Quo Vadis: A Narrative of the Time of Nero by Henryk Sienkiewicz, Part 3

This is Post #3 of Henryk Sienkiewicz’s historical novel, Quo Vadis.

You can find Post #1 here.  

And Post #2, here: 

 

Chapters 15 thru 20

Summary

The narrative suddenly turns epistolary.  First Petronius sends a letter to Vinicius that he and the Roman aristocracy are in the vacation town of Antium.  He provides some of the gossip and some of the machinations between rivals.  He mentions that the pain of little Augusta’s death is still fresh.  Vinicius, in Rome, writes back that despite Chilo’s clandestine excursions into the Christian population, Lygia has not been found.  Chilo has brought back information that the Christians have prayer services in meeting houses.  He tells Petronius that he too in disguised has wandered to some of the prayer houses.

The narrative returns with Chilo having been away from Vinicius for some time, and Vinicius’ emotions toward Lygia gone from love to anger, but he strengthens his resolve to find her and possess her.  Finally after some time Chilo returns to tell him though she has not been found she is certainly among them.  Chilo mentions that he has found an old nemesis, an old man named Glaucus who was responsible for Chilo losing two fingers on his hand and that he had left him at an inn dying of stab wounds after Glaucus’ wife and child were abducted.  He says that robbers had done this to Glaucus, and now Glaucus had apparently joined the Christians.  Vinicius asks him why this should concern him, and Chilo says he must stay away from Glaucus and can no longer search for Lygia.  Vinicius is enraged and says he will kill Chilo himself if he doesn’t continue.  Chilo reluctantly agrees but requests money to have Glaucus killed.  Vinicius advances him a good portion of Chilo’s fee.  Chilo reveals that a certain Paul of Tarsus, a Christian lawgiver, is due to come to Rome and hopes that he can locate Lygia in that gathering.

Chilo again goes undercover to the Christian he has befriended, the old man Euricius.  Chilo explains his need for protection, and Euricius’ son Quartus puts Chilo in contact with Demos who is supposed to have laborers who can work as bodyguards.  Among the laborers is a gigantic man named Urban.  Chilo explains to Urban how this man named Glaucus plans to betray the Christians and must be killed.  Chilo couches the story into a replay of Judas betraying Christ, and that Glaucus is a second Judas.  Urban tells Chilo he will do it despite that he feels guilt still for killing another man accidently.  Urban also tells Chilo of a big Christian gathering at Ostrianum, the cemetery outside the city gates.  There a great apostle of Christ is supposed to give a talk and all the Christians will be there.  There Urban says he will to kill Glaucus.

Petroinus writes another letter to Vinicius.  He tells Vinicius to hire Croton to be his guard as he wanders the streets of Rome.  He will be needed to defend against Ursus when Lygia is found.  He goes on about more political gossip and winds up that at some point he may slice his veins to end his life.

Chilo barges into Vinicius’ home to tell him that he has found Lygia.  He has not exactly found her but knows where she will be that evening.  She will be at Ostrianum with Ursus who has changed his name to Urban.  Chilo cowardly says he will not join Vinicius that evening, but Vinicius compels him with money and with the company of Croton.  Vinicius now is in wild delight.  He will finally possess Lygia.  Chilo explains how Ursus is supposed to kill Glaucus, but wonders if the goodness of Christianity will dissuade Urban.  Chilo explains the Christian God is one of morality.  They all put on cloaks with hoods and head off to Ostrianum. 

At Ostrianum they watched the Christians slowly gather in huge numbers.  Vinicius noticed that the Christians relate to their God with love, unlike any religion he had ever seen.  He did not love his Greco-Roman gods but feared them.  He listened to the Christians sing hymns.  Finally an old man named Peter stepped up on a rock and blessed the crowd with the sign of a cross.  They heard the old man had been a fisherman once and had been Christ’s chief disciple.  Peter began to speak like a father instructing his children, imploring them to be good and pure.  Vinicius notices that Christianity is different from any philosophy he knows.  Peter even speaks on the merits of suffering and even death like that of Christ.  Vinicius is repelled by this teaching.  What kind of God is this?  He concludes that Christianity is madness.  Peter goes on to speak of his witness to Christ, of Christ’s death and how they had found the tomb empty and ultimately come across the Risen Christ.  Vinicius became lost in Peter’s narrative and was torn between belief and unbelief.  Peter kept saying, “I saw.”  As morning began to rise, Chilo pulled Vinicius aside and pointed to Urban and the girl.  Vinicius turned and saw Lygia.

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My Comment:

Oh my! Was that a spectacular Chapter 20? I was glued.

Madeleine Replied:

I agree, Manny. I'm finding it harder to put down, and really easy to keep up so far. Even though I read it when I was in high school, I really didn't remember much, so it's a whole new book this time.

My Comment:

What is interesting is that Sienkiewicz waited for almost a third of the novel to get to the Christians. Up to now we've barely seen the Christians interact and the anticipation climaxed with St. Peter's sermon. That was highly skilled plotting.

Michelle Replied:

When I knew that St. Peter was about to come onstage I was thrilled!

Joseph Replied:

I agree with Manny on the clever construction of the narrative. Sienkiewicz has gone the extra length to make early Christians seem mysterious to the modern Christian, or at least culturally Christian, people reading the book and having to place themselves in the viewpoint of 1st century Romans.

Galicius Commented:

It seems that Sienkiewicz set himself a goal to present mutual relationship of two worlds pagan—Roman—and Christian. Sienkiewicz was criticized that his portrayal of Christianity pales compared to the pagan world in all its splendor of Roman palaces and life of its citizens, Caesar and his court. We get another description soon of a feast hosted by Tigellinus for Caesar in Chapter XXXI. It seems to me though that this is to be expected. Christians in Rome during Nero had to hide underground. How was Sienkiewicz to portray them in material terms? Christianity as seen by Vinicius in Lygia is perhaps best explained in Chapter XXXIV: “that beauty of a new kind altogether was coming to the world in her, such beauty as had not been in it thus far; beauty which is not merely a statue, but a spirit.” (Sorry for moving ahead but I do not think I am giving away anything of the story.)

Michelle Replied to Galicius:

He might be showing more of the Roman world, but he also shows how empty it is. Vinicius seems to be more discontent with Rome as the story continues.

My Reply to Galicius:

Yes, it seems he is setting out to contrast two world views, but I would disagree with those that claim the Roman world is presented in splendor. Yes, there are riches and power dramatized but I think it presents the Roman world as a bunch of overindulgent egotists who only care about themselves. The old Roman virtues of nobility and piety are long gone and what is left in this post Republican world is self-centeredness and hedonism. I don't find this a positive portrayal of the Roman world. It also feels very true.

Galicius Replied:

My above remarks were misunderstood—as if Sienkiewicz was representing Roman culture positively and purposely belittling the faithful Christians. We will see that this plebeian Christian culture that is depicted as little and pale compared to the aristocratic and powerful official patricians will be victorious in the end. Remember that God and Ursus is with them.

Madeleine’s Comment:

I am liking the rich detail in the novel. Sienkiewicz does bring his characters to life while giving us the context that envelops their lives. The pagans are definitely more sensually oriented than the Christians, and I like how Vinicius gradually begins to understand what is missing in the pagan world. Will he give himself over to Christ and will he be able to love Lygia with a holy Christian love? Suspense building here.

Kerstin’s Comment:

The roller-coaster of emotions Vinicius goes through in chapter 16 seems excessive to our sensibilities. Here is a young Pagan man who has yet to encounter the meaning of "love your neighbor as yourself". Ligyia is more object to him rather than a person.

My Reply to Kerstin:

I thought so too at first but that's where I saw Sienkiewicz building the psychologies of the pagan world (with its variety) and the Christian world. I am marveling at how the author is capturing the psychology of the pagan world.

Frances’s Comment:

I’d like to recommend Tom Holland’s excellent study of ancient cultures here. The title is Dominion (with a superb reproduction of Dali’s ‘’Christ of St. John of the Cross” on its cover). In it Tom Holland writes of his awakening to the cruelty of the ancient world: “The more you study the world of the ancient Romans the more alien they seem to be. Theirs was a culture built on systematic exploitation, an economy founded on slave labor,” and — to Kerstin’s point — “the absolute right of free Roman males to have sex with anyone they wanted and in any way they wanted . . . ‘’

My Reply to Frances:

I have thought of this book too while reading Quo Vadis. The central thesis of Holland's historical book is that there was a stark and lasting change in the world views/psychologies of the pagan world and the Christian world. I have not read this book but I have read reviews and heard Holland interviewed.

 

This is Holland's book Dominion: How the Christian RevolutionRemade the World. I bet you can find interviews of Holland on YouTube.  

 

Frances’s Reply:

Thank you, Manny. One of the best interviews I’ve found on YouTube is “Unbelievable? Tom Holland and Tom Wright: How St. Paul changed the world.” A conversation you’ll want to listen to again and again.

 

 

###

Excerpts from chapter 20.  Vinicius and Chilo sneak into a Christian ceremony in the middle of the night and witness Peter giving a homily.  I’m going to split this into two parts.  First Vincius’s observations of the Christian ceremony.

 

Vinicius had seen a multitude of temples of most various structure in Asia Minor, in Egypt, and in Rome itself; he had become acquainted with a multitude of religions, most varied in character, and had heard many hymns; but here, for the first time, he saw people calling on a divinity with hymns,—not to carry out a fixed ritual, but calling from the bottom of the heart, with the genuine yearning which children might feel for a father or a mother. One had to be blind not to see that those people not merely honored their God, but loved him with the whole soul. Vinicius had not seen the like, so far, in any land, during any ceremony, in any sanctuary; for in Rome and in Greece those who still rendered honor to the gods did so to gain aid for themselves or through fear; but it had not even entered any one's head to love those divinities.

 

Though his mind was occupied with Lygia, and his attention with seeking her in the crowd, he could not avoid seeing those uncommon and wonderful things which were happening around him. Meanwhile a few more torches were thrown on the fire, which filled the cemetery with ruddy light and darkened the gleam of the lanterns. That moment an old man, wearing a hooded mantle but with a bare head, issued from the hypogeum. This man mounted a stone which lay near the fire.

 

The crowd swayed before him. Voices near Vinicius whispered, "Peter! Peter!" Some knelt, others extended their hands toward him. There followed a silence so deep that one heard every charred particle that dropped from the torches, the distant rattle of wheels on the Via Nomentana, and the sound of wind through the few pines which grew close to the cemetery.

 

Chilo bent toward Vinicius and whispered,—"This is he! The foremost disciple of Christ-a fisherman!"

 

The old man raised his hand, and with the sign of the cross blessed those present, who fell on their knees simultaneously. Vinicius and his attendants, not wishing to betray themselves, followed the example of others. The young man could not seize his impressions immediately, for it seemed to him that the form which he saw there before him was both simple and uncommon, and, what was more, the uncommonness flowed just from the simplicity. The old man had no mitre on his head, no garland of oak-leaves on his temples, no palm in his hand, no golden tablet on his breast, he wore no white robe embroidered with stars; in a word, he bore no insignia of the kind worn by priests—Oriental, Egyptian, or Greek—or by Roman flamens. And Vinicius was struck by that same difference again which he felt when listening to the Christian hymns; for that "fisherman," too, seemed to him, not like some high priest skilled in ceremonial, but as it were a witness, simple, aged, and immensely venerable, who had journeyed from afar to relate a truth which he had seen, which he had touched, which he believed as he believed in existence, and he had come to love this truth precisely because he believed it. There was in his face, therefore, such a power of convincing as truth itself has. And Vinicius, who had been a sceptic, who did not wish to yield to the charm of the old man, yielded, however, to a certain feverish curiosity to know what would flow from the lips of that companion of the mysterious "Christus," and what that teaching was of which Lygia and Pomponia Græcina were followers.

Second excerpt is part of Peter’s homily.

The old man closed his eyes, as if to see distant things more distinctly in his soul, and continued,—"When the disciples had lamented in this way, Mary of Magdala rushed in a second time, crying that she had seen the Lord. Unable to recognize him, she thought him the gardener: but He said, 'Mary!' She cried 'Rabboni!' and fell at his feet. He commanded her to go to the disciples, and vanished. But they, the disciples, did not believe her; and when she wept for joy, some upbraided her, some thought that sorrow had disturbed her mind, for she said, too, that she had seen angels at the grave, but they, running thither a second time, saw the grave empty. Later in the evening appeared Cleopas, who had come with another from Emmaus, and they returned quickly, saying: 'The Lord has indeed risen!' And they discussed with closed doors, out of fear of the Jews. Meanwhile He stood among them, though the doors had made no sound, and when they feared, He said, 'Peace be with you!'

 

"And I saw Him, as did all, and He was like light, and like the happiness of our hearts, for we believed that He had risen from the dead, and that the seas will dry and the mountains turn to dust, but His glory will not pass.

 

"After eight days Thomas Didymus put his finger in the Lord's wounds and touched His side; Thomas fell at His feet then, and cried, 'My Lord and my God!' 'Because thou hast seen me thou hast believed; blessed are they who have not seen and have believed!' said the Lord. And we heard those words, and our eyes looked at Him, for He was among us."

 

Vinicius listened, and something wonderful took place in him. He forgot for a moment where he was; he began to lose the feeling of reality, of measure, of judgment. He stood in the presence of two impossibilities. He could not believe what the old man said; and he felt that it would be necessary either to be blind or renounce one's own reason, to admit that that man who said "I saw" was lying. There was something in his movements, in his tears, in his whole figure, and in the details of the events which he narrated, which made every suspicion impossible. To Vinicius it seemed at moments that he was dreaming. But round about he saw the silent throng; the odor of lanterns came to his nostrils; at a distance the torches were blazing; and before him on the stone stood an aged man near the grave, with a head trembling somewhat, who, while bearing witness, repeated, "I saw!"

Sunday Meditation: Onto the Mountaintop with the Prophets

Last week Jesus took us into the desert with the wild beasts, but today on the Second Sunday of Lent in Year B, Jesus goes from the desert to the top of a mountain, and instead of communing with wild beasts Jesus communes with two prophets from the Old Testament.

 

Jesus took Peter, James, and John

and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves.

And he was transfigured before them,

and his clothes became dazzling white,

such as no fuller on earth could bleach them.

Then Elijah appeared to them along with Moses,

and they were conversing with Jesus.

Then Peter said to Jesus in reply,

"Rabbi, it is good that we are here!

Let us make three tents:

one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah."

He hardly knew what to say, they were so terrified.

Then a cloud came, casting a shadow over them;

from the cloud came a voice,

"This is my beloved Son. Listen to him."

Suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone

but Jesus alone with them.

 

As they were coming down from the mountain,

he charged them not to relate what they had seen to anyone,

except when the Son of Man had risen from the dead.

So they kept the matter to themselves,

questioning what rising from the dead meant.

~Mk 9:2-1

This week I’m going to provide two sermons (I can’t say homilies since neither are priests) on this passage since both are short and to the point.  First will be Jeff Cavins, who has I think the better exegesis.

Jeff rightly points out how the almost sacrifice of Isaac and then replaced by the sacrifice of the lamb projects to the future sacrifice of Christ, the Lamb of God, on still another mountain, Calvary.  The Feast of Booths that he speaks of is called Sukkot, and if you live in a religiously Jewish neighborhood as I do, you will see the booths built for the week long feast in everyone’s backyards or decks.

I know people get hung up on how God could request Abraham the sacrifice of his child, but there is still another way to look at this from what I’ll call the more “Jewish” perspective.  Abraham here at this point is not Jewish; he is a Chaldean, a Semitic people of the region, and like most (if not all) Semitic people of the time practiced child sacrifice.  The most famous perhaps are the Carthaginians of the Punic people who sacrificed infants to the deity Baal.  By leading Abraham to the point of sacrificing his child—and notice Abraham goes along with it as a perfectly normal request—and then stopping it, God stops the practice of child sacrifice in the Jewish people.  Perhaps here with the ending of the child sacrifice, Abraham has now changed from a Chaldean to a Jew.  So do not think of God as a monster here.  There were both contemporaneous and archetypical reasons for God’s request with the intention of ending the horrific practice.  I didn’t mean to dwell so much on the first reading, but I think that needed to be said.

The second sermon will be from John Michael Talbot who I think better captures the spirituality of the passage.    

 

JMT points out the community that forms between Jesus and the three disciples and the two prophets, and that is very insightful and an element of the transfiguration that I never thought about.  I don’t think JMT goes far enough though.  Notice that there are two trinities on the mountain, trinity with a small “t” but perhaps pointing to the Trinity with a capital “T.”  Jesus, Moses, and Elijah form one trinity, and Peter, James, and John form a second trinity.  And both “trinity” and “Trinity” is a community. 

Could the Trinity be there in the passage as well?  Jesus, God the Father in the voice, and the Holy Spirit as the Glory Cloud?  Possible, but I am not quite that knowledgeable to say definitively.  Perhaps that could be our Sunday meditation.

 

Meditation: “Then a cloud came, casting a shadow over them; from the cloud came a voice, "This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.”

How can we have a sermon from John Michael Talbot and not play one of his beautiful hymns?  I can’t.  What song would be fitting for the Transfiguration?  How about, “Let Us Kneel Down.”

 

Quo Vadis: A Narrative of the Time of Nero by Henryk Sienkiewicz, Part 2

This is Post #2 of Henryk Sienkiewicz’s historical novel, Quo Vadis.

You can find Post #1 here.  

 

Chapters 7 thru 14

Summary

At the palace, Acte, Nero’s former mistress but now a palace attendant, was assigned to prepare Lygia for the feast.   Lygia undesiring to attend fearfully let Acte dress her.  A bond formed between the two of them.  Acte, educated, had read the writings of Paul of Tarsus, and compassionately advised Lygia on how to act in Nero’s company.  They discussed the mystery of why she had been brought to Nero’s palace.  To Acte’s surprise, Lygia, though lovely before, had transformed into the most beautiful of young women. 

They entered the feast and walked among eminent noblemen and senators.  Lygia was frightened and wanted to escape.  She saw Vinicius come in with Petronius.  Acte took her to the dining area and there was Caesar himself.  Vinicius approached her, and she found him handsome.  He pledged to her again.  She asked him why she had been taken to Caesar’s palace, and Vinicius calmed her by saying he would stay by her, and promised to take her to his house.  He sat by her at table.  At one point, drunk, he grabbed her by the arm, but Acte interfered by calling attention to Nero.  It was true.  Lygia had caught Nero’s eye, and Vinicius backed down.

Petronius and Nero have a conversation about Vinicius’s attraction to Lygia.  Other noblemen join in the conversation, a sort of imperious male talk of life and women.  Finally Poppaea, Nero’s wife entered and became the center of attention.  Lygia turned to Vinicius to ask if such a beautiful woman could be Poppaea, who she had heard as a Christian was notoriously evil.  But Vinicius, even more drunk, grabbed at her again.  Her once trust in Vinicius had now turned dread.  What stopped him were the musicians that had come to perform.  Music, reciting of poetry, and dramatic dialogues became the center of attention.    Athletes then came, wrestlers performing for entertainment.  Clowns and dancers followed.  The feast was turning into a bacchanal, and guests were undressing.  Drunken guests were shouting and grabbing at the dancers. 

Finally Vinicius blurts out to Lygia that Nero had taken her from Aulus for him, and that the next evening he will have her brought to his home.  Wildly drunk he rose and put his arms around her neck and pressed his lips on hers.  But Lygia’s giant guard, Ursus, pulled him off her and tossed him aside.  The giant picked up his queen and took her back to her room.  Vinicius called for her and then fell drunk to the floor.  Many of the guests were also lying about drunk.

Ursus had taken Lygia to Acte’s apartments.  Lygia and Ursus want to leave the palace altogether and are ready to return to Aulus’s home, but Acte tells them that it would be an insult to Caesar in which he would take his revenge on Aulus and Pomponia, and Lygia would still be forced to go to Vinicius.  Acte tries to convince Lygia to be resigned to her fate given the power of all the men involved.  Lygia will not accept it.  She and Ursus drop to their knees and pray which moves Acte.  After prayer, Lygia comes up with a new plan.  When Vinicius’ slaves come to take her away, Ursus and scores of other Christians will intercept the entourage and whisk Lygia away and make their way to the far reaches of the empire.

Acte did not like the plan.  She did not think it would work and could not understand why Lygia would refuse to be Vinicius’ concubine or perhaps possibly even wife.  But she marvels at Lygia’s calm as they rest, Lygia falling asleep while Acte awake in dread.  In the afternoon, while waiting for evening for Vinicius’ retinue to arrive and take her away, Lygia and Acte take a walk in the garden.  Poppaea comes upon them and noticing Lygia’s beauty wonders if Nero intends to take her for a mistress.  But Lygia explains that the plan was for Vinicius to taker her that evening and implores Poppaea to persuade Caesar to send her back to Aulus’s home.  Relieved, Poppaea tells her that evening Lygia will be Vinicius’ whore and walks away.  Evening comes and Vinicius’ retinue arrives, and Lygia hugs Acte goodbye.

Meanwhile Vinicius was waiting at his house with Petronius for Lygia to arrive, having prepared to start a feast when she got there.  Petronius admonishes Vinicius about his behavior at Nero’s feast.  It was no way to win over a lady.  As the retinue travels toward Vinicius’s home, it is overwhelmed by Christians who free Lygia.  Ursus kills a man who tried to whisk away Lygia, and Ursus and Lygia abscond into the dark streets of the city.  The slaves who had ushered Lygia in the retinue break the news to Vicinius, and Vinicius in his anger kills an old slave who had taken care of him as a child.

After flogging the rest of the slaves, Vinicius in his anger cannot rest.  He first contemplates a theory that Aulus and Pomponia had sent a party to attack the retinue.  He vows revenge against them.  Then he settles on a theory that Nero himself had attacked the retinue to take Lygia.  Here too he vows revenge but then in the reasoning of Nero’s superior power he resigns to have lost her.  He decides to go to Nero’s palace to discern if she is there.

At the palace Vinicius finds that Nero has been occupied with the illness of his newborn child Augusta, and could not have been the source of Lygia’s escape.  Acte explains to him that the child was with Poppaea when they came across Lygia in the garden, and that now Poppaea suspects that Lygia has cast a spell on Augusta.  If Augusta dies, both Nero and Poppaea will blame Lygia and she will be killed.  She also tells him that Lygia had loved him until his brutish behavior at Nero’s feast.  That she loved him cut to his heart, and he felt immense guilt. 

Vinicius and Petronius make a plan to try to find her.  They send slaves to watch the exits of the city.  They send patrols out to find her and Ursus.  They deduce that only their co-religionists would have gotten together and freed her.  To relieve Vinicius of his stress, Petronius offers him his beautiful female slave, Eunice.  Vicinius has no interest and Eunice resists.  Petronius has Eunice flogged nonetheless for resisting, suspecting that she refused to leave his household because she’s in love with someone there.

The next morning, a man who Eunice knows and who Petronius suspects is the man Eunice loves, presents himself to Petronius and Vinicius.  His name is Chilo Chilonides, a man of many talents and learning, and says he will find Lygia for them.  They promise to reward him with a small fortune if he delivers her.  His first order of business is to figure out what is her religion since only co-religionists would have taken such an initiative.  When he learns that Lygia had drawn a fish symbol, he concludes that she might be a Christian.  Petronius and Vinicius find it impossible to believe she is a Christian.  They hold such prejudiced notions about Christians and their practices. 

A few days later, Augusta dies, and Nero is in a rage.  Petronius tried to console him.  Chilo returns to confirm that the fish symbol stands for Jesus Christ, the god of the Christians.  Chilo then reveals that he through his investigation has “become Christian” himself.  He tells them the story of how he met with a freedman, Pansa, who is a Christian, and Pansa brought him to a house of prayer, and that by doing so he has infiltrated the Christians, becoming friends with an old man named Euricius.  The Christians seem to trust him and has been led into their company.  Through this he hopes to find Lygia.  Vinicius provides him with the necessary money to maintain this cover.

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Celia Commented:

Manny, your summaries are like gold!! I have read through Chapter 7 so am not reading the summary yet. I AM loving the book and its message. Lygia reminds me of St Cecilia, my patron saint. She converted her pagan husband, as I think Lygia will do. I have seen at least three versions of this book. The one I started with was awful. I could not follow the story. I am now reading the Kindle Unlimited version which is easy to follow and well written. Yet a third version is the hardback that I borrowed to get page numbers. It too is good although I am not reading it.

Kerstin Commented:

Sienkiewiecz does a great job in describing the decadent, crude, and even brutish life of the Roman upper class without himself using crude language. The contrast to the innocent Lygia could not be greater.

 

I do see some types emerging. We'll see if they hold up.

 

Petronius: He represents all that is noble in the Pagan world of Rome. He is still a Pagan though, and so does not have a full understanding of virtues, vices, and morals, which is only possible in light of Christ.

 

Vinicius: He is the passionate young buck who even from a Roman perspective needs gentling and civilizing. He spent years fighting in the provinces, not exactly a place to learn the ways of a gentleman. His attraction to Lygia is not just her outer beauty, but the inner beauty formed by her Christian faith. He doesn't realize it yet, but to win her he must undergo a profound change of heart. This will be quite an uphill climb for him since he messed up so badly.

 

Lygia: She represents the emerging Christianity in all its splendor and beauty. It is her virtue that beguiles, her meekness and gentleness. At the same time she is a warrior in her own right, her weapons are prayer and full submission to God. She will not compromise her values. The newness of Christianity is also a stumbling block for the surrounding Pagan culture, as it has no reference whatsoever and rumors abound. Pomponia instructed Lygia how to navigate these obstacles. We will see how she will fare on her own. Up to now she had been so sheltered and innocent.

Bruce Commented:

Regarding Nero, the early Church historian Eusebius in his Ecclesiastical history recounts, “When Nero’s power was firmly established, he gave himself up to unholy practices and took up arms against the God of the universe.” “His perverse and extraordinary madness led him to senselessly destroy innumerable lives. In his lust for blood, he did not spare even his nearest and dearest, but in various ways did away with mother, brothers, and wife alike, and countless other members of his family,” as well as his former tutor and Stoic philosopher Seneca, “as if they were personal and public enemies.”

 

The Roman historian Tacitus, in his Annals, says this about Nero’s persecution of the Christians: “But all human efforts, all the lavish gifts of the emperor, and all the sacrificing to the gods, did not banish the sinister popular belief that the fire was ordered by Nero. To destroy this rumor, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace.”

 

Tacitus continues, “At first, those who confessed were arrested. Then, on their evidence, a huge multitude was convicted, not so much of the crime of fire than for hatred of mankind. These deaths were accompanied by derision: covered in animal skins they were to perish torn by dogs, or affixed to crosses to be burnt as torches when the sun set. Nero offered his gardens for the show and staged games in the Circus, mixing with the crowd in the garb of a driver riding a chariot,” which was behavior not befitting an emperor. “This roused pity. Although guilty and deserving of extreme measures, the Christians’ annihilation seemed to arise not from public utility but for one man’s brutality.”

My Reply to Bruce:

Thank you Bruce. It seems the novel is following the history very closely.

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Excerpt from Chapter VII, a scene from Nero’s wild and drunken feast where Lygia was completely out of place.

 

The pulse beat oppressively in Lygia's hands and temples. A feeling seized her that she was flying into some abyss, and that Vinicius, who before had seemed so near and so trustworthy, instead of saving was drawing her toward it. And she felt sorry for him. She began again to dread the feast and him and herself. Some voice, like that of Pomponia, was calling yet in her soul, "O Lygia, save thyself!" But something told her also that it was too late; that the one whom such a flame had embraced as that which had embraced her, the one who had seen what was done at that feast and whose heart had beaten as hers had on hearing the words of Vinicius, the one through whom such a shiver had passed as had passed through her when he approached, was lost beyond recovery. She grew weak. It seemed at moments to her that she would faint, and then something terrible would happen. She knew that, under penalty of Cæsar's anger, it was not permitted any one to rise till Cæsar rose; but even were that not the case, she had not strength now to rise.

Meanwhile it was far to the end of the feast yet. Slaves brought new courses, and filled the goblets unceasingly with wine; before the table, on a platform open at one side, appeared two athletes to give the guests a spectacle of wrestling.

 

They began the struggle at once, and the powerful bodies, shining from olive oil, formed one mass; bones cracked in their iron arms, and from their set jaws came an ominous gritting of teeth. At moments was heard the quick, dull thump of their feet on the platform strewn with saffron; again they were motionless, silent, and it seemed to the spectators that they had before them a group chiselled out of stone. Roman eyes followed with delight the movement of tremendously exerted backs, thighs, and arms. But the struggle was not too prolonged; for Croton, a master, and the founder of a school of gladiators, did not pass in vain for the strongest man in the empire. His opponent began to breathe more and more quickly: next a rattle was heard in his throat; then his face grew blue; finally he threw blood from his mouth and fell.

 

A thunder of applause greeted the end of the struggle, and Croton, resting his foot on the breast of his opponent, crossed his gigantic arms on his breast, and cast the eyes of a victor around the hall.

 

Next appeared men who mimicked beasts and their voices, ball-players and buffoons. Only a few persons looked at them, however, since wine had darkened the eyes of the audience. The feast passed by degrees into a drunken revel and a dissolute orgy. The Syrian damsels, who appeared at first in the bacchic dance, mingled now with the guests. The music changed into a disordered and wild outburst of citharas, lutes, Armenian cymbals, Egyptian sistra, trumpets, and horns. As some of the guests wished to talk, they shouted at the musicians to disappear. The air, filled with the odor of flowers and the perfume of oils with which beautiful boys had sprinkled the feet of the guests during the feast, permeated with saffron and the exhalations of people, became stifling; lamps burned with a dim flame; the wreaths dropped sidewise on the heads of guests; faces grew pale and were covered with sweat. Vitelius rolled under the table. Nigidia, stripping herself to the waist, dropped her drunken childlike head on the breast of Lucan, who, drunk in like degree, fell to blowing the golden powder from her hair, and raising his eyes with immense delight. Vestinius, with the stubbornness of intoxication, repeated for the tenth time the answer of Mopsus to the sealed letter of the proconsul. Tullius, who reviled the gods, said, with a drawling voice broken by hiccoughs,—"If the spheros of Xenophanes is round, then consider, such a god might be pushed along before one with the foot, like a barrel."

 

But Domitius Afer, a hardened criminal and informer, was indignant at the discourse, and through indignation spilled Falernian over his whole tunic. He had always believed in the gods. People say that Rome will perish, and there are some even who contend that it is perishing already. And surely! But if that should come, it is because the youth are without faith, and without faith there can be no virtue. People have abandoned also the strict habits of former days, and it never occurs to them that Epicureans will not stand against barbarians. As for him, he—As for him, he was sorry that he had lived to such times, and that he must seek in pleasures a refuge against griefs which, if not met, would soon kill him.

 

When he had said this, he drew toward him a Syrian dancer, and kissed her neck and shoulders with his toothless mouth. Seeing this, the consul Memmius Regulus laughed, and, raising his bald head with wreath awry, exclaimed,—"Who says that Rome is perishing? What folly! I, a consul, know better. Videant consules! Thirty legions are guarding our pax romana!"

 

Here he put his fists to his temples and shouted, in a voice heard throughout the triclinium,—"Thirty legions! thirty legions! from Britain to the Parthian boundaries!" But he stopped on a sudden, and, putting a finger to his forehead, said,—"As I live, I think there are thirty-two." He rolled under the table, and began soon to send forth flamingo tongues, roast and chilled mushrooms, locusts in honey, fish, meat, and everything which he had eaten or drunk.

 

But the number of the legions guarding Roman peace did not pacify Domitius.

 

No, no! Rome must perish; for faith in the gods was lost, and so were strict habits! Rome must perish; and it was a pity, for still life was pleasant there. Cæsar was gracious, wine was good! Oh, what a pity!

Quo Vadis: A Narrative of the Time of Nero by Henryk Sienkiewicz, Part 1

The Catholic Thought book club read the novel Quo Vadis  by the Polish author and Nobel Prize in Literature winner Henryk Sienkiewicz.  It’s novel set in first century Rome—the 60s to be exact—under the Emperor Nero and of course the early Christians.  You may have seen one of several movies based on the novel, and, while I have not seen any of them, the novel must sure exceed them.  This is the first post of which there could be as many as eleven.  In this first post I’ll give an introduction, but in this and the other posts I will provide a chapter by chapter summary, any pertinent discussion from the book club, and one sample excerpt to give a flavor of the writing and story.  I found this to be an extraordinary novel, and well deserved as Sienkiewicz’s acclaim for Nobel Prize. 

Introduction:

As the subtitle implies us, “A Narrative of the Time of Nero,” Quo Vadis is a historical novel set in first century within the Roman Empire.  “Quo Vadis” translates to “Where are you going?” and was published in in Polish in 1896 by Henryk Sienkiewicz.  The story centers around a love interest between Marcus Vinicius, a Roman tribune and patrician, and therefore pagan, and Callina or sometimes called Lygia, a convert Christian and a daughter of a deceased barbarian king.  Like most historical novels there are a number of fictitious characters and characters taken out of the historical time.  Both the central characters are fictitious.  Also like most historical novels, there is a vast sweep of events and many characters.  You can read the major character list on the novel’s Wikipedia entry here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quo_Vadis_(novel)  You will recognize the Emperor Nero, deranged and known for his narcissism and persecutor of Christians.  Of Nero we know he was emperor when the great fire of Rome occurred, and indeed some claimed he set or had the fire himself and then turned and blamed the Christians and followed up with a great persecution of Christians.  I expect this will be a scene in the novel.

The character list also includes the apostles Peter and Paul who were in Rome at the time of Nero’s persecution of the Christians.  I expect their martyrdom will also be dramatized.  If Quo Vadis employs other historical novel techniques, I expect there will be an alternating between Roman pagan scenes and Christian scenes culminating in some great climax between the two world views.  But I have not read any summary except of the love interest between the two central characters.

Henryk Sienkiewicz was born in Poland in 1846 to a noble but impoverished family.  The family still had a coat of arms.  He started as a travel writer, including spending time in the United States, and a journalist, and attempted several fiction efforts early on.  The shorter pieces were published but not the novels.  He finally published his first novel in 1880, a historical novel, and from 1883 to 1888 went on to write three novels which are known as The Trilogy, narrating the major events in Polish history. Sienkiewicz was of the persuasion that a work of art, especially a novel “should strengthen and ennoble life, rather than undermining and debasing it.”  One would expect that there is a strong moral element to his works and speak to the “good” in the transcendentals of goodness, truth, and beauty. 

Sienkiewicz published Quo Vadis in 1886 at the age of forty.  He went on to write a number of epic historical novels, but he seems best remembered for his The Trilogy and Quo Vadis.  His work was extremely popular in his day both in his native land and throughout Europe.  He received the Nobel Prize for his “epic works” in 1905 and lived until 1916 to the age of 70.  He has a lasting legacy in Poland and in many European countries.

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Choosing a Translation:

I was reading up on the translations. There are basically two translations available. The Jerimiah Curtain translation of 1897 and the W. S. Kuniczak translation. Curtain goes so far back that he was a friend of President Theodore Roosevelt. I don't know when Kuniczak translated the work but he died in 2000, so much more recent. Both are supposed to be good translations but Curtain's language is supposed to be dated. Kuniczak I think was Polish himself, was also a novelist, and translated a number of Sienkiewicz's works. Kuniczak is probably the one to get, but I too got the Curtain translation. It was cheap! But despite the language it is supposed to be a faithful translation.  It has survived a long time.

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Chapters 1 thru 6

Summary

We meet Petronius, an older aristocrat, awakening to the start of the novel, benumbed after having spent the previous night at one of Nero’s feasts.  After getting a message and a bath, his young nephew, Marcus Vinicius arrives, recently returned from Asia Minor and joins him in the bath.  They talk about their mutual travels and assignments, the recent politics, and common acquaintances.  They also talk about life and war and writing.  When Petronius casually mentions Aulus Plautius, Vinicius tells of having stayed at Aulus’s home when he dislocated his arm and was nursed by a most beautiful young slave named Lygia, with whom he had fallen in love.  Vinicius tells the story of how the Emperor Claudius in conquest of the Lygians had taken the girl, who was the Lygean King’s daughter as a political hostage and through several transactions wound up with Pomponia Graecina, the wife of Aulus Plautius, where Vinicius met her.  He expresses his desire to have Lygia and implores Petronius to get Aulus to give her to him.

The two set out to the house of Aulus Plautius.  On the way, Vinicius tells Petronius of his two meetings with Lygia.  They travel through the heart of Rome where the city comes to life with activity.  They stop at a book-shop, and Petronius purchases a book, Satyricon, and gifts it to Vinicius.  Petronius tells him he is the author, but it is a secret and to not tell anyone.  The two arrive at Aulus’s house and are let in.  Aulus was a general under the Emperor Claudius in the conquest of Britain, and the three men have a discussion.  They come to where his little child Aulus and Lygia are playing and then come to Plautius’s wife Pomponia in the garden.  Pomponia is dressed in black mourning.  When Lygia joins them, Vinicius quotes a love verse from Homer, and Lygia to everyone’s surprise knows and speaks the corresponding verse.  She runs off, but Vinicius follows and woos her and asks her to live with him in Sicily.  Meanwhile Petronius and Pomponia are discussing the gods when Pomponia tells him she only believes in one almighty God.

On the way home, Petronius pondered the philosophic implications of Pamponia’s one God.  He speaks of this to Vinicius but Vinicius is focused solely on Lygia.  He says he is completely captivated by her and must marry her.  Petronius tries to calm him, and finally tells him he has a plan that if it works she will wind up in Vinicius’ house.

That evening Petronius goes to have a confidential conversation with Nero.  In a few days a squad of praetorian soldiers headed by a centurion show up in Aulus’ house proclaiming that the emperor commands to take Lygia to his household since she is an offered hostage from the Lygian king.  The household is in tears.  All these years at the Aulus’ household, Lygia had become a daughter to Aulus and Pomponia.  But despite the heartbreak, tears, and anger, Lygia must go.  Lygia is consoled that she can take her retinue that came with her from Lygia, and who share her religion.  Aulus promises he will speak to the emperor to reverse this.

But Nero denies Aulus a visit, and so Aulus goes to Seneca for assistance.  Seneca laughs that he could have any sway over Nero, and that it might actually be counterproductive and Nero deny him in spite.  They come to the conclusion that Petronius had put up Nero to taking Lygia.  Aulus then goes to Vinicius’ home and tells him that Lygia has been taken away.  This enrages Vinicius because he had understood the plan to be that Petronius would have her sent to his house, not the emperor’s. 

Vinicius rushes to Petronius’s home in anger ready to exact violence.  He believes that Petronius has betrayed him to keep Lygia for himself.  Petronius stops him with his own strength but as Vinicius calms down, Petronius explains that this was part of his plan.  It required Lygia to spend some time at the Emperor’s home because Lygia is technically a political hostage, and therefore it required a justification to take her from Aulus.  In time Nero will authorizes her to go to Vinicius’ home.  Vinicius is mollified and asks for forgiveness.

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Kerstin Commented:

Vinicius is besotted, no question about it. We normally don't get such unfiltered declarations of love. I find it quite amusing. Here is the young buck not knowing where his head stands!

 

Petronius is a seasoned courtier. He knows how precariously his life hangs in the balance given Nero's volatile temper. He has to outsmart him given Lygia's complicated status. He also has no compunction to let the ends justify the means.

 

Here is a description and graphics of how a Roman house looked like.

https://roman-empire.net/society/the-roman-house/

 

Years ago there was a traveling exhibit on Roman life here in Kansas City, and they had rebuilt an atrium with the pool in the middle, etc. It was fascinating

Galicius Comment:

I was rather impressed by how well-grounded Sienkiewicz seemed in the ancient Roman world; dare I say its “culture.” I looked for his sources on the topography and orientation. The Wikipedia information is impressive. I found additional information in Literatura Polska (Literatura Polska, #2) by Julian Krzyżanowski |(Encyclopedic Guide to Polish Literature, Vol. II N-Z) Goodreads which lists some sources Sienkiewicz used: Roman historians Tacitus (C. 56-c.120) and Suetonius (c. 69-c.122). He used 19th Century historians such a E. Renan’s “Antichrist” (1873, A. Giraud, “Flavieau ou de Rome desert” (1835), Ignacy Kraszewski, “Rzym za Nerona” (Rome During Nero” (1866) and Krasinski „Irydion”. The painter Henryk Siemiradzki was his friend. Sienkiewicz admired the painting shown on the Wikipedia page on “Quo Vadis.”

 

Sienkiewicz had the idea about the Lygians from W. Ketrzynski who thought that they were people living between the Oder and Vistula rivers. This was supported also by studies of K. Murawski.

My Reply to Galicius:

I am impressed too Galicius on how Sienkiewicz captures the Roman mind. I have read that he spent a lot of time learning the culture and psychology. I think he did a superb job!

My Comment:

So what is interesting is that I think Sienkiewicz is playing with Greco-Roman stoicism, and how Vinicius is the very opposite in contrast to Petronius and Aulus who hold to that model much better. Sienkiewicz goes out of his way to highlight Vinicius' over abundant emotion and lack of control. Vinicius is a total failure to hold up this Roman ideal. How this figures in the novel I don't think we've seen yet.

Joseph’s Reply:

There's certainly some play with Stoicism, but I think Sienkiewicz is setting up kind of a three-way thing. You have Vinicius who is ruled by his emotions and desires, Petronius who is so logical as to be coldly ruthless, and the as yet mysterious Christians Pomponia and Lygia. Pitted against these is the overwhelming figure of Nero and his unpredictability so we may see a deep dive into how each character reacts when the winds shift, as it were.

My Reply to Joseph:

I should correct myself. Above I said that Petronius was a stoic like Aulus. I think that is incorrect. He enjoys his life well but he does it with a certain moderation. As pointed out in the summary, Petronius is the actual author of the ancient Roman novel the Satyricon. I'm not sure why Sienkiewicz placed in such a prominent position the author of a Roman decadent satire, but there has to reason. Are the views of the Satyricon endowed to Petronius? I don't know. I have not read the Satyricon. Petronius however strikes me more of an Epicurean, one who enjoys life without the extremes of hedonism but are typically cynical and godless and amoral.

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Excerpt from Chapter Two.  Petronius and Vinicius are walking through Rome to go to Aulus’s house.  Sienkiewicz marvelously captures the hustle and bustle of the Roman streets.

 

From the Vicus Apollinis they turned to the Boarium, and then entered the Forum Romanum, where on clear days, before sunset, crowds of idle people assembled to stroll among the columns, to tell and hear news, to see noted people borne past in litters, and finally to look in at the jewellery-shops, the book-shops, the arches where coin was changed, shops for silk, bronze, and all other articles with which the buildings covering that part of the market placed opposite the Capitol were filled.

 

One-half of the Forum, immediately under the rock of the Capitol, was buried already in shade; but the columns of the temples, placed higher, seemed golden in the sunshine and the blue. Those lying lower cast lengthened shadows on marble slabs. The place was so filled with columns everywhere that the eye was lost in them as in a forest.

 

Those buildings and columns seemed huddled together. They towered some above others, they stretched toward the right and the left, they climbed toward the height, and they clung to the wall of the Capitol, or some of them clung to others, like greater and smaller, thicker and thinner, white or gold colored tree-trunks, now blooming under architraves, flowers of the acanthus, now surrounded with Ionic corners, now finished with a simple Doric quadrangle. Above that forest gleamed colored triglyphs; from tympans stood forth the sculptured forms of gods; from the summits winged golden quadrigæ seemed ready to fly away through space into the blue dome, fixed serenely above that crowded place of temples. Through the middle of the market and along the edges of it flowed a river of people; crowds passed under the arches of the basilica of Julius Cæsar; crowds were sitting on the steps of Castor and Pollux, or walking around the temple of Vesta, resembling on that great marble background many-colored swarms of butterflies or beetles. Down immense steps, from the side of the temple on the Capitol dedicated to Jupiter Optimus Maximus, came new waves; at the rostra people listened to chance orators; in one place and another rose the shouts of hawkers selling fruit, wine, or water mixed with fig-juice; of tricksters; of venders of marvellous medicines; of soothsayers; of discoverers of hidden treasures; of interpreters of dreams. Here and there, in the tumult of conversations and cries, were mingled sounds of the Egyptian sistra, of the sambuké, or of Grecian flutes. Here and there the sick, the pious, or the afflicted were bearing offerings to the temples. In the midst of the people, on the stone flags, gathered flocks of doves, eager for the grain given them, and like movable many-colored and dark spots, now rising for a moment with a loud sound of wings, now dropping down again to places left vacant by people. From time to time the crowds opened before litters in which were visible the affected faces of women, or the heads of senators and knights, with features, as it were, rigid and exhausted from living. The many-tongued population repeated aloud their names, with the addition of some term of praise or ridicule. Among the unordered groups pushed from time to time, advancing with measured tread, parties of soldiers, or watchers, preserving order on the streets. Around about, the Greek language was heard as often as Latin.