Darkness and Dawn; Or, Scenes in the Days of Nero. An Historic Tale Read online

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  DARKNESS AND DAWN

  OR

  SCENES IN THE DAYS OF NERO

  NINTH ISSUE.

  TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES

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  This book was written in a period when many words had not becomestandardized in their spelling. Words may have multiple spellingvariations or inconsistent hyphenation in the text. These have beenleft unchanged unless indicated with a Transcriber’s Note.

  Footnotes are identified in the text with a number in brackets [2]and have been accumulated in a single section at the end of the text.

  Transcriber Notes are used when making corrections to the text or toprovide additional information for the modern reader. These notes areidentified in the text with an asterisk and number in brackets [*2]and have been accumulated in a single section at the end of the book.

  DARKNESS AND DAWN

  OR

  SCENES IN THE DAYS OF NERO

  An Historic Tale

  BY

  FREDERIC W. FARRAR, D.D., F.R.S.

  ARCHDEACON AND CANON OF WESTMINSTER, AUTHOR OF “THE LIFE OF CHRIST,”ETC., ETC.

  NEW YORK

  LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.

  LONDON AND BOMBAY

  1897

  _Copyright_, _1891_,

  BY F. W. FARRAR

  First Edition, September, 1891. Reprinted December, 1891; January and April, 1892; January and September, 1893; February, 1895; May, 1896.

  University Press:

  JOHN WILSON AND SON, CAMBRIDGE.

  VXORI

  DILECTISSIMAE

  LIBERORVM PIENTISSIMAE MATRI

  LABORUM OMNIUM ET CURARUM PARTICIPI FIDELISSIMAE

  HVNC LIBRVM

  D. D. D.

  FREDERICVS GVILIELMVS FARRAR

  Dolce color d’oriental zaffiro, Che s’accoglieva nel sereno aspetto Dell’aer puro infino al primo giro, Agli occhi miei ricomincio diletto, Tosto ch’io usci fuor dell’aura morta, Che m’avea contristato gli occhi e’l petto.

  DANTE, _Purgatorio_, I. 13-18.

  The orient sapphire’s hue of sweetest tone, Which gathered in the aspect calm and bright Of that pure air as far as heaven’s first zone, Now to mine eyes brought back the old delight Soon as I passed forth from the dead dank air Which eyes and heart had veiled with saddest night.

  PLUMPTRE.

  PREFACE

  I have endeavoured to choose a title for this book which shalltruly describe its contents. The ‘Darkness’ of which I speak isthe darkness of a decadent Paganism; the ‘Dawn’ is the dawn ofChristianity. Although the story is continuous, I have called it‘_Scenes_ in the Days of Nero,’ because the outline is determined bythe actual events of Pagan and Christian history, more than by thefortunes of the characters who are here introduced. In other words,the fiction is throughout controlled and dominated by historic facts.The purport of this tale is no less high and serious than that whichI have had in view in every other book which I have written. Ithas been the illustration of a supreme and deeply interestingproblem--the causes, namely, why a religion so humble in its originand so feeble in its earthly resources as Christianity, won somajestic a victory over the power, the glory, and the intellectof the civilised world.

  The greater part of the following story has been for some years inmanuscript, and, since it was designed, and nearly completed, severalbooks have appeared which deal with the same epoch. Some of these Ihave not seen. From none of them have I consciously borrowed even thesmallest hint.

  Those who are familiar with the literature of the first century willrecognise that even for the minutest allusions and particulars Ihave contemporary authority. Expressions and incidents which, tosome, might seem to be startlingly modern, are in reality suggestedby passages in the satirists, epigrammatists, and romancers ofthe Empire, or by anecdotes preserved in the grave pages of Senecaand the elder Pliny. I have, of course, so far assumed the libertyaccorded to writers of historic fiction as occasionally to deviate,to a small extent, from exact chronology, but such deviations arevery trivial in comparison with those which have been permitted toothers, and especially to the great masters of historic fiction.

  All who know most thoroughly the real features of that Pagan darknesswhich was deepest before the Christian dawn will see that scarcelyeven by the most distant allusion have I referred to some of theworst features in the life of that day. While I have not extenuatedthe realities of cruelty and bloodshed, I have repeatedly softeneddown their more terrible incidents and details. To have altered thataspect of monotonous misery which pained and wearied its ancientannalist would have been to falsify the real characteristics of theage with which I had to deal.

  The book is not a novel, nor is it to be judged as a novel. Theoutline has been imperatively decided for me by the exigencies offact, not by the rules of art. I have been compelled to deal withan epoch which I should never have touched if I had not seen, in thefeatures which it presented, one main explanation of an historicalevent the most sacred and the most interesting on which the mind candwell.

  The same object has made it inevitable that, at least in passingglimpses, the figures of several whose names are surrounded withhallowed associations should appear in these pages. I could nototherwise bring out the truths which it was my aim to set forth. Butin this matter I do not think that any serious reader will accuse meof irreverence. Onesimus, Pudens, Claudia, and a few others, must beregarded as imaginary persons, except in name, but scarcely in oneincident have I touched the Preachers of early Christianity withthe finger of fiction. They were, indeed, men of like passions withourselves, and as St. Chrysostom says of St. Paul, ‘Even if he wasPaul, he was yet a man;’ but recognising their sacred dignity, I havealmost entirely confined their words to words of revelation. Evenif I had done more than this, I might plead the grave sanction andexample of Dante, and Milton, and Browning. But the small libertywhich I have dared to use has only been in directions accorded by thecycle of such early legends as may be considered to be both innocentand hallowed.

  F. W. FARRAR.