Ruth Scodel & Anja Bettenworth 
Whither Quo Vadis? 
Sienkiewicz’s Novel in Film and Television

Whither Quo Vadis? offers an engaging account of how the
Roman world and its history are represented in film and the way in
which the different adaptations reflect the shifting historical
situations and ideological concerns of their own times.

* * Explores five surviving film adaptations – Guazzoni’s of
1912; D’Annunzio/Jacoby of 1925; Mervyn Le Roy’s of 1951; the
Italian TV mini-series of 1985 by Franco Rossi; and
Kawalerowicz’s 2001 Polish version

* Examines how these different versions interpret, select from,
and modify the novel and the ancient sources on which it is
based

* Offers an exceptionally clear view of how films have presented
ancient Rome and how modern conditions determine its
reception

* Looks at rare and archival material which has not previously
received close scholarly attention

Table of Content

List of Illustrations ix

Acknowledgments x

1 Novel and Film 1

2 Adapting the Narrative 16

Sienkiewicz’s Novel: Adapting the Story 16

Focalizers, Judgments, and Petronius 22

Petronius as Focal Character 28

Seeing and Mapping Rome 42

3 Gender and Ethnicity 55

Marcus and Lygia 55

Petronius and Eunice 57

Pomponia 61

Gender Roles in Public and Private Life 63

Ethnicity and Gender Roles in the 1985 Version 70

Adaptations in the 2001 Version 80

4 Political Institutions, Political Subtexts 88

Political Implications of the Silent Versions 91

Fascists and Communists: The 1951 and 2001 Films 94

The Complex Allusions of the 1985 Miniseries 97

Foreign Policy in the Films 116

The Military in the 1951 Version 118

The Arrival of Galba 124

5 The Roman People 139

6 Religion and Religious Authority in Quo Vadis? 173

Paganism 173

Judaism 178

Christianity: Ritual, Theology, and Confl ict in
Sienkiewicz’s Novel 185

Transmitting a Tradition: Sermons in Novel and Film 188

The Representation of the Scriptures 190

Radicals: Crispus 194

Mainstream Christianity: Peter and Paul 200

Conclusion 211

7 Conclusions 219

8 Exkursus: Chilo’s Mother 223

A Peculiarity of the German Translations of Quo Vadis? 223

Description of the Films 227

Synopsis of the Novel and the Film Versions of Quo Vadis 230

References 266

Index of Ancient Sources 275

Index of Personal Names 279

Index of Things and Places 285

About the author

Ruth Scodel is D. R. Shackleton Bailey Collegiate Professor
of Greek and Latin at the University of Michigan. She is the author
of Listening to Homer (2002) and Epic Facework:
Self-Presentation and Social Interaction in Homer (2008).

Anja Bettenworth is Assistant Professor of Latin at the
University of Münster. She is the author of Gastmahlszenen
in der antiken Epik von Homer bis Claudian. Diachrone
Untersuchungen zur Szenentypik (2004).