tries to claim it.
- During the 2000 Oscars, host Billy Crystal became part of movie history, but refused to volunteer as Spartacus. Hey, that's just sensible.
- At the end of Life of Brian, the Romans come looking for Brian, who they're supposed to set free, but it turns out that everyone is named Brian.
- In V for Vendetta, everyone wears the Guy Fawkes mask to protect the real guy the authorities are looking for.
Pretentious Factor
If you were to drop this quote at a dinner party, would you get an in-unison "awww" or would everyone roll their eyes and never invite you back? Here it is, on a scale of 1-10.
Announcing that you're Spartacus is a nice way to show solidarity, and there's nothing pretentious about that.