How we cite our quotes: All quotations are from Gladiator.
Quote #4
PROXIMO: I was the best because the crowd loved me. Win the crowd, and you'll win your freedom.
Proximo suggests that aweing and amazing a crowd can also lead to freedom. Commodus wants to awe and amaze to control the mob and take away freedom. Maximus will use it for the opposite purpose, and win.
Quote #5
PROXIMO: I know, Maximus, that you are a man of your word, General. I know that you would die for honour. You would die for Rome. You would die for the memory of your ancestors. But I, I am an entertainer.
Proximo is an entertainer, in the business of amazing the crowds. In these lines, he suggests that being a purveyor of awe and amazement is incompatible with ideas of honor. Maximus is now a business, and Proximo's job is to profit from him, not partake in some quest to kill Commodus and restore republican government.