A Tale of Two Classics
 

Reviewed by Dr. Susan K. Hedahl

            This summer I finally read the 1896 classic, Quo Vadis? by Henryk Sienkiewisc.

Some people are surprised to learn that this is a book as well as the popular movie made from it in 1951 (released by Warner Studios inVHS format in 2002).   In reading this classic, I was inevitably lead to Sienkiewicz's sources.  But first Quo Vadis?

            The work is set in the time of Nero's Rome and describes in significant historical detail the fictionalized life of a Roman nobleman, Marcus Vinicius, and his eventual conversion to Christianity through the agency of a female slave, Lygia, whom he learns to love despite his initial reservations about her Christian faith.

What makes the book compelling?   The author has clearly done his historical homework.  He refers to minute details that only research of those times could yield.  For example, the type of slave dubbed "spheregysti," were the servants who were responsible for playing ball with children!  As fire destroys much of Rome during Nero's reign, Sienkiewisc describes the geographical progression of the fire with an eye to what was in actually in place during the time as far as temples, monuments, villas, slums, the gardens of the rich and other landmarks. One can easily walk through Rome with this author with a sense of historical verisimilitude.

            His character descriptions are well wrought and his descriptions of the multiple "barbarian" slaves create for the reader a keen sense of the cosmopolitan and wealthy look of Rome during Nero's reign.  But where did a read of this classic work lead?

            It lead to The Annals and The History of Roman historian, Publius Cornelius Tacitus, born circa 53 AD and lost to history somewhere after 100 AD.  It is in The Annals that we find the key to Quo Vadis?  Section XXXII notes:  "Pomponia Graecina, a woman of illustrious birth and the wife of Plautius, who, on his return from Britain, entered the city with the pomp of an ovation, was accused of embracing the rites of a foreign superstition." (p. 389 Everyman's Library edition, London).

Tacitus goes on to speak of both her innocence and "the glory of her character."   It is this couple Sienkiewicz recreates fictionally in beginning his book, assuming that the "foreign superstition" to which Tacitus refers is Christianity. Pomponia becomes the means for converting Lygia and eventually Vinicius through her faith.

            The works of Tacitus are beguiling.  If you want political intrigue, insightful character description, fast paced reading, a look at the wars on the Gallic, German and British frontiers --this is your work. You will feel an immense sense of loss when you read those place in the text where lacunae are noted due to lost portions of the manuscript.

 You will find overworked, underpaid soldiers; veteran soldiers complaining about being forcibly re-enlisted; people in high office scamming their peers and abusing their underlings; the worship of the gods (Tacitus observes most in power did not believe in them); and many, many eloquent speeches paraphrased from the Roman senate.  The substantial role of women is a constant theme in Tacitus' portrayals of private and public Roman life.  With the scheming, manipulations and destruction of Roman political life so aptly described, there were passages which caused this reviewer to wonder if she was reading a history of first century Roman or current American political dealings.

A reading of Tacitus proves how his works have endured and also what a dedicated student of history H. Sienkiewisc was.  By anchoring his work in the insights of Tacitus, the reader is provided a double feast.