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Home -> Henryk Sienkiewicz -> Quo Vadis -> Chapter XLVIII

Quo Vadis - Chapter XLVIII

1. Chapter 1

2. Chapter II

3. Chapter III

4. Chapter IV

5. Chapter V

6. Chapter VI

7. Chapter VII

8. Chapter VIII

9. Chapter IX

10. Chapter X

11. Chapter XI

12. Chapter XII

13. Chapter XIII

14. Chapter XIV

15. Chapter XV

16. Chapter XVI

17. Chapter XVII

18. Chapter XVIII

19. Chapter XIX

20. Chapter XX

21. Chapter XXI

22. Chapter XXII

23. Chapter XXIII

24. Chapter XXIV

25. Chapter XXV

26. Chapter XXVI

27. Chapter XXVII

28. Chapter XXVIII

29. Chapter XXIX

30. Chapter XXX

31. Chapter XXXI

32. Chapter XXXII

33. Chapter XXXIII

34. Chapter XXXIV

35. Chapter XXXV

36. Chapter XXXVI

37. Chapter XXXVII

38. Chapter XXXVIII

39. Chapter XXXIX

40. Chapter XL

41. Chapter XLI

42. Chapter XLII

43. Chapter XLIII

44. Chapter XLIV

45. Chapter XLV

46. Chapter XLVI

47. Chapter XLVII

48. Chapter XLVIII

49. Chapter XLIX

50. Chapter L

51. Chapter LI

52. Chapter LII

53. Chapter LIII

54. Chapter LIV

55. Chapter LV

56. Chapter LVI

57. Chapter LVII

58. Chapter LVIII

59. Chapter LIX

60. Chapter LX

61. Chapter LXI

62. Chapter LXII

63. Chapter LXIII

64. Chapter LXIV

65. Chapter LXV

66. Chapter LXVI

67. Chapter LXVII

68. Chapter LXVIII

69. Chapter LXIX

70. Chapter LXX

71. Chapter LXXI

72. Chapter LXXII

73. Chapter LXXIII

74. Epilogue







Chapter XLVIII

CAMPS of people were disposed in the lordly gardens of Cæsar, formerly
gardens of Domitius and Agrippina; they were disposed also on the Campus
Martius, in the gardens of Pompey, Sallust, and Mæcenas, in porticos,
tennis-courts, splendid summer-houses, and buildings erected for wild
beasts. Peacocks, flamingoes, swans, ostriches, gazelles, African
antelopes, and deer, which had served as ornaments to those gardens,
went under the knives of the rabble. Provisions began to come in now
from Ostria so abundantly that one might walk, as on a bridge, over
ships, boats, and barges from one bank of the Tiber to the other. Wheat
was sold at the unheard-of low price of three sestertia, and was given
gratis to the indigent. Immense supplies of wine, olives, and chestnuts
were brought to the city; sheep and cattle were driven in every day from
the mountains. Wretches who before the fire had been hiding in alleys
of the Subura, and were perishing of hunger in ordinary times, had a
more pleasant life now. The danger of famine was averted completely,
but it was more difficult to suppress robbery, murder, and abuses. A
nomadic life insured impunity to thieves; the more easily since they
proclaimed themselves admirers of Cæsar, and were unsparing of plaudits
wherever he appeared. Moreover, when, by the pressure of events, the
authorities were in abeyance, and there was a lack of armed force to
quell insolence in a city inhabited by the dregs of contemporary
mankind, deeds were done which passed human imagination. Every night
there were battles and murders; every night boys and women were snatched
away. At the Porta Mugionis, where there was a halting-place for herds
driven in from the Campania, it come to engagements in which people
perished by hundreds. Every morning the banks of the Tiber were covered
with drowned bodies, which no one collected; these decayed quickly
because of heat heightened by fire, and filled the air with foul odors.
Sickness broke out on the camping-grounds, and the more timorous foresaw
a great pestilence.

But the city burned on unceasingly. Only on the sixth day, when the
fire reached empty spaces on the Esquiline, where an enormous number of
houses had been demolished purposely, did it weaken. But the piles of
burning cinders gave such strong light yet that people would not believe
that the end of the catastrophe had come. In fact the fire burst forth
with fresh force on the seventh night in the buildings of Tigellinus,
but had short duration for lack of fuel. Burnt houses, however, fell
here and there, and threw up towers of flame and pillars of sparks. But
the glowing ruins began to grow black on the surface. After sunset the
heavens ceased to gleam with bloody light, and only after dark did blue
tongues quiver above the extended black waste, tongues which rose from
piles of cinders.

Of the fourteen divisions of Rome there remained only four, including
the Trans-Tiber. Flames had consumed all the others. When at last the
piles of cinders had been turned into ashes, an immense space was
visible from the Tiber to the Esquiline, gray, gloomy, dead. In this
space stood rows of chimneys, like columns over graves in a cemetery.
Among these columns gloomy crowds of people moved about in the daytime,
some seeking for precious objects, others for the bones of those dear to
them. In the night dogs howled above the ashes and ruins of former
dwellings.

All the bounty and aid shown by Cæsar to the populace did not restrain
evil speech and indignation. Only the herd of robbers, criminals, and
homeless ruffians, who could eat, drink, and rob enough, were contented.
People who had lost all their property and their nearest relatives were
not won over by the opening of gardens, the distribution of bread, or
the promise of games and gifts. The catastrophe had been too great and
unparalleled. Others, in whom was hidden yet some spark of love for the
city and their birthplace, were brought to despair by news that the old
name "Roma" was to vanish, and that from the ashes of the capital Cæsar
would erect a new city called Neropolis. A flood of hatred rose and
swelled every day, despite the flatteries of the Augustians and the
calumnies of Tigellinus. Nero, more sensitive than any former Cæsar to
the favor of the populace, thought with alarm that in the sullen and
mortal struggle which he was waging with patricians in the Senate, he
might lack support. The Augustians themselves were not less alarmed,
for any morning might bring them destruction. Tigellinus thought of
summoning certain legions from Asia Minor. Vatinius, who laughed even
when slapped on the face, lost his humor; Vitelius lost his appetite.

Others were taking counsel among themselves how to avert the danger, for
it was no secret that were an outburst to carry off Cæsar, not one of
the Augustians would escape, except, perhaps, Petronius. To their
influence were ascribed the madnesses of Nero, to their suggestions all
the crimes which he committed. Hatred for them almost surpassed that
for Nero. Hence some began to make efforts to rid themselves of
responsibility for the burning of the city. But to free themselves they
must clear Cæsar also from suspicion, or no one would believe that they
had not caused the catastrophe. Tigellinus took counsel on this subject
with Domitius Afer, and even with Seneca, though he hated him. Poppæa,
who understood that the ruin of Nero would be her own sentence, took the
opinion of her confidants and of Hebrew priests, for it had been
admitted for years that she held the faith of Jehovah. Nero found his
own methods, which, frequently terrible, were more frequently foolish,
and fell now into terror, now into childish delight, but above all he
complained.

On a time a long and fruitless consultation was held in the house of
Tiberius, which had survived the fire. Petronius thought it best to
leave troubles, go to Greece, thence to Egypt and Asia Minor. The
journey had been planned long before; why defer it, when in Rome were
sadness and danger?

Cæsar accepted the counsel with eagerness; but Seneca when he had
thought awhile, said,--

"It is easy to go, but it would be more difficult to return."

"By Heracles!" replied Petronius, "we may return at the head of Asiatic
legions."

"This will I do!" exclaimed Nero.

But Tigellinus opposed. He could discover nothing himself, and if the
arbiter's idea had come to his own head he would beyond doubt have
declared it the saving one; but with him the question was that Petronius
might not be a second time the only man who in difficult moments could
rescue all and every one.

"Hear me, divinity," said he, "this advice is destructive! Before thou
art at Ostia a civil war will break out; who knows but one of the
surviving collateral descendants of the divine Augustus will declare
himself Cæsar, and what shall we do if the legions take his side?"

"We shall try," answered Nero, "that there be no descendants of
Augustus. There are not many now; hence it is easy to rid ourselves of
them."

"It is possible to do so, but is it a question of them alone? No longer
ago than yesterday my people heard in the crowd that a man like Thrasea
should be Cæsar."

Nero bit his lips. After a while he raised his eyes and said:
"Insatiable and thankless. They have grain enough, and they have coal
on which to bake cakes; what more do they want?"

"Vengeance!" replied Tigellinus.

Silence followed. Cæsar rose on a sudden, extended his hand, and began
to declaim,--

"Hearts call for vengeance, and vengeance wants a victim." Then,
forgetting everything, he said, with radiant face: "Give me the tablet
and stilus to write this line. Never could Lucan have composed the
like. Have ye noticed that I found it in a twinkle?"

"O incomparable!" exclaimed a number of voices. Nero wrote down the
line, and said,--

"Yes, vengeance wants a victim." Then he cast a glance on those around
him. "But if we spread the report that Vatinius gave command to burn
the city, and devote him to the anger of the people?"

"O divinity! Who am I?" exclaimed Vatmius.

"True! One more important than thou is demanded. Is it Vitelius?"

Vitelius grew pale, but began to laugh.

"My fat," answered he, "might start the fire again."

But Nero had something else on his mind; in his soul he was looking for
a victim who might really satisfy the people's anger, and he found him.

"Tigellinus," said he after a while, "it was thou who didst burn Rome!"
A shiver ran through those present. They understood that Cæsar had
ceased to jest this time, and that a moment had come which was pregnant
with events.

The face of Tigellinus was wrinkled, like the lips of a dog about to
bite.

"I burnt Rome at thy command!" said he.

And the two glared at each other like a pair of devils. Such silence
followed that the buzzing of flies was heard as they flew through the
atrium.

"Tigellinus," said Nero, "dost thou love me?"

"Thou knowest, lord."

"Sacrifice thyself for me."

"O divine Cæsar," answered Tigellinus, "why present the sweet cup which
I may not raise to my lips? The people are muttering and rising; dost
thou wish the pretorians also to rise?"

A feeling of terror pressed the hearts of those present. Tigellinus was
pretorian prefect, and his words had the direct meaning of a threat.
Nero himself understood this, and his face became pallid.

At that moment Epaphroditus, Cæsar's freedman, entered, announcing that
the divine Augusta wished to see Tigellinus, as there were people in her
apartments whom the prefect ought to hear.

Tigellinus bowed to Cæsar, and went out with a face calm and
contemptuous. Now, when they had wished to strike him, he had shown his
teeth; he had made them understand who he was, and, knowing Nero's
cowardice, he was confident that that ruler of the world would never
dare to raise a hand against him.

Nero sat in silence for a moment; then, seeing that those present
expected some answer, he said,--

"I have reared a serpent in my bosom."

Petronius shrugged his shoulders, as if to say that it was not difficult
to pluck the head from such a serpent.

"What wilt thou say? Speak, advise!" exclaimed Nero, noticing this
motion. "I trust in thee alone, for thou hast more sense than all of
them, and thou lovest me."

Petronius had the following on his lips: "Make me pretorian prefect, I
will deliver Tigellinus to the people, and pacify the city in a day."
But his innate slothfulness prevailed. To be prefect meant to bear on
his shoulder's Cæsar's person and also thousands of public affairs. And
why should he perform that labor? Was it not better to read poetry in
his splendid library, look at vases and statues, or hold to his breast
the divine body of Eunice, twining her golden hair through his fingers,
and inclining his lips to her coral mouth? Hence he said,--

"I advise the journey to Achæa."

"Ah!" answered Nero, "I looked for something more from thee. The Senate
hates me. If I depart, who will guarantee that it will not revolt and
proclaim some one else Cæsar? The people have been faithful to me so
far, but now they will follow the Senate. By Hades! if that Senate and
that people had one head!--"

"Permit me to say, O divinity, that if thou desire to save Rome, there
is need to save even a few Romans," remarked Petronius, with a smile.

"What care I for Rome and Romans?" complained Nero. "I should be obeyed
in Achæa. Here only treason surrounds me. All desert me, and ye are
making ready for treason. I know it, I know it. Ye do not even imagine
what future ages will say of you if ye desert such an artist as I am."

Here he tapped his forehead on a sudden, and cried,--

"True! Amid these cares even I forget who I am."

Then he turned to Petronius with a radiant face.

"Petronius," said he, "the people murmur; but if I take my lute and go
to the Campus Martius, if I sing that song to them which I sang during
the conflagration, dost thou not think that I will move them, as Orpheus
moved wild beasts?"

To this Tullius Senecio, who was impatient to return to his slave women
brought in from Antium, and who had been impatient a long time,
replied,--

"Beyond doubt, O Cæsar, if they permit thee to begin."

"Let us go to Hellas!" cried Nero, with disgust.

But at that moment Poppæa appeared, and with her Tigellinis. The eyes of
those present turned to him unconsciously, for never had triumphator
ascended the Capitol with pride such as his when he stood before Cæsar.
He began to speak slowly and with emphasis, in tones through which the
bite of iron, as it were, was heard,--

"Listen. O Cæsar, for I can say: I have found! The people want
vengeance, they want not one victim, but hundreds, thousands. Hast
heard, lord, who Christos was,--he who was crucified by Pontius Pilate?
And knowest thou who the Christians are? Have I not told thee of their
crimes and foul ceremonies, of their predictions that fire would cause
the end of the world? People hate and suspect them. No one has seen
them in a temple at any time, for they consider our gods evil spirits;
they are not in the Stadium, for they despise horse races. Never have
the hands of a Christian done thee honor with plaudits. Never has one
of them recognized thee as god. They are enemies of the human race, of
the city, and of thee. The people murmur against thee; but thou hast
given me no command to burn Rome, and I did not burn it. The people
want vengeance; let them have it. The people want blood and games; let
them have them. The people suspect thee; let their suspicion turn in
another direction."

Nero listened with amazement at first; but as Tigellinus proceeded, his
actor's face changed, and assumed in succession expressions of anger,
sorrow, sympathy, indignation. Suddenly he rose, and, casting off the
toga, which dropped at his feet, he raised both hands and stood silent
for a time. At last he said, in the tones of a tragedian,--

"O Zeus, Apollo, Here, Athene, Persephone, and all ye immortals! why did
ye not come to aid us? What has this hapless city done to those cruel
wretches that they burnt it so inhumanly?"

"They are enemies of mankind and of thee," said Poppæa.

"Do justice!" cried others. "Punish the incendiaries! The gods
themselves call for vengeance!"

Nero sat down, dropped his head to his breast, and was silent a second
time, as if stunned by the wickedness of which he had heard. But after
a while he shook his hands, and said,--

"What punishments, what tortures befit such a crime? But the gods will
inspire me, and, aided by the powers of Tartarus, I will give my poor
people such a spectacle that they will remember me for ages with
gratitude."

The forehead of Petronius was covered with a sudden cloud. He thought
of the danger hanging over Lygia and over Vinicius, whom he loved, and
over all those people whose religion he rejected, but of whose innocence
he was certain. He thought also that one of those bloody orgies would
begin which his eyes, those of an æsthetic man, could not suffer. But
above all he thought: "I must save Vinicius, who will go mad if that
maiden perishes"; and this consideration outweighed every other, for
Petronius understood well that he was beginning a game far more perilous
than any in his life. He began, however, to speak freely and
carelessly, as his wont was when criticising or ridiculing plans of
Cæsar and the Augustians that were not sufficiently æsthetic,--

"Ye have found victims! That is true. Ye may send them to the arena,
or array them in 'painful tunics.' That is true also. But hear me! Ye
have authority, ye have pretorians, ye have power; then be sincere, at
least, when no one is listening! Deceive the people, but deceive not
one another. Give the Christians to the populace, condemn them to any
torture ye like; but have courage to say to yourselves that it was not
they who burnt Rome. Phy! Ye call me 'arbiter elegantiarum'; hence I
declare to you that I cannot endure wretched comedies! Phy! how all
this reminds me of the theatrical booths near the Porta Asinaria, in
which actors play the parts of gods and kings to amuse the suburban
rabble, and when the play is over wash down onions with sour wine, or
get blows of clubs! Be gods and kings in reality; for I say that ye can
permit yourselves the position! As to thee, O Cæsar, thou hast
threatened us with the sentence of coming ages; but think, those ages
will utter judgment concerning thee also. By the divine Clio! Nero,
ruler of the world, Nero, a god, burnt Rome, because he was as powerful
on earth as Zeus on Olympus,--Nero the poet loved poetry so much that he
sacrificed to it his country! From the beginning of the world no one
did the like, no one ventured on the like. I beseech thee in the name
of the double-crowned Libethrides, renounce not such glory, for songs of
thee will sound to the end of ages! What will Priam be when compared
with thee; what Agamenmon; what Achilles; what the gods themselves? We
need not say that the burning of Rome was good, but it was colossal and
uncommon. I tell thee, besides, that the people will raise no hand
against thee! It is not true that they will. Have courage; guard
thyself against acts unworthy of thee,--for this alone threatens thee,
that future ages may say, 'Nero burned Rome; but as a timid Cæsar and a
timid poet he denied the great deed out of fear, and cast the blame of
it on the innocent!'"

The arbiter's words produced the usual deep impression on Nero; but
Petronius was not deceived as to this, that what he had said was a
desperate means which in a fortunate event might save the Christians, it
is true, but might still more easily destroy himself. He had not
hesitated, however, for it was a question at once of Vinicius whom he
loved, and of hazard with which he amused himself. "The dice are
thrown," said he to himself, "and we shall see how far fear for his own
life outweighs in the monkey his love of glory."

And in his soul he had no doubt that fear would outweigh.

Meanwhile silence fell after his words. Poppæa and all present were
looking at Nero's eyes as at a rainbow. He began to raise his lips,
drawing them to his very nostrils, as was his custom when he knew not
what to do; at last disgust and trouble were evident on his features.

"Lord," cried Tigellinus, on noting this, "permit me to go; for when
people wish to expose thy person to destruction, and call thee, besides,
a cowardly Cæsar, a cowardly poet, an incendiary, and a comedian, my
ears cannot suffer such expressions!"

"I have lost," thought Petronius. But turning to Tigellinus, he
measured him with a glance in which was that contempt for a ruffian
which is felt by a great lord who is an exquisite.

"Tigellinus," said he, "it was thou whom I called a comedian; for thou
art one at this very moment."

"Is it because I will not listen to thy insults?"

"It is because thou art feigning boundless love for Cæsar,--thou who a
short while since wert threatening him with pretorians, which we all
understood as did he!"

Tigellinus, who had not thought Petronius sufficiently daring to throw
dice such as those on the table, turned pale, lost his head, and was
speechless. This was, however, the last victory of the arbiter over his
rival, for that moment Poppæa said,--

"Lord, how permit that such a thought should even pass through the head
of any one, and all the more that any one should venture to express it
aloud in thy presence!"

"Punish the insolent!" exclaimed Vitelius.

Nero raised his lips again to his nostrils, and, turning his
near-sighted, glassy eyes on Petronius, said,--

"Is this the way thou payest me for the friendship which I had for
thee?"

"If I am mistaken, show me my error," said Petronius; "but know that I
speak that which love for thee dictates."

"Punish the insolent!" repeated Vitelius.

"Punish!" called a number of voices.

In the atrium there was a murmur and a movement, for people began to
withdraw from Petronius. Even Tullius Senecio, his constant companion
at the court, pushed away, as did young Nerva, who had shown him
hitherto the greatest friendship. After a while Petronius was alone on
the left side of the atrium, with a smile on his lips; and gathering
with his hands the folds of his toga, he waited yet for what Cæsar would
say or do.

"Ye wish me to punish him" said Cæsar; "but he is my friend and comrade.
Though he has wounded my heart, let him know that for friends this heart
has naught but forgiveness."

"I have lost, and am ruined," thought Petronius.

Meanwhile Cæsar rose, and the consultation was ended.




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