A Roman officer wants a hostage girl from a barbarian court and cannot understand why she will not simply be taken. She is a Christian, in the reign of Nero, in the years when that becomes a capital matter. Sienkiewicz stages the fire, the arena and Petronius's exit with a clarity the cinema has been copying ever since. Paintings of imperial Rome, martyrdom and spectacle; Gilded Library ornament of laurel, cross, amphora and lion. Its 179 original illustrations have been carefully restored and coloured for this edition.