Christianity
It’s the main theme of the novel. It doesn’t open clearly at the beginning, but when the reader gets to know that Pomponia and Lygia are Christians, he meets unfolding of the theme more and more. In the novel Christianity is shown in the times shortly after Jesus’ Ascension: his disciple Peter is still alive, Paul of Tarsus is preaching around the towns. The theme is shown here in two aspects: first is the Christianity in general, as a phenomena that concerns all Christians: their faith, their suffering, tortures, persecution. And the second is more close to the protagonists: influence of the faith on Vinicius; shaping of Lygia’s character under the power of her faith.
Love and cruelty
This theme is vividly observed in the relations between Vinicius and Lygia. He loved her most of all in the world, but seeing that she wasn’t an easy prey, he tried for her suffering: once he swore that he’d order to beat her to death, other time he was thinking how he’d be scoffing at her. But sometimes deep longing for a girl covered him, he wished to hug her and kiss gently, showing all his love and obedience to her. But after Vinicius became a Christian, his cruelty in love disappeared, leaving room only for tender feelings.
Art above life
This theme concerns mostly Nero. He set at nought people, their lives, and at the same time he considered his singing and composing of poems above everything. Once he decided that burning Rome would be a great background for his new song, so he burnt it. He didn’t think about people’s lost properties and fates, their deaths. He estimated his gift to be more valuable than that. Other character who relates with this theme is Petronius. His life was full of art: he adored the beauty of human body, music, theatre, even love was a kind of art for him. It’s clearly seen when he preferred to die embosoming his beloved Eunice in sounds of cithara and dancing of beautiful slaves, than be killed by the Caesar.
