#marcus vinicius

[didanagy]

QUO VADIS? (1951)

dir. mervyn leroy

[siruerto]

Marcus Vinicius and Lygia 💆‍♀️🩷🩷🥹

[rookheeya]

Quo Vadis (1951)

Leo Genn as Gaius Petronius Arbiter

[domitiaa]

It is not enough to love, you must also know how to love; you must be able to teach it. Even the plebs, even the beasts experience the enjoyment of love, but the true man is distinguished from both, as it makes love a noble art, and while it admires it, it recognizes all its value, and calls not only the body, but also the soul, to share in its enjoyment.

'Quo Vadis?' (1895), Henryk Sienkiewicz

[therealrichardpapen]

Marcus Vinicius is a simp for Ligia

[pol-ski]

Vinicius and Lygia (H. Sienkiewicz, Quo Vadis) by Mieczysław Reyzner (Polish, 1861-1941)

[pianotuna]

Characters: Marcus Vinicius and Carina “Lygia” Plautius

Media: Quo Vadis (1951)

Played by: Robert Taylor and Deborah Kerr

Setting: AD 60s, Rome

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Commander Marcus Vinicius of the Roman legions has just returned from barbarian conquests and is looking for a bit of excitement when he goes to stay at the house of retired general Aulus Plautius.

Lygia, Plautius’ beautiful adopted daughter, is mistaken as a slave by Marcus, who flirts incessantly with her and both repulses and intrigues her with his romantic words.

Marcus soon realizes that Lygia’s vehement rejection of him is due to her faith as a Christian, something that she and her family keep a secret because of Nero’s tyrannical extermination of all Christians. Marcus arranges to have Lygia sold as a slave to him, which only makes her hate him despite her attraction to him. As Nero’s insanity grows worse and Lygia is forced to hide underground for her life, Marcus grows obsessed with finding her again, but his search brings him face-to-face with the truth of the Gospel and gives him new insight to what he wants from life. Marcus and Lygia will have to survive burning cities, vicious designs by Nero’s empress, and gladiatorial combat in order to be together, but their love holds them strong and urges them to keep fighting until the end.

[l-egypte]

March 19, 2021 | Quo Vadis (1/2)

Quo Vadis: A Narrative of the Time of Nero (1895–1896) is a historical novel by Henryk Sienkiewicz. Sienkiewicz won the Nobel Prize In Literature in 1905, and Quo Vadis is his most well-known novel. The novel is set in Rome during the rule of Nero, c. AD 64, and is about a love that develops between Lygia, a young Christian woman, and Marcus Vinicius, a Roman patrician.

In 1951, the film Quo Vadis was made by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, directed by Mervyn LeRoy and starring film stars Robert Taylor, Deborah Kerr, Leo Genn, Peter Ustinov, and others. (There is also a Polish film, made in 2001.)

In the film, Marcus returns from the wars in Britain and Gaul to Rome victorious. Soon after, he meets Lygia, is instantly smitten, and, in short, wants her. However, the fact that he is young, rich, and a victorious military commander does not impress her. He gets frustrated. I guess he is not used to being rejected. So he talks to his uncle, Petronius (who in real life allegedly wrote The Satyricon, which I also read and which I thought was ... really something; there is also a film loosely based on this book: Fellini Satyricon, or simply Satyricon, directed by Federico Fellini [1969]), about the matter:

Petronius: The emperor positively adores you. He called you his brave, relentless child. If you play your hand well, you can have a military governorship. Egypt, perhaps. Sit down. Relax before you take your bath.

Marcus: Oh, very well.

Petronius: And taste this. Straight from the vines of Olympus. Your Sicilian vintages will pale to nothing. Well?

Marcus: What’s the law regarding hostages?

Petronius: Hostages?

Marcus: Yes, can they be bought, reassigned, what?

Petronius: Well ... I take it this hostage is female.

Marcus: Head to toe, hip to hip. What’s the law?

[...]

Marcus: How can I get my hands on her?

Petronius: Hostages are wards of the state. She belongs to Nero.

Marcus: Perfect. He would give me Egypt? He can keep Egypt and give me Lygia.

The way through which he tries to get his “hands on her” is very ... not nice, to put it very mildly, but it does fit his character. Nonetheless, this story is my favourite; I have read the English translated version of the novel and watched both movies (the English one I have watched a hundred times). And the fact that Robert Taylor is dreamy is very nice as well (have you seen him at Sir Lancelot in the Knights of the Round Table [1953]? So dreamy ...).

I need to read more books on the intertwined histories of ancient Rome and ancient Egypt and how ancient Rome affected ancient Egypt.

[Screenshot from a scene in Quo Vadis]