Quo Vadis by Henryk Sienkiewicz

First published: 1895-1896, serial; 1896, book (English translation, 1896)

Type of work: Novel

Type of plot: Historical

Time of plot: c. 64 c.e.

Locale: Rome

Principal characters

• Vinicius, a young Roman patrician
• Lygia, a foreign princess whom Vinicius loves
• Petronius, Vinicius’s uncle and an intimate friend of Nero
• Nero, the Roman emperor
• Chilo, a Greek sycophant
• Peter, a leader of the Christians
• Tigellinus, Petronius’s enemy and Nero’s friend

The Story:

When Vinicius returns to Rome after serving duty in the colonies, he calls on his uncle, Petronius, who is one of the most influential men in Rome. A friend of Emperor Nero, Petronius owns a beautiful home, choice slaves, and numerous objects of art. Petronius has no delusions about the emperor; he knows quite well that Nero is coarse, conceited, brutal, and thoroughly evil. Petronius is happy to see his handsome young nephew. Vinicius has fallen in love with Lygia, the daughter of a foreign king, now living with Aulus, Plautius, and Pomponia, and he asks his uncle to help him get Lygia as his concubine. Petronius speaks to Nero, and Lygia is ordered to be brought to the palace. Lygia’s foster parents send with the young woman the giant Ursus, who is Lygia’s devoted servant.

At a wild orgy in the palace, Vinicius attempts to make love to Lygia, but he does not succeed, owing to the watchfulness of Acte, who is a Christian and a former concubine of Nero. Lygia herself is a Christian, and she fears both the lust of Vinicius and that of the emperor himself. Then Acte receives information that Lygia is to be handed over to Vinicius. At the same time, the daughter of Empress Augusta dies, and the empress and her circle believe that Lygia bewitched the child. Alarmed at the dangers threatening Lygia, Acte and Ursus plan Lygia’s escape.

That night, the servants of Vinicius arrive at the palace and lead Lygia away. Meanwhile, Vinicius waits at his house, where a great feast is to take place in honor of his success in securing Lygia. Lygia, however, never arrives, for on the way to his house Vinicius’s servants are attacked by a group of Christians who are determined to free the young woman, their fellow Christian. Lygia’s rescuers take her outside the city walls to live in a Christian colony.

Vinicius is furious when he learns what has happened. Petronius sends some of his own men to watch for Lygia at the gates of the city, and as the days pass Vinicius grows more and more upset. Finally, Chilo, a Greek who passes as a philosopher, offers to find Lygia—for a sufficient reward. By pretending to be a convert to Christianity, he learns where the Christians meet secretly. He and Vinicius, together with a giant named Croton, go to the meeting place and then follow Lygia to the house where she is staying. When they attempt to seize her, Ursus kills Croton, and Vinicius is injured during the fight. For a few days afterward he stays with the Christians, who take care of him. Lygia nurses him until she becomes aware that she is in love with the pagan patrician; when she realizes what her feelings are, she decides to leave his care to others rather than put herself in a position where she might succumb to temptation.

Vinicius heard the Christians speaking of their religious philosophy at their meeting, and while recuperating he is amazed by their goodness and their forgiveness. He hears their leader, Peter, talk of Christ and of Christ’s miracles, and his mind becomes filled with odd and disturbing thoughts. He realizes that he must either hate or love the God who keeps Lygia from him. Strangely enough, Vinicius becomes convinced that he no longer has the desire to take Lygia by force. After he is well again, he maintains contact with the Christians, and at last, after he has accepted their faith, Lygia agrees to marry him.

In the meantime, Nero goes to Antium, where the nobleman Tigellinus plants in his mind the idea that he should burn Rome in order to write and sing a poem about the tremendous catastrophe. Accordingly, Nero sets fire to Rome, and almost all the city is destroyed. Vinicius rushes from Antium to save Lygia, but luckily she has already left the city.

After the fire, the people of Rome are angry about Nero’s actions; rebellion is in the air. The empress and the Jews at court persuade Nero to blame the Christians for the fire. Chilo, who has been befriended by the Christians, who have forgiven his abominable crimes, turns traitor. He gives the emperor all the information he has about the Christians and leads the emperor’s guards to the hiding places of the sect. Cruel persecutions begin.

Petronius tries desperately to stop Nero and save Vinicius. Failing in his attempt, he knows that his own days are numbered. The Christians are first crammed into prisons and then brought into the arena for the entertainment of the populace. Virgins are raped by the gladiators and then fed to starving lions. Many Christians are crucified and burned alive. After Lygia is seized and imprisoned, Vinicius fails in an attempt to rescue her.

At last Lygia’s turn comes to be led into the arena to amuse the brutal populace. She is stripped and tied to the back of a raging bull. When the bull is sent running into the arena, Ursus rushes forward and locks his strong arms around the animal. To the astonishment of all, the bull yields and dies. The people then demand that Lygia and Ursus be set free, and the emperor has to obey the public clamor. Petronius advises Vinicius that they should all leave the city, for Nero has ways of removing people who have offended him.

The persecutions continue, and as the spectacles in the arena grow more and more ghastly, the people at last begin to sicken of the bestial tortures. One of the Christians looks straight at Nero as he is dying and accuses the emperor of all his infamous crimes. As the Christian Glaucus is being burned alive, he looks toward Chilo, the Greek who betrayed the Christians. Glaucus, who earlier had been left for dead by Chilo, forgives the Greek for his past actions, which include his having caused Glaucus’s wife and children to be sold into slavery. Moved by the dying man’s mercy, Chilo cries out to the crowd in a loud voice that the Christians are innocent of the burning of Rome and that the guilty man is Nero. Despairing of his own fate, Chilo is on the point of complete collapse, but Paul of Tarsus takes him aside and assures him that Christ is merciful even to the worst of sinners. He then baptizes the Greek. When Chilo returns to his home, he is seized by the emperor’s guards and led away to his death in the arena. Vinicius and Lygia escape to Sicily.

When Petronius hears that the emperor has ordered him to be killed, he invites some of the patricians to his house at Cumae, where he has gone with Nero and the court. There at a great feast he reads an attack against Nero, astounding everyone. Then he and Eunice, a slave who loves him, stretch out their arms to a physician, who opens their veins. While the party continues and the astonished guests look on, Petronius and Eunice bleed to death in each other’s arms.

Nero returns to Rome. His subjects hate him more than ever, and a rebellion breaks out at last. Nero is informed that his death has been decreed, and he flees. With some of his slaves around him, he attempts to plunge a knife into his own throat, but he is too timid to complete the deed. As some soldiers approach to arrest him, a slave thrusts the fatal knife into his emperor’s throat.

Bibliography

Giergielewicz, Mieczyslaw. Henryk Sienkiewicz. 1968. Reprint. New York: Hippocrene Books, 1991. Good introductory volume offers a general survey of Sienkiewicz’s achievements. A chapter on Quo Vadis discusses the novelist’s adaptation of classical sources, his development of the idea of the fated dominance of Christianity, and his handling of plot and structure.

Kridl, Manfred. A Survey of Polish Literature and Culture. Translated by Olga Sherer-Virski. 1956. Reprint. New York: Columbia University Press, 1967. Discusses the novelist’s techniques, which he repeats in many of his works, including Quo Vadis. Describes Sienkiewicz’s use of history in this novel of ancient Rome.

Krżyanowski, Julian. A History of Polish Literature. Translated by Doris Ronowicz. Warsaw: PWN-Polish Scientific, 1978. Stresses the importance Sienkiewicz places on the accuracy of historical detail in his novels. Notes how he uses this approach successfully in Quo Vadis.

Lednicki, Waclaw. Henryk Sienkiewicz: A Retrospective Synthesis. The Hague, the Netherlands: Mouton, 1960. Provides an assessment of Sienkiewicz’s career that gives readers a sense of the relative value of Quo Vadis to other works by the writer.

Miłosz, Czesław. The History of Polish Literature. 2d ed. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983. Discusses Sienkiewicz in a chapter titled “Positivism.” Notes the uneven quality of Sienkiewicz’s fiction and argues that the novelist presents a simplistic portrait of the classical period in Quo Vadis.

Scodel, Ruth, and Anja Bettenworth. Whither “Quo Vadis”: Sienkiewicz’s Novel in Film and Television. Malden, Mass.: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009. Analyzes four films and a television version of Quo Vadis, describing how these adaptations modified the novel and its sources. Discusses the depictions of gender and ethnicity, politics, the Roman people, and religion in the adaptations, explaining how these portrayals reflect the historical and ideological concerns of the times in which the adaptations were produced.