Story Hour Readings: Seventh Year Part 55

THE STRUGGLE IN THE ARENA

BY HENRYK SIENKIEWICZ

Nero was the emperor of Rome, A. D. 54-68. He was a wicked tyrant among whose crimes are the death of his first wife, the death of his own mother, and the murder of a second wife. Two thirds of the city of Rome was burned, and the emperor has been accused of having had the fire set so he could enjoy the sight. Be that as it may, Nero laid the blame on the Christians whom he persecuted. They were thrown into prison, fed to wild beasts in the arena, and burned on poles. Among the captives were the maid Lygia, and her faithful guard, Ursus.

Vinicius, Lygia's lover, belonged to the Roman n.o.bility. He had once tried to seize Lygia, but Ursus had foiled his plan by killing the attendant, Croton.

The prefect of the city waved a red handkerchief, the hinges opposite Caesar's podium creaked, and out of the dark gully came Ursus into the brightly lighted arena.

The giant blinked, dazed evidently by the glitter of the arena; then he pushed into the center, gazing around as 5 if to see what he had to meet. It was known to all the Augustans and to most of the spectators that he was the man who had stifled Croton; hence at sight of him a murmur pa.s.sed along every bench. In Rome there was no lack of gladiators larger by far than the common 10 measure of man, but Roman eyes had never seen the like of Ursus. Ca.s.sius, standing in Caesar's podium, seemed puny compared with that Lygian.

Senators, vestals, Caesar, the Augustans, and the people gazed with the delight of experts at his mighty limbs as 15 large as tree trunks, at his breast as large as two s.h.i.+elds joined together, and his arms of a Hercules. The murmur rose every instant. For those mult.i.tudes there could be no higher pleasure than to look at those muscles in play in the exertion of a struggle. The murmur rose to shouts, and eager questions were put: Where did the people live 5 who could produce such a giant?

He stood there, in the middle of the amphitheater, naked, more like a stone colossus than a man, with a collected expression, and at the same time the sad look of a barbarian; and while surveying the empty arena, he gazed 10 wonderingly with his blue childlike eyes, now at the spectators, now at Caesar, now at the grating of the cunicula, whence, as he thought, his executioners would come.

At that moment when he stepped into the arena his simple heart was beating for the last time with the hope 15 that perhaps a cross was waiting for him; but when he saw neither the cross nor the hole in which it might be put, he thought that he was unworthy of such favor--that he would find death in another way, and surely from wild beasts. He was unarmed, and had determined to die as 20 became a confessor of the "Lamb," peacefully and patiently.

Meanwhile he wished to pray once more to the Savior; so he knelt on the arena, joined his hands, and raised his eyes toward the stars which were glittering in the lofty opening of the amphitheater. 25

That act displeased the crowds. They had had enough of those Christians who died like sheep. They understood that if the giant would not defend himself the spectacle would be a failure. Here and there hisses were heard.

Some began to cry for scourgers, whose office it was to 30 lash combatants unwilling to fight. But soon all had grown silent, for no one knew what was waiting for the giant, nor whether he would not be ready to struggle when he met death eye to eye.

In fact, they had not long to wait. Suddenly the shrill sound of brazen trumpets was heard, and at that signal a grating opposite Caesar's podium was opened, and into the 5 arena rushed, amid shouts of beast keepers, an enormous German aurochs, bearing on his head the naked body of a woman.

"Lygia! Lygia!" cried Vinicius.

Then he seized his hair near the temples, squirmed like a 10 man who feels a sharp dart in his body, and began to repeat in hoa.r.s.e accents:

"I believe! I believe! O Christ, a miracle!"

And he did not even feel that Petronius covered his head that moment with the toga. It seemed to him that 15 death or pain had closed his eyes. He did not look, he did not see. The feeling of some awful emptiness possessed him.

In his head there remained not a thought; his lips merely repeated, as if in madness,

"I believe! I believe! I believe!" 20

This time the amphitheater was silent. The Augustans rose in their places, as one man, for in the arena something uncommon had happened. That Lygian, obedient and ready to die, when he saw his queen on the horns of the wild beast sprang up as if touched by living fire, and 25 bending forward he ran at the raging animal.

From all b.r.e.a.s.t.s a sudden cry of amazement was heard, after which came deep silence.

The Lygian fell on the raging bull in a twinkle, and seized him by the horns. 30

"Look!" cried Petronius, s.n.a.t.c.hing the toga from the head of Vinicius.

The latter rose; his face was as pale as linen, and he looked into the arena with a gla.s.sy, vacant stare.

All b.r.e.a.s.t.s ceased to breathe. In the amphitheater a fly might be heard on the wing. People could not believe their own eyes. Since Rome was Rome, no one had seen such a 5 spectacle.

The Lygian held the wild beast by the horns. The man's feet sank in the sand to his ankles, his back was bent like a drawn bow, his head was hidden between his shoulders, on his arms the muscles came out so that the skin almost 10 burst from their pressure; but he had stopped the bull in his tracks. And the man and the beast remained so still that the spectators thought themselves looking at a picture showing a deed of Hercules or Theseus, or a group hewn from stone. 15

But in that apparent repose there was a tremendous exertion of two struggling forces. The bull sank his feet as well as did the man in the sand, and his dark, s.h.a.ggy body was curved so that it seemed a gigantic ball.

Which of the two would fail first, which would fall first,--that 20 was the question for those spectators enamored of such struggles; a question which at that moment meant more for them than their own fate, than all Rome and its lords.h.i.+p over the world.

That Lygian was in their eyes then a demiG.o.d worthy of 25 honor and statues. Caesar himself stood up as well as others. He and Tigellinus, hearing of the man's strength, had arranged this spectacle purposely, and said to each other with a jeer, "Let that slayer of Croton kill the bull which we choose for him"; so they looked now with 30 amazement at that picture as if not believing that it could be real.

In the amphitheater were men who had raised their arms and remained in that posture. Sweat covered the faces of others, as if they themselves were struggling with the beast. In the Circus nothing was heard save the sound of flame in the lamps, and the crackle of bits of coal 5 as they dropped from the torches. Their voices died on the lips of the spectators, but their hearts were beating in their b.r.e.a.s.t.s as if to split them. It seemed to all that the struggle was lasting for ages. But the man and the beast continued on in their monstrous exertion; one 10 might have said that they were planted in the earth.

Meanwhile a dull roar resembling a groan was heard from the arena, after which a brief shout was wrested from every breast, and again there was silence. People thought themselves dreaming till the enormous head of the bull 15 began to turn in the iron hands of the barbarian. The face, neck, and arms of the Lygian grew purple; his back bent still more. It was clear that he was rallying the remnant of his superhuman strength, but that he could not last long. 20

Duller and duller, hoa.r.s.er and hoa.r.s.er, more and more painful grew the groan of the bull as it mingled with the whistling breath from the breast of the giant. The head of the beast turned more and more, and from his jaws came a long, foaming tongue. 25

A moment more, and to the ears of spectators sitting nearer came as it were the crack of breaking bones; then the beast rolled on the earth with his neck twisted in death.

The giant removed in a twinkle the ropes from the horns of the bull, and, raising the maiden, began to breathe 30 hurriedly. His face became pale, his hair stuck together from sweat, his shoulders and arms seemed flooded with water. For a moment he stood as if only half conscious; then he raised his eyes and looked at the spectators.

The amphitheater had gone wild.

The walls of the building were trembling from the roar of tens of thousands of people. Since the beginning of spectacles 5 there was no memory of such excitement. Those who were sitting on the highest rows came down, crowding in the pa.s.sages between benches to look more nearly at the strong man. Everywhere were heard cries for mercy, pa.s.sionate and persistent, which soon turned into one 10 unbroken thunder. That giant had become dear to those people enamored of physical strength; he was the first personage in Rome.

He understood that the mult.i.tudes were striving to grant him his life and restore him his freedom, but clearly his 15 thought was not on himself alone. He looked around awhile; then approached Caesar's podium, and holding the body of the maiden on his outstretched arms, raised his eyes with entreaty, as if to say,

"Have mercy on her! Save the maiden. I did that for 20 her sake!"

The spectators understood perfectly what he wanted.

At sight of the unconscious maiden, who near the enormous Lygian seemed a child, emotion seized the mult.i.tude of senators and knights. Her slender form, as white as if 25 chiseled from alabaster, her fainting, the dreadful danger from which the giant had freed her, and finally her beauty and attachment had moved every heart. Some thought the man a father begging mercy for his child. Pity burst forth suddenly, like a flame. They had had blood, death, 30 and torture in sufficiency. Voices choked with tears began to entreat mercy for both.

Meanwhile, Ursus, holding the girl in his arms, moved around the arena, and with his eyes and with motions begged her life for her. Now Vinicius started up from his seat, sprang over the barrier which separated the front places from the arena, and, running to Lygia, covered her naked 5 body with his toga.

Then he tore apart the tunic on his breast, laid bare the scars left by wounds received in the Armenian war, and stretched out his hands to the audience.

Then the enthusiasm of the mult.i.tude pa.s.sed everything 10 seen in a circus before. The crowd stamped and howled.

Voices calling for mercy grew simply terrible. People not only took the part of the athlete, but rose in defense of the soldier, the maiden, their love. Thousands of spectators turned to Caesar with flashes of anger in their eyes and with 15 clinched fists.

But Caesar halted and hesitated. Against Vinicius he had no hatred indeed, and the death of Lygia did not concern him; but he preferred to see the body of the maiden rent by the horns of the bull or torn by the claws of beasts. 20 His cruelty, his deformed imagination and deformed desires, found a kind of delight in such spectacles. And now the people wanted to rob him. Hence anger appeared on his bloated face. Self-love also would not let him yield to the wish of the mult.i.tude, and still he did not dare to oppose 25 it, through his inborn cowardice.

So he gazed around to see if, among the Augustans at least, he could not find fingers turned down in sign of death.

But Petronius held up his hand, and looked almost challengingly into Nero's face. Vestinius, superst.i.tious but 30 inclined to enthusiasm, a man who feared ghosts but not the living, gave a sign for mercy also.

Then Nero turned to the place where command over the pretorians was held by the stern Subrius Flavius, hitherto devoted with whole soul to him, and saw something unusual.

The face of the old tribune was stern, but covered with tears, and he was holding his hand up in sign of mercy. 5

Now rage began to possess the mult.i.tude. Dust rose from beneath the stamping feet, and filled the amphitheater.

In the midst of shouts were heard cries: "Ahen.o.barbus!

Matricide! Incendiary!"

Nero was alarmed. The people were absolute lords in the 10 Circus. He wanted their favor on his side against the senate and the patricians, and especially after the burning of Rome he strove by all means to win it, and turn their anger against the Christians. He understood, besides, that to oppose longer was simply dangerous. A disturbance 15 begun in the Circus might seize the whole city, and have results incalculable. And seeing everywhere frowning brows, moved faces, and eyes fixed on him, he gave the sign for mercy.

--_Quo Vadis._

1. At about what time is this story laid? Where?