This is the tenth post of Henryk Sienkiewicz’s
historical novel, Quo Vadis.
You can find Post #1 here.
Post #2 here.
Post #3 here.
Post #4 here.
Post #5 here.
Post #6 here.
Post #7 here.
Post #8 here.
Post #9 here.
Chapters 64 thru 71
Summary
One evening a Senator, Scevinus, visits Petronius and openly talks of the dissatisfaction in the Roman people over Nero, and of the potential of overthrowing the emperor. Petronius warns him about such talk. Scevinus tells him that the next day will be the last of the Christians to be slaughtered in the games. Petronius realizes this could be the end of Lygia and decides to make one last effort on Nero. That night at Nero’s feast, Petronius tells Nero that he will celebrate a wedding feast, the wedding of Lygia and Vinicius which the emperor himself had given permission. Nero is a little surprised at this, but Tigellinus tells Nero she is still in prison on Nero’s command. Nero plays along and says they will celebrate the wedding after the last of the games.
The Roman people, tired of the blood sport, still populate the theater knowing they will be coming to an end. Everyone expects the death of the beautiful Lygia, but they do not know how she would be slaughtered. Vinicuis, reconciled to her death, comes to perhaps see her one last time, but in his soul he rages for revenge against Nero and hopes for a miracle. The spectacle begins with Ursus entering into the arena, and everyone marvels at the giant they had heard about. Hoping to be crucified, Ursus stands in the middle of the arena looking at the crowd, then dropping to his knees to pray. The crowd howls with disappointment. The want to see him fight. Then the trumpets blast and a bull is let into the arena with the unconscious body of Lygia strapped to the bull’s horns. The crowd gasps, and Ursus in a rush runs to the bull and grabs him by the horns. The bull and the giant lock in a battle of strength, the bull trying to gore Ursus, Ursus trying to twist the bull’s neck. The amphitheater is in an amazed silence as they watch the deadlock between the man and the beast, neither of the two pushing the other back, both straining to the limit of their strength. When Ursus’s muscles are ready to yield, the bull’s neck slowly twists until his neck breaks and he dies. The amphitheater is finally able to breath and then goes wild. Ursus unties Lygia and carrying her still unconscious body to the podium in front of Nero begs mercy for her. The crowd, clearly endeared to Ursus, roars and gives the sign for mercy. Vinicius jumps into the arena and goes beside Ursus and Lygia and shows the scars on his body fighting for Roman wars. Tigellinus tells Nero to have them slain. Nero wants to have them slaughtered but becomes afraid of the vociferous crowd, and relents.
Lygia, still unconscious, is taken to Petronius’s house with Vinicius praising God the whole way. A physician who was dispatched declares that once the fever passes, Lygia should recover. That night Lygia’s consciousness returns for a moment and then falls back into a sleep. Vinicius kneels by her all night long in prayer.
Petronius, wanting to find out if there were any further schemes from the palace, goes to visit Nero. Nero, angry at how the events had turned, does not wish to speak to Petronius, but Petronius tells him to write a poem on the magnanimity of the emperor toward a young maiden. Nero is pleased with the suggestion and plans to use the subject to glorify himself. Still when he returns home advises Vinbicius to take Lygia to Sicily. Vinicius agrees but plans to take her to Pomponia as she recovers. Vinicius feels an immense happiness.
Christians from across the Rome visit Lygia at Petronius’s home. The apostle Peter stops by one night. Vinicius thanks him for all the prayers which led to Lygia’s being saved. Peter tells him that he expects to be a victim of Nero’s continuing persecutions. Vinicius implores him to leave Rome and save himself. But Peter tells Vinicius how the Lord had predicted one day he would be crucified. Days later, Petronius informs Vinicius that letters of Peter and Paul are found on a Christian soldier, and Tigellinus has set up a search to nab them. Ursus and Vinicius rush to see Peter and tell him of a means to escape Rome. Peter, unafraid, is undecided. He wants to stay in Rome, but his followers have mostly been killed. After days and nights in uncertainty Peter listens to Linus to leave and convert more followers elsewhere.
The next day at dawn, two people are walking away from Rome. One is Peter, who was persuaded to leave Rome, the other is Nazarius. Peter sees a vague figure in the sunlight up ahead. Nazarius sees nothing. Suddenly Peter is astonished to recognize the vague figure as Christ and falls to the ground. Peter in tears mutters the words, “Quo vadis, Domine?” which means, “where are you going, Lord?” The answer which only Peter could hear is “If you desert my people, I am going to Rome to be crucified a second time.” And Peter straightway turns around to return to Rome. He tells the others that he has seen the Lord. From then on he goes to the Christian cemetery to preach daily.
Two groups of soldiers are dispensed. One group arrest Peter and the other Paul. Even in prison, Peter converts two guards. On the day before his crucifixion, Peter is flogged. On the next day he was led to Vatican Hill. He is too old to be made to carry a cross, but he walks with dignity and majesty. Satisfied with his life’s work, Peter walks with joy. As he walks, he envisions the future city that will be the center of the Christian world. At last he reaches the destination and he prays and blesses the city and the world. That evening another detachment of soldiers lead Paul outside the city. He will have more respect since he is a Roman citizen. He too walks with peace and tranquility. He thinks back over his life as he walks. When he reaches the destination of his execution, he places a veil around his head to cover his eyes.
With the Christians finally dispatched, the aristocrats of Rome hatch a plot to assassinate Nero, but Nero is ahead of them and has many of the highest nobles of Rome killed as well as their families. Even Poppaea is killed. The Senate trembles in fear.
###
Michelle
Comment:
And Nero lost his city to
St. Peter!
My
Reply to Michelle:
Yes. I loved it!
Frances
Comment:
Those with Bishop Robert
Barron’s Word On Fire ministry will be aware that the Institute publishes a
journal four times a year. The latest issue, titled ‘’Conversion,” contains a
two-page article by essayist Joseph Susanka on Quo Vadis. Here are some lines
which I think fit in well with our reading:
‘’The years Sienkiewicz
spent researching the demise of the Julio-Claudian dynasty and his
attentiveness to its chaotic detail give the book both focus and narrative
precision. There is a power in the historical particulars that serve as the
perfect backdrop to his characters’ lives. . .
‘’While the story of
Marcus Vinicius’ journey toward the Catholic faith gives the work its narrative
thrust, the most powerful image of conversion for me is that of Peter turning
back toward Rome, both literally and figuratively. Petrus, the Rock, the leader
of Christ’s earthly Church, must be reminded to abandon himself to divine
providence, to turn back, to suffer and die, and to be transformed.
‘’Returning to
Sienkiewicz’s work after years away, that is the most striking message the book
offers me. If even St. Peter had strayed far enough from the path of truth to
necessitate his Savior’s gentle chiding, how much more so must we answer Christ’s
call to be renewed and transformed, again and again, day by day, until we come
at last to our final home.
‘’Quo Vadis? Where are
you going?’’
‘’Simon Peter answered
him, ‘Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life.’ ‘’
— Evangelization Culture, Issue No. 18, ‘’Conversion,’’ Winter, 2023, pages 21-23.
Michelle’s Reply to Frances:
Thank you for posting this excerpt, Frances. That image from the book has really stayed with me.
My
Reply to Frances:
Wonderful, Frances. I think I'm finally going to commit and subscribe to Bishop Barron's journal. I find him the most solid of the Catholic voices speaking out there, neither part of the hermeneutic of rupture of the liberals nor the hermeneutic of suspicion of the reactionary conservatives. He is what Catholicism should be.
Frances’s
Reply to Me:
Well said, Manny. I agree. Candidly, I don’t know how Bishop Barron produces all that he does, and all of high quality. For those interested in joining the Word On Fire Institute, dues are $27 a month. But there are many low cost items available, too. Right now his Lenten booklet is being offered free of charge, with only a shipping fee.
My
Comment:
I had no clue how the
climatic scene of Lygia and Ursus in the arena would happen. Normally I try to look ahead of a book and
know the rough outline so that I can understand the writer as the scenes
develop. For this book, I’ve known
nothing nor tried to read a summary somewhere.
The Ursus and Lygia scene in the arena with the bull was
breathtaking. I had no idea that was to
develop, and I had no idea how it would resolve as I read. In that moment of Ursus and the bull locked
in a death struggle I was in stunned anticipation. I could see it going in many directions. When Ursus won and brought Lygia’s unconscious
body to the emperor’s podium and begged for her mercy—not even his—I was
literally in tears. I had joined the
Roman spectators in the amphitheater, totally rooting for Ursus. What masterful writing!
I have not finished the
novel, but it seems to me the Ursus struggle with the bull scene was the climax
of the story, and from there on a denouement to tidy up loose ends. Peter and Paul’s executions are part of that
“tidying up.”
On the other hand, Peter seeing
the Lord who speaks the words that would become the novel's title seems
significant enough to be a climax. But
ultimately I would argue that it's not the climax. The novel starts with Vinicius, Petronius,
Lygia, and Ursus. Peter is really a
supporting role.
On that note, I was surprised that neither Peter’s nor Paul’s execution was narrated. Sienkiewicz narrated all the way to the executions but he does not show them. They were sort of off-stage. Was that out of respect for the great apostles? He narrated lots of other deaths and gore. He wasn’t shy about it before this. I was a little surprised actually.
The movies take great liberties with the novel, but I include video clips despite they are not truly reflective of how they are rendered.
###
The
first excerpt is from that climatic scene where Ursus is pushed into the
amphitheater and Lygia is let in unconscious strapped to a bull. I cannot excerpt the entire scene since it is
too long, but the beginning is so well written that I’ll start there and let
you read how it concludes on your own.
Vinicius shook his head.
He might die in that amphitheatre, but he could not go out of it. Moreover the
spectacle might begin any moment.
In fact, at that very
instant almost, the prefect of the city waved a red handkerchief, the hinges
opposite Cæsar's podium creaked, and out of the dark gully came Ursus into the
brightly lighted arena.
The giant blinked, dazed
evidently by the glitter of the arena; then he pushed into the centre, gazing
around as if to see what he had to meet. It was known to all the Augustians and
to most of the spectators that he was the man who had stifled Croton; hence at
sight of him a murmur passed along every bench. In Rome there was no lack of
gladiators larger by far than the common measure of man, but Roman eyes had
never seen the like of Ursus. Cassius, standing in Cæsar's podium, seemed puny
compared with that Lygian. Senators, vestals, Cæsar, the Augustians, and the
people gazed with the delight of experts at his mighty limbs as large as
tree-trunks, at his breast as large as two shields joined together, and his
arms of a Hercules. The murmur rose every instant. For those multitudes there
could be no higher pleasure than to look at those muscles in play in the
exertion of a struggle. The murmur rose to shouts, and eager questions were
put: "Where do the people live who can produce such a giant?" He
stood there, in the middle of the amphitheatre, naked, more like a stone
colossus than a man, with a collected expression, and at the same time the sad
look of a barbarian; and while surveying the empty arena, he gazed wonderingly
with his blue childlike eyes, now at the spectators, now at Cæsar, now at the
grating of the cunicula, whence, as he thought, his executioners would come.
At the moment when he stepped
into the arena his simple heart was beating for the last time with the hope
that perhaps a cross was waiting for him; but when he saw neither the cross nor
the hole in which it might be put, he thought that he was unworthy of such
favor,—that he would find death in another way, and surely from wild beasts. He
was unarmed, and had determined to die as became a confessor of the
"Lamb," peacefully and patiently. Meanwhile he wished to pray once
more to the Saviour; so he knelt on the arena, joined his hands, and raised his
eyes toward the stars which were glittering in the lofty opening of the
amphitheatre.
That act displeased the
crowds. They had had enough of those Christians who died like sheep. They
understood that if the giant would not defend himself the spectacle would be a
failure. Here and there hisses were heard. Some began to cry for scourgers,
whose office it was to lash combatants unwilling to fight. But soon all had
grown silent, for no one knew what was waiting for the giant, nor whether he would
not be ready to struggle when he met death eye to eye.
In fact, they had not
long to wait. Suddenly the shrill sound of brazen trumpets was heard, and at
that signal a grating opposite Cæsar's podium was opened, and into the arena
rushed, amid shouts of beast-keepers, an enormous German aurochs, bearing on
his head the naked body of a woman.
"Lygia! Lygia!"
cried Vinicius.
Then he seized his hair
near the temples, squirmed like a man who feels a sharp dart in his body, and
began to repeat in hoarse accents,—
"I believe! I
believe! O Christ, a miracle!"
And he did not even feel
that Petronius covered his head that moment with the toga. It seemed to him
that death or pain had closed his eyes. He did not look, he did not see. The
feeling of some awful emptiness possessed him. In his head there remained not a
thought; his lips merely repeated, as if in madness,—
"I believe! I
believe! I believe!"
This time the
amphitheatre was silent. The Augustians rose in their places, as one man, for
in the arena something uncommon had happened. That Lygian, obedient and ready
to die, when he saw his queen on the horns of the wild beast, sprang up, as if
touched by living fire, and bending forward he ran at the raging animal.
From all breasts a sudden
cry of amazement was heard, after which came deep silence.
The Lygian fell on the
raging bull in a twinkle, and seized him by the horns.
"Look!" cried
Petronius, snatching the toga from the head of Vinicius. The latter rose and
bent back his head; his face was as pale as linen, and he looked into the arena
with a glassy, vacant stare.
All breasts ceased to
breathe. In the amphitheatre a fly might be heard on the wing. People could not
believe their own eyes. Since Rome was Rome, no one had seen such a spectacle.
The Lygian held the wild
beast by the horns. The man's feet sank in the sand to his ankles, his back was
bent like a drawn bow, his head was hidden between his shoulders, on his arms
the muscles came out so that the skin almost burst from their pressure; but he
had stopped the bull in his tracks. And the man and the beast remained so still
that the spectators thought themselves looking at a picture showing a deed of
Hercules or Theseus, or a group hewn from stone. But in that apparent repose
there was a tremendous exertion of two struggling forces. The bull sank his
feet as well as did the man in the sand, and his dark, shaggy body was curved
so that it seemed a gigantic ball. Which of the two would fail first, which
would fall first,—that was the question for those spectators enamoured of such
struggles; a question which at that moment meant more for them than their own
fate, than all Rome and its lordship over the world. That Lygian was in their
eyes then a demigod worthy of honor and statues. Cæsar himself stood up as well
as others. He and Tigellinus, hearing of the man's strength, had arranged this
spectacle purposely, and said to each other with a jeer, "Let that slayer
of Croton kill the bull which we choose for him"; so they looked now with
amazement at that picture, as if not believing that it could be real.
###
For
the second excerpt, I’m going to post the moment where Peter, trying to escape
Rome, encounters Christ who asks him where he is going? It is where the title of the novel
comes. Peter in remorse turns around and
goes back to Rome to be with the remaining Christians and, of course, face
martyrdom. The short, staccato, mostly
one sentence paragraphs in this scene hits the reader in the gut. It’s a
most moving scene.
About dawn of the
following day two dark figures were moving along the Appian Way toward the
Campania.
One of them was Nazarius;
the other the Apostle Peter, who was leaving Rome and his martyred
co-religionists.
The sky in the east was
assuming a light tinge of green, bordered gradually and more distinctly on the
lower edge with saffron color. Silver-leafed trees, the white marble of villas,
and the arches of aqueducts, stretching through the plain toward the city, were
emerging from shade. The greenness of the sky was clearing gradually, and
becoming permeated with gold. Then the east began to grow rosy and illuminate
the Alban Hills, which seemed marvellously beautiful, lily-colored, as if
formed of rays of light alone.
The light was reflected
in trembling leaves of trees, in the dew-drops. The haze grew thinner, opening
wider and wider views on the plain, on the houses dotting it, on the
cemeteries, on the towns, and on groups of trees, among which stood white
columns of temples.
The road was empty. The
villagers who took vegetables to the city had not succeeded yet, evidently, in
harnessing beasts to their vehicles. From the stone blocks with which the road
was paved as far as the mountains, there came a low sound from the bark shoes
on the feet of the two travellers.
Then the sun appeared
over the line of hills; but at once a wonderful vision struck the Apostle's
eyes. It seemed to him that the golden circle, instead of rising in the sky,
moved down from the heights and was advancing on the road. Peter stopped, and
asked,—
"Seest thou that
brightness approaching us?"
"I see
nothing," replied Nazarius.
But Peter shaded his eyes
with his hand, and said after a while,
"Some figure is
coming in the gleam of the sun." But not the slightest sound of steps
reached their ears. It was perfectly still all around. Nazarius saw only that
the trees were quivering in the distance, as if some one were shaking them, and
the light was spreading more broadly over the plain. He looked with wonder at
the Apostle.
"Rabbi! what ails
thee?" cried he, with alarm.
The pilgrim's staff fell
from Peter's hands to the earth; his eyes were looking forward, motionless; his
mouth was open; on his face were depicted astonishment, delight, rapture.
Then he threw himself on
his knees, his arms stretched forward; and this cry left his lips,—
"O Christ! O
Christ!"
He fell with his face to
the earth, as if kissing some one's feet.
The silence continued
long; then were heard the words of the aged man, broken by sobs,—
"Quo vadis,
Domine?"
Nazarius did not hear the
answer; but to Peter's ears came a sad and sweet voice, which said,—
"If thou desert my
people, I am going to Rome to be crucified a second time."
The Apostle lay on the
ground, his face in the dust, without motion or speech. It seemed to Nazarius
that he had fainted or was dead; but he rose at last, seized the staff with trembling
hands, and turned without a word toward the seven hills of the city.
The boy, seeing this,
repeated as an echo,—
"Quo vadis,
Domine?"
"To Rome," said
the Apostle, in a low voice.
And he returned.
###
I
wish I could excerpt the executions of Saints Peter and Paul, but that would be
too long. You will just have to read the
novel on your own then.
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