Quo Vadis (1951)

The water Quo Vadis dives into are excellent for any historical epic: you have persecutions and martyrdoms, the glory of ancient Rome reaching its apex, and a mad emperor who murdered his own mother. As with most historical movies of the time, the acting is geared less toward realism and more toward a hightened feel of D-R-A-M-A and ostentatious monologues, but, compared to many of the historical 'epics' of today, it has a strong emotional core and a passion for its subject.

Based on the novel by Polish writer Henryk Sienkiewicz, Quo Vadis follows a fictional Roman general, Marcus Vinicius, who falls in love with a Christian woman named Lygia at just about the time the Emperor Nero is starting to persecute the Christians to blame them for the Great Fire of 64 A.D. While some might find it a little lavish in the spirit of Cecil DeMille, at least it does have some respect for its subject, which is more than can be said for some movies.

History vs. Quo Vadis

Was Nero really like the love child of Liberace and Joseph Stalin?

Before I get into this, I should state that in many cases in history there’s a disconnect between What Most Likely Happened, as shown through archeological evidence, primary sources, and simple logical deduction, and What Was Thought To Have Happened, accounts given by contemporary or near-contemporary writers who tended to be just a little biased. This seems especially true for Roman history where the great Roman historians of the imperial era, particularly Suetonius and Tacitus, loved to serve up half-true anecdotes and vicious gossip, especially when it came to an emperor’s bedroom escapades. So there’s really two types of accuracy when dealing with most books or films about the Roman Emperors; there’s what the Romans themselves actually believed happened and there’s what probably actually did happen, as far as we can tell. Naturally, the movie relies mostly on the former, because it’s just so much more fun, of course.

Anyway, the movie really does draw a great deal from the Roman historians on Nero, who was greatly despised in his own time even before he became notorious for the whole ‘killing Christians’ thing. The Romans were a militant people and they didn’t like ‘effeminacy’, which they constantly saw in Greek and Egyptian cultures, and Nero unfortunately had fairly extravagant tastes, a love for poetry and music, and fussed over his wardrobe. Combined with this, he must have been quite paranoid, which led him to arbitrarily order closed-door trials and executions of high-ranking officials and even his own family members. We can’t really blame him: his great-uncle and the last Emperor, Claudius, was poisoned by his wife (and Nero’s mother), Agrippina, and the Emperor before that, Nero’s uncle Caligula, was ambushed and stabbed to death. Also it’s worth pointing out that there’s evidence Nero was actually very popular among the common folk after he died. It was the people that mattered – the senators, the nobles, and the army – that hated him.

Anyway, the bottom line is that this movie’s Nero is more than a little over-the-top, but not at all unrelated to the Nero we see in Suetonius’ “Twelve Caesars.”

Vinicius: “Is it true what I heard while I was gone, that [Nero] murdered his wife and his mother?”

Even modern historians who tend to discount Suetonius and Tacitus think Nero really did arrange to have his mother murdered. When Nero was first named Emperor, his mother Agrippina was practically a power behind the throne, along with Nero’s other advisors Seneca and Burrus, and she exercised a degree of influence that was unheard of for a Roman woman, even a woman who happened to be a member of the imperial family. Burrus and Seneca, at least, would have wanted to get rid of her, but she and Nero’s relationship fell apart the older they became, probably in large part because Agrippina was the Mrs. Lift to Nero’s Owen (and Agrippina’s dominance and her son’s compliance led to nasty rumors of incest, happily reported as fact by Roman historians, which made matters worse). Finally one day Nero sabotaged a ship Agrippina was using to cross the Bay of Naples. Despite the fact that the ship was staffed by sailors paid to make sure she drowned, Agrippina safely reached shore. Unfortunately, an assassin sent by Nero stabbed her to death. Allegedly, just before she was killed, Agrippina’s last words, as she pointed to the womb that once carried Nero, were, “Strike here.”

The wife referred to was Octavia, Nero’s stepsister and cousin (the Julio-Claudian dynasty, to whom Nero belonged, was happy to keep marriage a “family matter”). Enamored of Poppaea, who became Nero’s second wife and is a main character in this movie, Nero divorced Octavia and banished her from Rome. The story goes that, if she did not kill herself, she was killed by a guard. The accounts don’t agree if the guard was actually ordered by Nero or was bribed by Poppaea.

Speaking of Poppaea, she’s called a “harlot” here.

Roman historians were not exactly…’enlightened’ when it came to women, especially ambitious, powerful women. If you think the way some people depict Hilary Clinton is bad, at least she was never accused of having a contest with a prostitute to see who can have sex with the most men consecutively, like the Emperor Claudius’ young wife Messalina was (then again, I haven’t kept up with Rush Limbaugh or the Drudge Report lately). Anyway, with that in mind, it’s hard to tell what kind of person Poppaea really was, but it’s really unlikely she made her way to the top on a path made out of roses.

Petronius "(The Senate) would like to replace Nero with General Galba."

Needless to say, the Senate wasn’t exactly in a position to talk openly about replacing Nero. Also Galba kind of actually came in as a dark horse candidate, after the real rising star that looked likely to replace Nero, a general named Vindex, was driven to suicide.

Lygia’s family, a wealthy, respected Roman family, are all Christians.

The movie makes a good point here. Contrary to popular belief (and what you might think after reading Nietzsche), Christianity didn’t gain ground among the masses, but among the Empire’s urban elite. That’s probably why, as I’ll mention later, the state’s persecution of Christians didn’t become that harsh or systematic until the religion became truly widespread in the third and early fourth centuries: so many of the new religion’s followers were under some pretty powerful protection.

Nero: ”I wish the mob had a single throat, so that I may cut it!”

Nitpick: that quote actually was attributed to the Emperor Caligula, who is the runner-up behind Nero for Most Screwed Up Roman Emperor.

While celebrating his triumph (or military parade) in the streets of Rome, Vicinius has a slave behind him who whispers, "Remember, you are only a man," while holding a crown over his head.

This was a very old Roman custom where successful and popular generals were given a lavish ceremony and parade that had religious overtones. The slave whispering “Remember, you are a mortal” was a definite part of the ceremony too. Unfortunately, for this movie it’s an inaccuracy, since after the fall of the Roman Republic triumphs were only given to members of the imperial family, for obvious reasons.

Who is this Acte?

Acte was a slave who was apparently the first love of Nero’s life. Agrippina’s outrage that her son would have a love affair with a slave was allegedly one of the things that eventually drove Nero to murder her. I don’t recall any stories that she was a Christian, but it’s possible.

Nero wants to burn down Rome so he could build a new city, Neropolis.

That’s true to the accounts left by Tacitus, Suetonius, and others, although sometimes they add that Nero was inspired to write a song about the destruction of Troy while Rome burned. Of course, it’s really unlikely that happened, especially, as the movie suggests, with the complicity of Nero’s top officials; just poor building conditions were really to blame. In fact, after the fire had run its course, Nero initiated new laws to help prevent future fires. Anyway, the fire itself took place in 64 A.D. and it was remembered as one of the worst, if not the worst, in Rome’s history, devastating about two-thirds of the entire city.

Nero decides to persecute the Christians to get the blame for the fire of 64 off of him and on to another target.

Rumors that Nero was to blame for the fire or, just as bad, that he did nothing to help started quickly after the catastrophe. Because Christians were already unpopular since by refusing to worship the state gods of Rome and participate in the religious-civil ceremonies they were guilty of anti-social behavior at best and treason at worst, they would have made convenient scapegoats. Since the persecutions did start soon after 64 A.D., it might very well be true.

Of course, we see Christians actually thrown to the lions.

Sorry to disappoint, because it is such a popular image (and metaphor), but it’s completely a myth that Christians were ever fed to lions. While animals were sometimes a part of gladiatorial battles, it wasn’t an important attraction, and stories of even convicted criminals being sentenced to fight bloodthirsty animals would have been appalling to the average Roman (which leads me to another myth about the ancient Romans I’d like to get out of the way: while the gladiators were slaves, they actually volunteered to train and fight. It’s not much fun to have an unwilling combatant in a fight to the death, now, is it?).

Ironically, Nero was far from the worst persecutor of Christians. That dishonor goes to Diocletian (284-305) who, despite being remembered generally as one of Rome’s best emperors, instituted the most widespread and systematic persecution of Christians. However, Nero probably was the first Emperor to order state-sponsored persecutions of Christians, and throughout the history of the pagan Empire Christianity was only one of two ‘religions’ banned under Roman law (the second was Druidism, because it inspired feelings of independence among Celts).

Peter has a vision where God commands him to return to Rome…where he’s arrested and then crucified upside down on Vatican Hill.

According to Christian legends, both things happened as depicted in the film, although one legend says Peter was crucified upside down at his own request because he did not want to imitate Jesus, not out of an anti-Christian gesture. It’s believed that Peter was killed during Nero’s reign, sometime around 67 A.D., so that would fit it within the timeframe of the film.

Vinicius' and Lygea's defiance sparks a rebellion that overthrows Nero, drives him to suicide, and installs Galba as the new Emperor.

It's inevitable when you're making a movie like this, but the chronology of the movie is a bit rushed. Nero wasn't overthrown until 69 A.D. and even then it wasn't the result of a spontaneous popular uprising, but a series of military revolts and maneuvers from the Senate (sadly, no regime is overthrown as easily as Nero's government in this film is). Neither was Poppaea still alive by 69 A.D. - rumors had it Nero killed her by violently knocking her down a stairway, but more likely she just died from birth complications. And when Nero killed himself, he got help from his secretary, not Acte, who was, according to legend, the one who buried him. Of course, it does make for a better scene if the one who helps him kill himself is his one true love, and not just some guy...

The Moral: If you burn down your own city, don't blame an underdog religion.

Reading Material

The Twelve Caesars Suetonius

One of the most intriguing Roman historians out there, covering the Julio-Claudian dynasty (including Nero), the 'Year of the Emperors' when three men grappled for the imperial office and died in the process, and the short-lived Flavian dynasty. There are a number of translations out there, but probably the best is Robert Graves' translation for Penguin Books. He has a knack for bringing out the decadence.