The Paradoxes of “Quo vadis”: The Polish Classical Tradition in Action

Both the manner in which Sienkiewicz constructed his vision of ancient Rome and the way it affected contemporary readers appear paradoxical. This chapter presents four examples of these contradictions. The topographical vision of the Eternal City constructed in the novel reflects the perception of a pilgrim tourist visiting it in the late nineteenth century; nevertheless that vision restored the sense of connection held by native Italians with the tradition of Urbs Roma. The characters endowed in the novel with the greatest freedom of movement belong to Sienkiewicz’s world rather than to classical antiquity. As for the historical characters, they are passive and essentially form part of the novel’s mock-up of Neronian Rome. The book turned out to be very attractive to European readers, giving them an impression of genuine contact with their Roman heritage. Yet this effect was achieved by an author who drew upon the tradition of a Latinity imported into Poland and who, in addition, gave a central place to the motif of a Slavic martyr evangelizing her Roman oppressors. Readers who were completely unaware of the slogan ‘Poland, the Christ of Nations’, and understood nothing of the book’s patriotic codes, could nonetheless feel the authenticity of the author’s experience of something that can be called a ‘totalitarian system’. In this way, thanks to a Polish writer, European readers were given a vivid and impressive vision of Nero’s time, told from the point of view of the weak and oppressed. It was a historical and religious vision that seemed more believable than anything the writers of the West could offer them.