So why do you tell him he will be passed over for emperor when you die? In a room with nobody else? An immoral man might be inclined to kill you!
Of course Commodus murders his father having no idea who knows about his father's plans. For all he knows not only Maximus but his sister and every senator and officer knows about it. I guess he was just going to make a move for power and damn the consequences.
Commodus was his son. He wanted to explain to him why he would not be Emperor. Rome would become a republic.
Commodus hugged and smothered his father to death. He seemed to cover his tracks well as I recall. Almost everybody seemed satisfied it was a natural death. Maximus was suspicious but unsure about the cause of death.
My take was that everyone had some idea of what happened, and they more or less agreed with Maximus. The tell is that when Maximus stated as flat fact, "The emperor has been slain," nobody reacts with any form of shock or surprise that he would say such a thing. There was no, "What?! WTF are you talking about?!" No push back at all. Obviously they didn't know exactly ~why~ Commodus would kill his father... "maybe he just wanted to hurry up and become emperor?" But it seemed like it was more or less common knowledge that Commodus was a slimy snake and a POS. They all sided with him simply because the bottom line was that like it or not he was now emperor and could have anyone executed at will. Pure self preservation. What were they going to do, arrest him without any tangible proof of what he'd obviously just done? Summarily kill him right there in the tent and make Lucilla emperor and hope things turned out for the best somehow? It was a no-win situation.
Yeah, Marcus fucked up. But hey, I've known a couple of people in my life whom I would describe as "immoral," but I still wouldn't imagine they were capable of murdering their own parent in cold blood.
"The emperor has been slain"
He might have been speaking figuratively. That his father was slain, struck down from this life. Not necessarily murdered.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/slain
Maybe.
Marcus Aurelius was old and had health issues. It was not difficult to convince people he died a natural death.
Sure, 'maybe.' Taken out of context, 'maybe.' In the context of the scene, the specific intent of his statement is beyond obvious.
"It was not difficult to convince people he died a natural death."
Commodus's 'plausible deniability' was the linchpin of the entire plot. But the people present in Marcus's tent knew Commodus personally and knew what he was capable of. Even Maximus himself didn't literally ~know~ Commodus killed his father. And he knew he couldn't prove it. It's the epitome of the phrase "I don't know it for a fact... I only know it's true."
Agreed, Marcus should have had someone present, a senator or even two, to act as witness.
It was a foolish decision to be alone with Commodus in that moment.