Character guide

Lygia

major

Also known as Callina, divine Lygia, IX Lygia, Yesterday Lygia, LIV Lygia

Lygia moves through Rome as a royal captive turned adopted daughter, quietly Christian in a city that worships the emperor. When Vinicius falls for her, she must weigh his passion against a faith that asks her to leave house, wealth, and a sunny land behind. Her calm refusal — she sleeps soundly the night before flight while others lie awake in dread — makes her the still center around which the novel's collision of love and belief turns.

Marcus Vinicius

major

Also known as Vinicius, young Marcus Vinicius, noble Vinicius, LIII Vinicius, XI Vinicius

Vinicius returns from the Armenian war to the pleasures of Nero's Rome, expecting that a beautiful hostage can simply be claimed. His love for Lygia collides with a religion he despises, and his jealousy of a beggar boy reveals how much pride he must throttle to stay near her. His slow self-conquest — learning to see slaves and foreigners as human — is the moral engine of the novel's middle arc.

Petronius

major

Also known as Caius Petronius, the skeptical Petronius, noble Petronius, VI Petronius

Petronius moves through Nero's court with lazy wit and impeccable taste, prized by the emperor and secretly bored by him. He protects Vinicius with real affection while dissecting Rome's madness — the dice-play of life, the coming unknown that breaks beneath them. His clear-eyed cynicism gives the reader a companion inside the palace: someone who sees the precipice and keeps talking anyway.

Nero

major

Also known as Caesar, Bronzebeard, divine Caesar, XXX Caesar, XLI Nero

Nero rules as artist, god, and child at once, pale with genuine emotion after his own performance and hungry for a triumph no Roman has ever achieved. He surrounds himself with flatterers like Petronius, tolerates no rival, and treats the city as a stage for his voice. His vanity and instability are the weather of the novel — the force that turns private love and quiet faith into public catastrophe.

Ursus

supporting

Also known as the Lygian, giant Lygian, the enormous Lygian

Ursus is a foreign giant in a Roman household, devoted to Lygia with a loyalty that has no calculation in it. He nurses the wounded Vinicius, talks about Lygia for whole days, and shows a simple attachment that quietly shames the tribune's pride. His strength is the physical answer to the dangers surrounding her — a protector whose tenderness is as enormous as his frame.

Chilo Chilonides

supporting

Also known as Chilo, Chilonides, the noble Chilo Chilonides

Chilo arrives in Petronius's atrium looking like Homer's Thersites — stooped, pimpled, in a ragged goat's-wool mantle — and immediately offers to find the vanished Lygia. He calls himself a philosopher and insists philosophers are not greedy, even as he names his price. His cunning makes him useful to the powerful and lethal to the hunted, and his presence turns the search for one girl into a map of Rome's betrayals.

Acte

supporting

Once loved by Nero and then set aside, Acte keeps a strange freedom in the palace: she is pitied, half-forgotten, and therefore trusted with secrets. She carries word between the Christian community and those who love them, including Lygia, whose flight she helps conceal. Her position lets Sienkiewicz show mercy operating inside the very house of the persecutor, and she becomes one of the quiet hinges on which the hunted survive.

Paul of Tarsus

supporting

Also known as Paul, Paul the Apostle

Paul moves through Rome as a preacher whose words unsettle even Petronius, who repeats his argument that Christians are not enemies of life but of scoundrelism. He meets Vinicius in the middle of the patrician's pursuit of Lygia and offers a way of seeing love, death, and the soul that Roman pleasure cannot answer. His presence turns the novel's conflict from a hunt for a girl into a contest between two entire accounts of what a human being is for.

Peter

supporting

Also known as the Apostle Peter, Simon Peter

Peter leads the Christian community in Rome as its elder and its living link to the Gospel, the man to whom believers bring their fears and their converts. He stands opposite the imperial world not with legions but with a strange, unshakable calm, and his presence gives the persecuted a center that Tigellinus can arrest bodies but never quite reach. His path will cross Vinicius's and Lygia's at the moments when the novel asks what a soul is worth.

Tigellinus

supporting

Also known as the noble Tigellinus

Tigellinus holds the practical power in Nero's Rome: the guards, the informers, the pretexts. Where Petronius charms and Nero performs, Tigellinus simply arranges the arrests, and he understands that a scapegoat is more useful than a truth. His pursuit of the Christians, and of anyone Nero wishes removed, supplies the novel's engine of dread and forces every other character to choose what they will risk.

Aulus Plautius

supporting

Also known as Plautius, Aulus, old Aulus, noble Plautius

Aulus is a soldier of the old Roman stamp: blunt, loyal, and incapable of a lie, which is exactly why Nero's messenger Hasta fears the frown that once cowed legions. He loves Lygia as a daughter, yet as a hostage she belongs to Caesar, and the order to give her up exposes the gap between Roman honor as he practices it and the court that now commands him. His refusal to lie, even to save her, becomes one of the moral standards against which the novel measures everyone else.

Pomponia Graecina

supporting

Also known as Pomponia, Graecina, the good Pomponia

Pomponia is the good Roman matron whose real allegiance lies with Christ, a secret she keeps for the sake of her family and her church. She taught Lygia the faith and loves her as a daughter, yet when Caesar claims the girl she can only cling to her and cry that death would be better. Her hidden Christianity makes the Plautius household the novel's first bridge between old Rome and the new faith, and her separation from Lygia gives the persecution its intimate cost.

Glaucus

minor

A Christian physician betrayed by Chilo, later killed during the persecution.

Crispus

minor

Also known as worthy Crispus, Rufius Crispus, Rufius

A zealous Christian elder who condemns worldliness among believers.

Poppaea

supporting

Also known as Poppaea Sabina, Augusta, Divine Augusta

As Nero's wife, Poppaea wields imperial favor like a blade, and her passing whim for Vinicius becomes a threat he cannot safely refuse. Petronius warns that spurning her vanity invites a death crueler than any sword, and that her jealousy could reach Lygia herself. Her restless appetite for new conquests and her contempt for Christians place her at the center of the court's moral rot, shaping the dangers that close around the lovers.

Eunice

minor

Petronius's beloved slave and later wife, devoted to him until death.

Miriam

minor

Also known as old Miriam

A Christian widow who shelters Peter and other believers in her home.

Nazarius

minor

Miriam's son who helps the Christians and carries messages.

Linus

minor

Also known as Bishop Linus, holy Linus

A Christian leader who becomes bishop of Rome after Peter.

Seneca

minor

Nero's philosopher tutor who disapproves of the emperor's excesses.

Croton

minor

Also known as thy wrestler Croton

A powerful gladiator hired by Vinicius to kidnap Lygia, killed by Ursus.

Vestinius

minor

Also known as the superstitious Vestinius

A superstitious Roman senator who fears omens and Nero's wrath.

Chrysothemis

minor

A beautiful Greek woman and former lover of Petronius.

Vatinius

minor

A deformed court jester and informer in Nero's court.

Rubria

minor

Also known as the vestal Rubria

A Vestal Virgin who participates in Nero's sacrilegious wedding ceremony.

Vitellius

minor

A flattering Roman senator and courtier of Nero.

Lucan

minor

A poet and friend of Petronius who participates in Nero's literary circle.

Tullius Senecio

minor

Also known as Senecio

A young Roman nobleman and companion of Nero's circle.

Domitius Afer

minor

Also known as Old Domitius Afer

An aged Roman orator and senator who appears at Nero's court.

Euricius

minor

A poor Roman who seeks help from Vinicius after his daughter is kidnapped.

Scevinus

minor

Also known as Flavius Scevinus

A Roman senator involved in the Pisonian conspiracy against Nero.

Vannius

minor

A Lygian king mentioned in the context of barbarian wars.

Atacinus

minor

A poet and rival of Petronius in Nero's literary circle.

Urban

minor

A Christian slave of Aulus and Pomponia who serves the household.

Calendio

minor

A steward in Petronius's household who manages his affairs.

Gulo

minor

A gluttonous slave in Petronius's household known for his appetite.

Terpnos

minor

Nero's personal musician and lyre teacher.

Diodorus

minor

A Greek philosopher who debates with Petronius about the gods.

Pansa

minor

A Roman official who oversees the games and executions.

Secundus Carinas

minor

Also known as Carinas

A Roman senator who accuses Christians before Nero.

Crispinilla

minor

Also known as Calvia Crispinilla

A wealthy Roman woman and friend of Poppaea who hates Christians.

Quintus

minor

Also known as Young Quartus

A young Roman nobleman who briefly appears at Petronius's villa.

Caius Hasta

minor

Also known as old Caius Hasta, Hasta

An old Roman senator who speaks against Nero's tyranny.

Nigidia

minor

A Roman matron who gossips about the Christians at court.

Pomponius

minor

A Roman senator who is a friend of Petronius.

John

minor

The Apostle John who appears briefly with Peter in Rome.

Piso

minor

Leader of the conspiracy against Nero, mentioned but not seen on stage.

Barcus Soranus

minor

Also known as Barcus

A Roman senator who opposes Nero and is forced to suicide.

Corbulo

minor

A Roman general admired by Petronius, forced to suicide by Nero.

Thrasea

minor

Also known as Old Thrasea, The great Thrasea

A Stoic senator who opposes Nero and is condemned to death.

Tiresias

minor

The blind prophet from myth, referenced by Petronius in conversation.

Memnon

minor

Also known as Colossus of Memnon

A mythical Ethiopian king whose statue is mentioned in passing.

Titus

minor

Future emperor, briefly mentioned as a young commander in Judea.

Atelius Hister

minor

Also known as Hister

A Roman senator who appears at Nero's court.

Cassius Chaerea

minor

Also known as Chaerea

A tribune who later assassinated Caligula, mentioned historically.

Epaphroditus

minor

Nero's freedman secretary who helps him flee at the end.

Torquatus Silanus

minor

Also known as Silanus

A Roman nobleman forced to suicide by Nero for his lineage.

Antistius Verus

minor

Also known as Antistius

A Roman senator who conspires against Nero.

Musonius

minor

A Stoic philosopher who criticizes Nero's tyranny.

Pedanius Secundus

minor

Also known as Pedanius

A Roman prefect whose murder by a slave is mentioned.

Sporus

minor

A young boy Nero castrates and marries as a mock wife.

Aliturus

minor

A Jewish actor favored by Nero who performs in his court.

Cornelius Pudens

minor

Also known as Pudens

A Roman centurion who secretly sympathizes with Christians.

Subrius Flavus

minor

Also known as the stern Subrius Flavus

A tribune who conspires to assassinate Nero.

Faenius Rufus

minor

A Roman prefect involved in the Pisonian conspiracy.

Galba

minor

Also known as Galba Caesar

Future emperor, mentioned as governor of Spain who rebels.

Vindex

minor

A Gallic governor who leads a revolt against Nero.

Mary of Magdala

minor

Also known as Mary

A follower of Christ who appears among the Roman Christians.

Thomas Didymus

minor

Also known as Thomas

The Apostle Thomas, briefly mentioned as preaching in the East.

Silvia

minor

Also known as old Silvia

An elderly Christian woman who shelters believers.

Demas

minor

Also known as the baker Demas, Demas the miller

A Christian baker who provides bread for the community.

Macrinus

minor

A Roman knight who testifies against Christians.

Fabricius Veiento

minor

Also known as Veiento

A Roman senator and informer who accuses Christians.

Vespasian

minor

Future emperor, mentioned as a general in Judea.

Caligula

minor

Also known as Caius Caligula

The mad emperor before Nero, referenced in historical discussions.

Claudius

minor

Also known as Claudius Caesar

The emperor before Nero, mentioned in passing.

Augustus

minor

The first Roman emperor, referenced as a model ruler.

Octavia

minor

Nero's first wife, murdered by him, mentioned in court gossip.

Pythagoras

minor

A Greek philosopher whose teachings are discussed by Petronius.

Socrates

minor

The Athenian philosopher, referenced as a model of wisdom.

Homer

minor

The epic poet, quoted by Petronius and others.