Historical Events
Sienkiewicz alludes to several historical events and merges them in his novel, but some of them are of doubtful authenticity.
- In AD 57 Pomponia was indeed charged with practising a "foreign superstition", usually understood to mean conversion to Christianity. Nevertheless, the religion itself is not clearly identified. According to ancient Roman tradition she was tried in a family court by her own husband Aulus (the pater familias), to be subsequently acquitted. However, inscriptions in the catacombs of Saint Callistus in Rome suggest that members of Graecina's family were indeed Christians.
- The rumor that Vespasian fell asleep during a song sung by Nero is recorded by Suetonius in the Lives of the Twelve Caesars.
- The death of Claudia Augusta, sole child of Nero, in AD 63.
- The Great Fire of Rome in AD 64, which in the novel is started by orders of Nero. There is no hard evidence to support this, and fires were very common in Rome at the time.In Chapter 50 senior Jewish community leaders advise Nero to blame the fires on Christians. There is no historical record of this.
- The suicide of Petronius is clearly based on the account of Pliny the Elder.
Read more about this topic: Quo Vadis (novel)
Famous quotes containing the words historical and/or events:
“We can imagine a society in which no one could survive as a social being because it does not correspond to biologically determined perceptions and human social needs. For historical reasons, existing societies might have such properties, leading to various forms of pathology.”
—Noam Chomsky (b. 1928)
“By the power elite, we refer to those political, economic, and military circles which as an intricate set of overlapping cliques share decisions having at least national consequences. In so far as national events are decided, the power elite are those who decide them.”
—C. Wright Mills (1916–1962)