Book Journal - Quo Vadis

Not long after I arrived at Eden, one of the Chaplains gave me the book “Quo Vadis” by Henryk Sienkiewicz.  I had my wife do a little bit of research on the book for me.  The author wrote it in the late 1800’s.  He wrote it in Polish and this edition was translated into English in 1992.

Just like “The Tattooist of Auschwitz” and “Cilka’s Journey”, this book is a fictional story that follows historical characters and events.

Gaius Petronius is a close advisor to Caesar Nero, the Emperor of Rome.  His nephew is a war hero named Marcus Vinitius, who falls for a young woman called Ligia. Ligia is the daughter of a Ligian king.  She was taken by the Romans as a hostage in order to keep the Ligians from being a problem for Rome.

A man named Ursus had been her bodyguard since she was a baby, and he was still her servant.  He had almost superhuman strength, which comes in handy when you are the bodyguard for a beautiful princess.

She has been raised by two Roman citizens named Aulus Plautius and his wife Pomponio Graecha.  Aulus was also a military hero and he and his wife lived very comfortably.  Pomponio is a Christian woman but Aulus is a pagan, although he allowed Christian influences in his home so Ligia was also a Christian.

When Vinitius goes to his uncle for advice on how to convince Aulus to give Ligia to him for his wife, Patronius has an idea.  He convinces Nero to take her into his palace and then give her to Vinitius instead of trying to convince Aulus to give her up.

Nero’s current wife, Poppaea Sabina, is an evil and jealous woman.  As soon as she spots Ligia, she becomes jealous of her beauty and fears that Nero will replace her with Ligia, so she begins to plot against her.

Nero only plans to follow through with giving Ligia to Viritius though, but not until after he throws a party filled with wickedness.  Once Ligia realizes what she is about to be given into, she decides that she will either escape or die trying.  That’s where this story turns into an adventure full of deceit, murder, and God’s love.

This is an amazing story that’s put right into the middle of a horrible part of human history (A.D 62).  Nero is famous for his wickedness.  He had his brother, mother, two wives, and most of his advisors murdered.  He is also responsible for the murder of thousands of Christian men, women, and children in the Colosseum.

This is a hard book to read.  The author did an amazing job of investigating the events and characters surrounding this story.  The way that the Christians were murdered was brutal.  Here is a little piece of what happened as told in this book:

“When the sound of trumpets was heard in various parts of the garden, as a sign that the spectacle was to begin, each slave put his torch to the foot of the pillar. The straw, hidden under the flowers and steeped in pitch, burned at once with a bright flame which increased every instant, consuming the ivy and rising to embrace the feet of the victims.  The spectators looked on in silence but the victims on the pillars gave out groans and cries of pain which resounded throughout the gardens.

Some of the victims, however, raising their voices to the starry sky, began to sing, praising Christ.  People listened and their hearts were filled with terror, especially upon hearing the fearful cries of children (some so young they can barely walk) and seeing the agonized squirming on the pillars.  It did not take long for the flames to engulf them.”

I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves reading.  It is beautifully written by someone who put years of research and work into it long before airplanes and Google.

The title of the book comes from the end of the story when the Apostle Peter is fleeing Rome with a friend named Nazarius.  

Peter sees Jesus walking toward the city and bows before Him, asking him “Quo Vadis?” which means “where are you going?”.  Jesus replies that he is headed to Rome to be crucified again because Peter is fleeing the people whom Jesus commanded him to lead.

As Peter gets back up and heads back toward the city, Nararius asks him “Quo Vadis?”, to which he replied, “to Rome”.