I was reminded again how truly evil Nero was. The book took up the story closer to when Christian persecution began, so it only referred back occasionally to some of Nero's early crimes, like the killing of his mother and wife. There was quite a bit of time spent explaining his actions and the culture of the day -- enough that you could get a good understanding of why he would order that Rome be burned. He fancied himself the finest artist in the world and was frustrated that he couldn't describe great destruction in a poem he was composing...thus, a toady offered to set Rome aflame in service to his art.

When the Roman citizens were threatening to riot, Nero spread the rumor that Christians were responsible and arrested thousands. And then came the games, when Christians were killed in so many different ways to satisfy Roman bloodlust. I'd read before of the human torches Nero made to light his parties, but it was just as shocking to read of it again.

And yet! Although Nero was the ruler of the world with immense power and resources...although he could and did kill scores of people at his every whim and lived such a depraved life that history has scarcely known his equal...his kingdom was stripped from him and he remains only a historical footnote.

One of the side characters in Quo Vadis was the Apostle Peter, whom tradition tells us was crucified upside down. There's a passage toward the end where Peter has been urged by the few remaining believers to flee Rome and continue the work of the Church elsewhere. He struggles with this, feeling he should remain and "feed his sheep," but finally gives in. On his way out of Rome he has a vision of Christ walking toward the city and he asks "Quo Vadis Domine?" which is where the title of the book comes from. "Where are you going Lord?" The Lord replies, "if thou desert my people, I am going to Rome to be crucified a second time." Peter gets up, turns around and walks back to Rome. A few days later he is arrested and crucified.

Right before he dies there's a very interesting section where Peter is praying and claiming the city of Rome from Nero by the blood of the martyrs. Whether events really happened that way or not -- I think that passage is true in spirit. Nero is long gone and the city of Rome remains to this day the center of the largest church in the world.

I was inspired by this book in a couple different ways. First, Rome was a society of corruption, depravity and immorality and it dominated the world. It was nearly impossible to live in a moral way as that caused you to stick out and possibly open yourself up to a death sentence from Nero. Morality aside, being unwilling to bend your knee to the "god" Nero or the other Roman and Greek gods was also a cause for death. Who could stand in a society like that, against the ruler of the world, and live? It was an impossible situation. Yet, in the long lens of history, events have been remedied.

I was also inspired by descriptions of Christians who went to their deaths willingly rather than deny the Lord. Within a 100 years after Christ's time on earth the flame of Christianity could have been extinguished were it not for those brothers and sisters who would not recant, even on pain of torture and death. Those were saints.