قال ربك للملـىكة إنی جاعل فی ٱلأرض خلیفة قالوا أتجعل فیها من یفسد فیها ویسفك ٱلدماء ونحن نسبح بحمدك ونقدس لك قال إنی أعلم ما لا تعلمون
منذ بدء الخلق و ابن آدم شيمته سفك الدماء والمعاداة على رغم من تكريمه لكونه خليفة الله في أرضه إلا أنه بشكل أو بآخر ملأ الأرض بدماء إخوته !
لا أستطيع تمالك أنفاسي بعد تلك الرحلة الطويلة التي أخذتني من يدي إلى هناك روما حيث الجمال والعظمة والفن والموسيقى, .
و حيث هناك صاحب اللحية الحمراء المجنون"نيرون" الذي لم يترك فاجعة أو خطيئة إلا و ارتكبها هو وحاشيته.
قصة حب صافية رائقة نبتت بين ليفيا و فينيكوس هز قلبي صفاء أحاديثهما وعذب حنانهما و رقة نظراتهما فخاض من خلالها الكاتب في ذلك الزمن بصحبة تلك الأساطير الرومانية.
الرواية تحكي أيضا عن التبشير بالمسيحية و الحواري بطرس و بولس وما لاقوه المسيحين من تعذيب واضطهاد من قبل القيصر الروماني!
وإن لذلك أفزعني وأبكاني لم يكتفوا فقط بتعذيبهم وإنما مثلوا بهم في عروض مسرحية وغرقت البلاد في الدماء وابتهجت الوجوه بشاشة!
"يارب يا رحيم", . كنت أرددها في كل لحظة أتخيل أن تبلغ شراسة عبده ذلك المدى لكنها السلطة و القسوة تحيلان القلب إلى حجارة أو أشد صلابة !
بكيت كثيرا. .
السرد كلاسيكي للغاية دقيق مفصل ربما يكسوه بعض الملل نظرا للإسهاب بها و أيضا هناك بعض الأخطاء المطبعية.
في المجمل رواية جيدة للغاية سرقت عقلي لأيام طويلة وسحبت أنفاسي ولكن أنهيتها و أعلم جيدا أن هول ما قرأت لن يغيب عن بالي سريعا.
سأفتقدهم جميعا. . بحكاياتهم. .
تمت أخيرا. . Quo Vadis
Henry Sienkiewiczs "Quo Vadis" is a truly great book, Unfortunately, I know best how to explain its greatness to those who like me were young in thehes ands, If you are not part of this group, this review may not be terribly helpful,
To those of you of my generation, I will say that Quo Vadis is a wonderful novel about the Roman Empire in the First Century of the modern era when Rome was entering its decadent era.
It is better than anything written by Robert Graves who still must considered an outstanding writer, In places, it is as lurid as the Fellini's Satyricon,
Published in, Quo Vadis addressed the great question that had been raging in academia for the previous half century: "Why had Christianity succeeded" Christianity was a schism of Judaism that arrived in Rome in the first half of the First Century AD and within less than three hundred years, became
the official religion of the Roman Empire.
Its pacifist teachings seemed entirely inappropriate for a military empire, It lacked any literature and relied entirely upon personal testimony to spread its ideas in a society that was dominated by the rich classical heritage of Plato, Aristotle and other philosophers that we continue to revere until this day.
In the context of the Roman Empire, Christianity's success seemed improbable and required explanation,
Sienkiewicz's explanation was that while Rome was rich and militarily powerful, the level of immorality was intolerable, The rich entertained themselves with drunken orgies while the masses went to the arenas where human beings where killed for their entertainment,
Sienkiewicz might seem to be a simplistic moralizer especially to anyone who has had the misfortune to see any of the movies based on Quo Vadis.
However, in Quo Vadis he shows great subtlety and an excellent knowledge of the Latin literature of the eras,
Sienkiewicz's critics might argue that he too readily accepted the versions of Suetonius and Tacitus on Nero during whose reign the events of Quo Vadis take place.
Suetonius and Tacitus both came from senatorial families that had suffered badly under the reign of the Nero, Hence they have been accused of exaggerating the evil nature and mental instability of Nero, Sienkiewicz, however, accepts Suetonius and Tacitus without reservation, Since these two authors are the only sources for the era, he perhaps ought not to be criticized too heavily for having done so,
However, Sienkiewicz's brilliance did not come from his use of Tacitus and Suetonius but rather of Petronius Arbiter the author of the Satyricon a book generally thought to be a paean to the decadent life style.
Under, Sienkiewicz's pen, Petronius becomes a man with a profound understanding of classical philosophy and a fellow traveller with the Christians,
Petronius is one of Nero's courtiers, He makes the mistake of thinking that he can control Nero, Like the moth who gets too close to the flame, he perishes for being too close to the tyrant, Petronius is a profoundly sympathetic character, He is driven at all times by his love for his nephew Vinicius who falls in love with a Christian, converts and marries her,
Petronius respects the Christians for their virtue but ultimately rejects Christianity because he feels that Christianity is opposed to human pleasure, Like Socrates who drinks the hemlock, Arbiter will choose the unchristian means of suicide to die when he falls out of favour with Nero and realizes that he is about to be executed.
Quo Vadis then is a great novel about the tension between classical thought and the Christian religion, Strangely enough it is the pagan stoic Petronius not the Christian Vinicius who gets the last word in the novel,
The problem for many readers of thest century is that the second half of the novel is filled with descriptions of Chrisitans being devoured by lions and massacred by gladiators in the Roman Forum.
Tales of Christian martyrdom are simply considered to be in dreadful taste in today's world even if the historical record confirms that they did in fact take place.
Many cultured individuals in today's Western society feel that our society should be examining its conscience about its sins: imperialism, slavery, antiSemitism, etc, To individuals of this frame of mind, discussion of persecution of Christians appears like a selfserving way to divert attention from the many sins perpetrated by Christian societies.
I personally feel that Christians should be allowed to honour their own martyrs if this done without claiming virtues for our societies that they do not possess.
As a final thought, I would like to point out for nonCatholic Christians that Quo Vadis rigorously presents Christianity in its preRoman Catholic form, Although, Sienkiewicz was a strong adherent of the Roman Catholic Church its present form, he goes to great pains to show that early Christianity was much different.
There are no priests or clergy in Quo Vadis, The early Christians simply endeavoured to follow Christ, They had beliefs but no theology, In a word, Christians of any stripe will enjoy Quo Vadis,
I recommend this book highly, However, I think that one should read Petronius Arbiter's "Satyricon" first and either the "Annales" by Tacitus or the "Twelve Ceasars" by Suetonius, Without such a preparation Quo Vadis risks becoming a melodramatic tale of Christian virtue opposed to Pagan gore,
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