Quo Vadis: A Narrative of the Time of Nero
so honored in the house of her husband as thou shalt be in mine.”
For a time they walked on in silence, without being able to take in
with their breasts their happiness, in love with each other, like two
deities, and as beautiful as if spring had given them to the world with
the flowers.
They halted at last under the cypress growing near the entrance of the
house. Lygia leaned against his breast, and Vinicius began to entreat
again with a trembling voice,--“Tell Ursus to go to the house of Aulus
for thy furniture and playthings of childhood.”
But she, blushing like a rose or like the dawn, answered,--“Custom
commands otherwise.”
“I know that. The pronuba [The matron who accompanies the bride and
explains to her the duties of a wife] usually brings them behind the
bride, but do this for me. I will take them to my villa in Antium, and
they will remind me of thee.”
Here he placed his hands together and repeated, like a child who is
begging for something,--“It will be some days before Pomponia returns;
so do this, diva, do this, carissima.”
“But Pomponia will do as she likes,” answered Lygia, blushing still more
deeply at mention of the pronuba.
And again they were silent, for love had begun to stop the breath in
their breasts. Lygia stood with shoulders leaning against the cypress,
her face whitening in the shadow, like a flower, her eyes drooping, her
bosom heaving with more and more life. Vinicius changed in the face, and
grew pale. In the silence of the afternoon they only heard the beating
of their hearts, and in their mutual ecstasy that cypress, the myrtle
bushes, and the ivy of the summer-house became for them a paradise of
love. But Miriam appeared in the door, and invited them to the afternoon
meal. They sat down then with the Apostles, who gazed at them with
pleasure, as on the young generation which after their death would
preserve and sow still further the seed of the new faith. Peter broke
and blessed bread. There was calm on all faces, and a certain immense
happiness seemed to overflow the whole house.
“See,” said Paul at last, turning to Vinicius, “are we enemies of life
and happiness?”
“I know how that is,” answered Vinicius, “for never have I been so happy
as among you.”
Chapter XXXV
ON the evening of that day Vinicius, while returning home through the
Forum, saw at the entrance to the Vicus Tuscus the gilded litter of
Petronius, carried by eight stalwart Bithynians, and, stopping it with a
sign of his hand, he approached the curtains.
“Thou hast had a pleasant dream, I trust, and a happy one!” cried he,
laughing at sight of the slumbering Petronius.
“Oh, is it thou?” said Petronius, waking up. “Yes; I dropped asleep for
a moment, as I passed the night at the Palatine. I have come out to buy
something to read on the road to Antium. What is the news?”
“Art thou visiting the book-shops?” inquired Vinicius.
“Yes, I do not like to bring disorder into my library, so I am
collecting a special supply for the journey. It is likely that some
new things of Musonius and Seneca have come out. I am looking also for
Persius, and a certain edition of the Eclogues of Vergilius, which I do
not possess. Oh, how tired I am; and how my hands ache from covers and
rings! For when a man is once in a book-shop curiosity seizes him
to look here and there. I was at the shop of Avirnus, and at that of
Atractus on the Argiletum, and with the Sozii on Vicus Sandalarius. By
Castor! how I want to sleep!”
“Thou wert on the Palatine? Then I would ask thee what is it to be heard
there? Or, knowest what?--send home the litter and the tubes with books,
and come to my house. We will talk of Antium, and of something else.”
“That is well,” answered Petronius, coming out of the litter. “Thou must
know, besides, that we start for Antium the day after to-morrow.”
“Whence should I know that?”
“In what world art thou living? Well, I shall be the first to announce
the news to thee. Yes; be ready for the day after to-morrow in the
morning. Peas in olive oil have not helped, a cloth around his thick
neck has not helped, and Bronzebeard is hoarse. In view of this, delay
is not to be mentioned. He curses Rome and its atmosphere, with what the
world stands on; he would be glad to level it to the earth or to destroy
it with fire, and he longs for the sea at the earliest. He says that
the smells which the wind brings from the narrow streets are driving him
into the grave. To-day great sacrifices were offered in all the temples
to restore his voice; and woe to Rome, but especially to the Senate,
should it not return quickly!”
“Then there would be no reason for his visit to Achæa?”
“But is that the only talent possessed by our divine Cæsar?” asked
Petronius, smiling. “He would appear in the Olympic games, as a poet,
with his ‘Burning of Troy’; as a charioteer, as a musician, as an
athlete,--nay, even as a dancer, and would receive in every case all
the crowns intended for victors. Dost know why that monkey grew hoarse?
Yesterday he wanted to equal our Paris in dancing, and danced for us the
adventures of Leda, during which he sweated and caught cold. He was as
wet and slippery as an eel freshly taken from water. He changed masks
one after another, whirled like a spindle, waved his hands like a
drunken sailor, till disgust seized me while looking at that great
stomach and those slim legs. Paris taught him during two weeks; but
imagine to thyself Ahenobarbus as Leda or as the divine swan. That was a
swan!--there is no use in denying it. But he wants to appear before the
public in that pantomime,--first in Antium, and then in Rome.”
“People are offended already because he sang in public; but to think
that a Roman Cæsar will appear as a mime! No; even Rome will not endure
that!”
“My dear friend, Rome will endure anything; the Senate will pass a vote
of thanks to the ‘Father of his country.’ And the rabble will be elated
because Cæsar is its buffoon.”
“Say thyself, is it possible to be more debased?”
Petronius shrugged his shoulders. “Thou art living by thyself at home,
and meditating, now about Lygia, now about Christians, so thou knowest
not, perhaps, what happened two days since. Nero married, in public,
Pythagoras, who appeared as a bride. That passed the measure of madness,
it would seem, would it not? And what wilt thou say? the flamens, who
were summoned, came and performed the ceremony with solemnity. I was
present. I can endure much; still I thought, I confess, that the gods,
if there be any, should give a sign. But Cæsar does not believe in the
gods, and he is right.”
“So he is in one person chief priest, a god, and an atheist,” said
Vinicius.
“True,” said Petronius, beginning to laugh. “That had not entered my
head; but the combination is such as the world has not seen.” Then,
stopping a moment, he said: “One should add that this chief priest who
does not believe in the gods, and this god who reviles the gods, fears
them in his character of atheist.”
“The proof of this is what happened in the temple of Vesta.” “What a
society!”
“As the society is, so is Cæsar. But this will not last long.”
Thus conversing, they entered the house of Vinicius, who called for
supper joyously; then, turning to Petronius he said,--“No, my dear,
society must be renewed.”
“We shall not renew it,” answered Petronius, “even for the reason that
in Nero’s time man is like a butterfly,--he lives in the sunshine of
favor, and at the first cold wind he perishes, even against his will.
By the son of Maia! more than once have I given myself this question: By
what miracle has such a man as Lucius Saturninus been able to reach the
age of ninety-three, to survive Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius? But never
mind. Wilt thou permit me to send thy litter for Eunice? My wish to
sleep has gone, somehow, and I should like to be joyous. Give command
to cithara players to come to the supper, and afterward we will talk of
Antium. It is needful to think of it, especially for thee.”
Vinicius gave the order to send for Eunice, but declared that he had no
thought of breaking his head over the stay in Antium.
“Let those break their heads who cannot live otherwise than in the rays
of Cæsar’s favor. The world does not end on the Palatine, especially for
those who have something else in their hearts and souls.”
He said this so carelessly and with such animation and gladness that
his whole manner struck Petronius; hence, looking for a time at him, he
asked,--“What is taking place in thee? Thou art to-day as thou wert when
wearing the golden bulla on thy neck.”
“I am happy,” answered Vinicius. “I have invited thee purposely to tell
thee so.”
“What has happened?”
“Something which I would not give for the Roman Empire.”
Then he sat down, and, leaning on the arm of the chair, rested his head
on his hand, and asked,--“Dost remember how we were at the house of
Aulus Plautius, and there thou didst see for the first time the godlike
maiden called by thee ‘the dawn and the spring’? Dost remember that
Psyche, that incomparable, that one more beautiful than our maidens and
our goddesses?”
Petronius looked at him with astonishment, as if he wished to make sure
that his head was right.
“Of whom art thou speaking?” asked he at last. “Evidently I remember
Lygia.”
“I am her betrothed.”
“What!”
But Vinicius sprang up and called his dispensator.
“Let the slaves stand before me to the last soul, quickly!”
“Art thou her betrothed?” repeated Petronius.
But before he recovered from his astonishment the immense atrium was
swarming with people. Panting old men ran in, men in the vigor of life,
women, boys, and girls. With each moment the atrium was filled more
and more; in corridors, called “fauces,” voices were heard calling in
various languages. Finally, all took their places in rows at the walls
and among the columns. Vinicius, standing near the impluvium, turned to
Demas, the freedman, and said,--
“Those who have served twenty years in my house are to appear tomorrow
before the pretor, where they will receive freedom; those who have not
served out the time will receive three pieces of gold and double rations
for a week. Send an order to the village prisons to remit punishment,
strike the fetters from people’s feet, and feed them sufficiently. Know
that a happy day has come to me, and I wish rejoicing in the house.”
For a moment they stood in silence, as if not believing their ears;
then all hands were raised at once, and all mouths cried,--“A-a! lord!
a-a-a!”
Vinicius dismissed them with a wave of his hand. Though they desired to
thank him and to fall at his feet, they went away hurriedly, filling the
house with happiness from cellar to roof.
“To-morrow,” said Vinicius, “I will command them to meet again in the
garden, and to make such signs on the ground as they choose. Lygia will
free those who draw a fish.”
Petronius, who never wondered long at anything, had grown indifferent,
and asked,--“A fish, is it? Ah, ha! According to Chilo, that is the sign
of a Christian, I remember.” Then he extended his hand to Vinicius, and
said: “Happiness is always where a man sees it. May Flora strew flowers
under thy feet for long years. I wish thee everything which thou wishest
thyself.”
“I thank thee, for I thought that thou wouldst dissuade me, and that, as
thou seest, would be time lost.”
“I? Dissuade? By no means. On the contrary, I tell thee that thou art
doing well.”
“Ha, traitor!” answered Vinicius, joyfully; “hast forgotten what thou
didst tell me once when we were leaving the house of Pomponia Græcina?”
“No,” answered Petronius, with cool blood; “but I have changed my
opinion. My dear,” added he after a while, “in Rome everything changes.