Quo Vadis (1951)

Leo Genn: Petronius

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Quotes 

• Petronius : [in his dying letter to Nero]  To Nero, Emperor of Rome, Master of the World, Divine Pontiff. I know that my death will be a disappointment to you, since you wished to render me this service yourself. To be born in your reign is a miscalculation; but to die in it is a joy. I can forgive you for murdering your wife and your mother, for burning our beloved Rome, for befouling our fair country with the stench of your crimes. But one thing I cannot forgive - the boredom of having to listen to your verses, your second-rate songs, your mediocre performances. Adhere to your special gifts, Nero - murder and arson, betrayal and terror. Mutilate your subjects if you must; but with my last breath I beg you - do not mutilate the arts. Fare well, but compose no more music. Brutalize the people, but do not bore them, as you have bored to death your friend, the late Gaius Petronius.

• [on being told the Christians are being blamed for the burning of Rome] 

  Vinicius : The people won't believe such a lie!

  Petronius : But they are believing it. People will believe any lie, if it is fantastic enough.

• Petronius : It is not enough to live well. One must die well.

• Vinicius : [speaking of Nero]  The new wife, Poppea, sounds interesting - a harlot for an empress?

  Petronius : [sardonically humorous]  My dear Commander, what a proletarian observation. You must realize that a woman has no past when she mates with a god.

  Vinicius : [shrugs his shoulders]  Well, he's our emperor.

• Emperor Nero : Is it possible that human beings can produce such a sound?

  Petronius : Yes, when they've been pushed too far.

• [Nero is exasperated with the mobs] 

  Emperor Nero : Do I live for the people or do the people live for me?

  Petronius : You are the sun in their sky! Does the sun have privacy?

  Emperor Nero : The sun has the night! These people expect me to shine daily - hourly!

• Petronius : [Nero begins to sing again, and his voice is horrible]  Body of Bacchus, I've been listening to *that* since morning!

  Vinicius : [amused]  He seems in rare voice!

• Petronius : [after seeing Rome consumed by flames]  Now indeed, Nero has his place in history.

• Emperor Nero : [During the burning of Rome]  Insatiable and thankless mob! What do they want?

  Petronius : Justice.

  Emperor Nero : No mob ever wants justice. They want vengeance.

• Petronius : [to Nero]  A genius, Divinity, should hold to his first thoughts on any subject.

• Emperor Nero : Petronius, look what I've created! Tigellinus, my robe of grief. Terpnos, lyre. History will judge my song, Petronius. Will it be great enough to match the occasion? I'm seized with the fear that it will not be great enough.

  Petronius : You will be worthy of the spectacle, as the spectacle is worthy of you.

  Emperor Nero : You encourage me, Petronius. But I'm aware that I must compete with those who sang of the burning of Troy. My song must be greater, just as Rome is greater than Troy.

  [singing] 

  Emperor Nero : Silence, ye spheres, Be still, ye hurtling stars, Open wide-vaulted skies above me, Now, at last, lo, I see Olympus, And a light from its summit, Doth illumine me, I am one with the gods, immortal, I am Nero, The artist who creates with fire, That the dreams of my life, May come true, To the flames now I give the past, To the flames and soil, Take thou this Rome, Oh, receive her now, ye flames, Consume her as would a furnace, Burn on, O ancient Rome, Burn on, burn on!

• Emperor Nero : Dear Poppaea, one woman should never judge another. She hasn't the glands for it. Ha-ha-ha. Isn't that witty, Petronius?

  Petronius : Among the gods, your humor is unique.

• Emperor Nero : My conflagration does not burn enough. And do you know why? I've never seen a burning city. You said one must - suffer an experience to re-create it. A sculptor has his model. I had no model.

  Petronius : To burn a city in order to create an epic. That's carrying the principle of art for art's sake too far.

  Emperor Nero : Soon the spring will be over. The summer heat will begin. What stenches will arise from Rome?

• Petronius : Marcus, I've recently purchased several new delectable slaves. There's one from Spain. Skin like cream. Hair with the sheen of a young raven. She's yours.

• Emperor Nero : It's lonely to be an emperor.

  Petronius : It is lonelier still to be a genius.

  Emperor Nero : You're the only one who understands the complications of my tortured nature. Is that not a theme for a poem, Petronius?

  Petronius : It is a theme for an epic, Divinity. But to write it, you must suffer it.

• Petronius : [talking to Marcus Vinicius about the spanish slave]  You don't want her? And I refused an offer from Seneca of six Arabian stallions.

• Petronius : But what of the Rome that has stood for a thousand years? After all, Divinity, the old Rome, our Rome... dirty and magnificent, but still our beloved Rome... it still stands.

  Emperor Nero : Does it?

• Emperor Nero : [about the angry roman mob]  Petronius, you're not like these other people. They think that you're their friend. Speak to them, make promises. Grain, oil, wine.

  Petronius : They will take them, Nero, without your permission.

• Petronius : Rome has given the world justice and order. Sign that, and Roman justice will receive a blow... from which it may never recover. Condemn these Christians and you make martyrs of them... and insure their immortality. Condemn them, and in the eyes of history... you'll condemn yourself.

  Emperor Nero : When I have finished with these Christians, Petronius... history will not be sure that they ever existed.

• Petronius : Yesterday, I could have gone to the mob and told them that Nero burned Rome. I could've offered them a new emperor in General Galba... and so set my seal upon the times. But I did not. Do you know why, Eunice? Because I love Nero, perhaps? He fills me with loathing. No, because out of force of long habit... I've become content only to be an amused cynic... a selfish onlooker, leaving others to shape the world.

• Petronius : Tonight I've arranged for you to stay at Plautius' country place. It's near your camp.

  Vinicius : Aulus Plautius, the old retired general? That's a gloomy outlook. I know. And his wife's not young either, besides being virtuous. Still, it's better quarters than a tent.

• Petronius : Lift your chin, Eunice. Did you ever see such skin, Marcus? Turn around, slowly. Flawless proportions. Fold your arms behind your head. Makes one wish one were a sculptor.

• Emperor Nero : They irk me, those people. They irk me! Do I live for them or do they live for me?

  Petronius : Unfortunately, Caesar, as a ruler, you must have subjects to rule. Sheer population is a necessary evil.

• Petronius : What's the law regarding hostages?

  Vinicius : Hostages?

  Vinicius : Yes. Can they be bought, reassigned, what?

  Petronius : Well, I take it this hostage is female?

  Vinicius : Head to toe, hip to hip.

• Petronius : Give her five lashes for impertinence.

  Eunice : You won't give me away, then, lord?

  Petronius : That depends on your future conduct.

  Eunice : Oh, yes. Yes, my good lord.

  Petronius : Ply the lash carefully, now. Don't damage her skin.

• Vinicius : I'll have her if I have to abduct her.

  Petronius : I sense a certain frustration. Is your little barbarian entirely in sympathy with your plan?

  Vinicius : She'll be cooing like a pigeon in the right circumstances.

  Petronius : I wish I had your confidence. I've never been able to discover an honest warmth in any woman.

• Emperor Nero : What do you think, Petronius?

  Petronius : Put a dress on an olive stump and my poor, untutored nephew would call it beautiful. I know your incomparable judgment, Divinity. And I'll wager you've already decided, even from here that she is too narrow in the hips.

  Emperor Nero : Yes, yes, that's exactly what I think.

• Petronius : Is not love a madness?

  Eunice : Do not ask me, lord. I am among the mad.

  Petronius : You love someone?

  Eunice : It was once prophesied by an old woman that both pain and happiness would visit me.

  Petronius : That's a safe prophesy about any human.

  Eunice : She spoke a rhyme, in which she said my true fate was hidden.

  Petronius : Well?

  Eunice : Anon shall Venus rise, From out the violet Roman sea, And bear two lovers in her arms, Towards eternity

• Vinicius : Your valiant Greek led me to Lygia and a swarming hive of idiots. Their black honey choked my mouth and I said words I never thought I'd utter. For their mammoth stupidity I should've been broken in half and dropped piecemeal into the sewers. Fascinated?

  Petronius : In a way.

• Petronius : I sense a fresh preoccupation in Nero. For some time now, he has avoided me.

  Eunice : My lord is troubled?

  Petronius : A doubled guard and yesterday Tigellinus and a squadron of his butchers left for Rome. I feel a strange and heavy breeze.

• Petronius : Let future ages, looking back at this time, regard Nero with wonder and amazement. Let history say: Nero, the ruler of the world. Nero, a god, burned Rome because he was as powerful as Jupiter. He loved poetry so much that he sacrificed Rome for a song. History need not say that the burning of Rome was good but it must say that it was colossal, uncommon.

• Emperor Nero : Petronius, are you a Christian?

  Petronius : I am not. I have heard that the Christians teach you to love your neighbor. And as I see what men are, I cannot, for the life of me, love my fellow man.

• Tigellinus : The mob from burned areas.

  Petronius : They want to survive.

  Emperor Nero : Who asked them to survive?

• Emperor Nero : The people shall have their vengeance. I hereby proclaim that the guilt of the burning of our beloved city rests with the foul sect which calls itself Christian. They have spread the lie that it was Nero who burnt Rome. I will exterminate these criminals in a manner matching the enormity of their crime. Their punishment will be a warning. A spectacle of terror to all evil men everywhere and forever who would harm you or harm Rome or harm your Emperor - who loves you.

  Petronius : Pause, Nero, before you sign this decree. Rome has given the world justice and order. Sign that, and Roman justice will receive a blow from which it may never recover. Condemn these Christians and you make martyrs of them and insure their immortality. Condemn them, and in the eyes of history, you'll condemn yourself.

  Emperor Nero : When I have finished with these Christians, Petronius, history will not be sure that they ever existed.