He probably did not want to disobey the orders of the new Emperor, and likely had no idea that Commodus killed his own father to get into power.
You are right, he goes and betrays Maximus on a whim instead of letting him go and be with his family. His family did nothing wrong, yet they have to pay the ultimate price... very despicable, and the fact that Quintus followed his orders from new Emperor Commodus to the letter, yet betrayed Maximus on a whim despite being his friend for many years, tells us he can be bought and his loyalties go according to that. Very sinister indeed.
Then at the end of the film, Quintus betrays his Emperor and lets him die, he probably realized the error of his ways, but that does not equal redemption for the character, what he was was very distasteful. Who kills women and children for no actual reason? He could have easily ordered his men to do no such thing.
The actor plays a similar type of character on other TV shows and movies as well, I remember him from 24 Season 4.
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JH66 (143)
7 years ago
I wondered if deleted scenes or alternate script drafts might explain more, the former partly do, but Quintus was as you described, nasty.
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