VINICIUS to PETRONIUS:
“We know, carissime, most of what is happening in Rome, and what we do
not know is told us in thy letters. When one casts a stone in the water,
the wave goes farther and farther in a circle; so the wave of madness
and malice has come from the Palatine to us. On the road to Greece,
Carinas was sent hither by Cæsar, who plundered cities and temples to
fill the empty treasury. At the price of the sweat and tears of people,
he is building the ‘golden house’ in Rome. It is possible that the world
has not seen such a house, but it has not seen such injustice. Thou
knowest Carinas. Chilo was like him till he redeemed his life with
death. But to the towns lying nearer us his men have not come yet,
perhaps because there are no temples or treasures in them. Thou askest
if we are out of danger. I answer that we are out of mind, and let that
suffice for an answer. At this moment, from the portico under which I
write, I see our calm bay, and on it Ursus in a boat, letting down a
net in the clear water. My wife is spinning red wool near me, and in the
gardens, under the shade of almond-trees, our slaves are singing.
Oh, what calm carissime, and what a forgetfulness of former fear and
suffering! But it is not the Parcæ as thou writest, who spin out our
lives so agreeably; it is Christ who is blessing us, our beloved God and
Saviour. We know tears and sorrow, for our religion teaches us to weep
over the misfortunes of others; but in these tears is a consolation
unknown to thee; for whenever the time of our life is ended, we shall
find all those dear ones who perished and who are perishing yet for
God’s truth. For us Peter and Paul are not dead; they are merely born
into glory. Our souls see them, and when our eyes weep our hearts
are glad with their joy. Oh, yes, my dear friend, we are happy with a
happiness which nothing can destroy, since death, which for thee is the
end of everything, is for us only a passage into superior rest.
“And so days and months pass here in calmness of heart. Our servants and
slaves believe, as we do, in Christ, and that He enjoins love; hence we
love one another. Frequently, when the sun has gone down, or when the
moon is shining in the water, Lygia and I talk of past times, which seem
a dream to us; but when I think how that dear head was near torture and
death, I magnify my Lord with my whole soul, for out of those hands He
alone could wrest her, save her from the arena, and return her to me
forever. O Petronius, thou hast seen what endurance and comfort that
religion gives in misfortune, how much patience and courage before
death; so come and see how much happiness it gives in ordinary, common
days of life. People thus far did not know a God whom man could
love, hence they did not love one another; and from that came their
misfortune, for as light comes from the sun, so does happiness come from
love. Neither lawgivers nor philosophers taught this truth, and it did
not exist in Greece or Rome; and when I say, not in Rome, that means the
whole world. The dry and cold teaching of the Stoics, to which virtuous
people rally, tempers the heart as a sword is tempered, but it makes it
indifferent rather than better. Though why do I write this to thee, who
hast learned more, and hast more understanding than I have? Thou wert
acquainted with Paul of Tarsus, and more than once didst converse long
with him; hence thou knowest better if in comparison with the truth
which he taught all the teachings of philosophers and rhetors are not
a vain and empty jingle of words without meaning. Thou rememberest the
question which he put thee: ‘But if Cæsar were a Christian, would ye
not all feel safer, surer of possessing that which ye possess, free of
alarm, and sure of to-morrow?’ Thou didst say to me that our teaching
was an enemy of life; and I answer thee now, that, if from the beginning
of this letter I had been repeating only the three words, ‘I am happy!’
I could not have expressed my happiness to thee. To this thou wilt
answer, that my happiness is Lygia. True, my friend. Because I love her
immortal soul, and because we both love each other in Christ; for such
love there is no separation, no deceit, no change, no old age, no death.
For, when youth and beauty pass, when our bodies wither and death comes,
love will remain, for the spirit remains. Before my eyes were open to
the light I was ready to burn my own house even, for Lygia’s sake; but
now I tell thee that I did not love her, for it was Christ who first
taught me to love. In Him is the source of peace and happiness. It
is not I who say this, but reality itself. Compare thy own luxury,
my friend, lined with alarm, thy delights, not sure of a morrow, thy
orgies, with the lives of Christians, and thou wilt find a ready answer.
But, to compare better, come to our mountains with the odor of thyme, to
our shady olive groves on our shores lined with ivy. A peace is waiting
for thee, such as thou hast not known for a long time, and hearts that
love thee sincerely. Thou, having a noble soul and a good one, shouldst
be happy. Thy quick mind can recognize the truth, and knowing it thou
wilt love it. To be its enemy, like Cæsar and Tigellinus, is possible,
but indifferent to it no one can be. O my Petronius, Lygia and I are
comforting ourselves with the hope of seeing thee soon. Be well, be
happy, and come to us.”
Petronius received this letter in Cumæ, whither he had gone with other
Augustians who were following Cæsar. His struggle of long years with
Tigellinus was nearing its end. Petronius knew already that he must fall
in that struggle, and he understood why. As Cæsar fell lower daily to
the role of a comedian, a buffoon, and a charioteer; as he sank deeper
in a sickly, foul, and coarse dissipation,--the exquisite arbiter became
a mere burden to him. Even when Petronius was silent, Nero saw blame in
his silence; when the arbiter praised, he saw ridicule. The brilliant
patrician annoyed his self-love and roused his envy. His wealth and
splendid works of art had become an object of desire both to the ruler
and the all-powerful minister. Petronius was spared so far in view of
the journey to Achæa, in which his taste, his knowledge of everything
Greek, might be useful. But gradually Tigellinus explained to Cæsar that
Carinas surpassed him in taste and knowledge, and would be better able
to arrange in Achæa games, receptions, and triumphs. From that moment
Petronius was lost. There was not courage to send him his sentence in
Rome. Cæsar and Tigellinus remembered that that apparently effeminate
and æsthetic person, who made “day out of night,” and was occupied only
in luxury, art, and feasts, had shown amazing industry and energy,
when proconsul in Bithynia and later when consul in the capital. They
considered him capable of anything, and it was known that in Rome he
possessed not only the love of the people, but even of the pretorians.
None of Cæsar’s confidants could foresee how Petronius might act in a
given case; it seemed wiser, therefore, to entice him out of the city,
and reach him in a province.
With this object he received an invitation to go to Cumæ with other
Augustians. He went, though suspecting the ambush, perhaps so as not
to appear in open opposition, perhaps to show once more a joyful face
devoid of every care to Cæsar and the Augustians, and to gain a last
victory before death over Tigellinus.
Meanwhile the latter accused him of friendship with the Senator
Scevinus, who was the soul of Piso’s conspiracy. The people of
Petronius, left in Rome, were imprisoned; his house was surrounded by
pretorian guards. When he learned this, he showed neither alarm nor
concern, and with a smile said to Augustians whom he received in his own
splendid villa in Cumæ,--
“Ahenobarbus does not like direct questions; hence ye will see his
confusion when I ask him if it was he who gave command to imprison my
‘familia’ in the capital.”
Then he invited them to a feast “before the longer journey,” and he had
just made preparations for it when the letter from Vinicius came.
When he received this letter, Petronius grew somewhat thoughtful,
but after a time his face regained its usual composure, and that same
evening he answered as follows:--
“I rejoice at your happiness and admire your hearts, for I had not
thought that two lovers could remember a third person who was far away.
Ye have not only not forgotten me, but ye wish to persuade me to go to
Sicily, so that ye may share with me your bread and your Christ, who, as
thou writest, has given you happiness so bountifully.
“If that be true, honor Him. To my thinking, however, Ursus had
something to do with saving Lygia, and the Roman people also had a
little to do with it. But since thy belief is that Christ did the
work, I will not contradict. Spare no offerings to Him. Prometheus also
sacrificed himself for man; but, alas! Prometheus is an invention of the
poets apparently, while people worthy of credit have told me that they
saw Christ with their own eyes. I agree with thee that He is the most
worthy of the gods.
“I remember the question by Paul of Tarsus, and I think that if
Ahenobarbus lived according to Christ’s teaching I might have time to
visit you in Sicily. In that case we could converse, in the shade of
trees and near fountains, of all the gods and all the truths discussed
by Greek philosophers at any time. To-day I must give thee a brief
answer.
“I care for two philosophers only: Pyrrho and Anacreon. I am ready to
sell the rest to thee cheaply, with all the Greek and Roman Stoics.
Truth, Vinicius, dwells somewhere so high that the gods themselves
cannot see it from the top of Olympus. To thee, carissime, thy Olympus
seems higher still, and, standing there, thou callest to me, ‘Come, thou
wilt see such sights as thou hast not seen yet!’ I might. But I answer,
‘I have not feet for the journey.’ And if thou read this letter to the
end, thou wilt acknowledge, I think, that I am right.
“No, happy husband of the Aurora princess! thy religion is not for me.
Am I to love the Bithynians who carry my litter, the Egyptians who heat
my bath? Am I to love Ahenobarbus and Tigellinus? I swear by the white
knees of the Graces, that even if I wished to love them I could not.
In Rome there are a hundred thousand persons at least who have either
crooked shoulders, or big knees, or thin thighs, or staring eyes, or
heads that are too large. Dost thou command me to love these too? Where
am I to find the love, since it is not in my heart? And if thy God
desires me to love such persons, why in His all might did He not give
them the forms of Niobe’s children, for example, which thou hast seen on
the Palatine? Whoso loves beauty is unable for that very reason to love
deformity. One may not believe in our gods, but it is possible to love
them, as Phidias, Praxiteles, Miron, Skopas, and Lysias loved.
“Should I wish to go whither thou wouldst lead me, I could not. But
since I do not wish, I am doubly unable. Thou believest, like Paul of
Tarsus, that on the other side of the Styx thou wilt see thy Christ in
certain Elysian fields. Let Him tell thee then Himself whether He would
receive me with my gems, my Myrrhene vase, my books published by Sozius,
and my golden-haired Eunice. I laugh at this thought; for Paul of
Tarsus told me that for Christ’s sake one must give up wreaths of roses,
feasts, and luxury. It is true that he promised me other happiness, but
I answered that I was too old for new happiness, that my eyes would be
delighted always with roses, and that the odor of violets is dearer to
me than stench from my foul neighbor of the Subura.
“These are reasons why thy happiness is not for me. But there is one
reason more, which I have reserved for the last: Thanatos summons
me. For thee the light of life is beginning; but my sun has set, and
twilight is embracing my head. In other words, I must die, carissime.
“It is not worth while to talk long of this. It had to end thus. Thou,
who knowest Ahenobarbus, wilt understand the position easily. Tigellinus
has conquered, or rather my victories have touched their end. I have
lived as I wished, and I will die as pleases me.
“Do not take this to heart. No God has promised me immortality; hence
no surprise meets me. At the same time thou art mistaken, Vinicius, in
asserting that only thy God teaches man to die calmly. No. Our world
knew, before thou wert born, that when the last cup was drained, it
was time to go,--time to rest,--and it knows yet how to do that with
calmness. Plato declares that virtue is music, that the life of a sage
is harmony. If that be true, I shall die as I have lived,--virtuously.
“I should like to take farewell of thy godlike wife in the words with
which on a time I greeted her in the house of Aulus, ‘Very many persons
have I seen, but thy equal I know not.’
“If the soul is more than what Pyrrho thinks, mine will fly to thee
and Lygia, on its way to the edge of the ocean, and will alight at your
house in the form of a butterfly or, as the Egyptians believe, in the
form of a sparrowhawk. Otherwise I cannot come.
“Meanwhile let Sicily replace for you the gardens of Hesperides; may the
goddesses of the fields, woods, and fountains scatter flowers on your
path, and may white doves build their nests on every acanthus of the
columns of your house.”