Plot

After fierce Roman commander Marcus Vinicius becomes infatuated with beautiful Christian hostage Lygia, he begins to question the tyrannical leadership of the despotic emperor Nero.

Returning to Rome after three years in the field, General Marcus Vinicius (Robert Taylor) meets Lygia (Deborah Kerr) and falls in love with her, though as a Christian, she wants nothing to do with a warrior. Though she grew up Roman, the adopted daughter of a retired General, Lygia is technically a hostage of Rome. Marcus gets Emperor Nero (Sir Peter Ustinov) to give her to him for services rendered, but finds himself succumbing gradually to her Christian faith.—John Oswalt <jao@jao.com>

After many years away at battle conquering other nations, Roman patrician Marcus Vinicius, returns to the city and accidentally meets a young Christian woman, who is the adopted daughter of a retired general but technically a hostage of Rome. He falls for her but she rebuffs his advances because of his warrior background and her newly found religion of Christianity. As time passes Marcus realizes that Lygia has a real devotion to this new religion and attempts to possess her completely by getting Nero to give her to him as a slave. Lygia escapes and hides out with a group of Christians and Marcus goes undercover to witness the devotion and reverence of the sect. Neros insane belief in his divinity runs rampant when he decides to burn Rome to get inspiration to write more beautiful songs, and ultimately to rebuild the city in his own image. Marcus barely rescues Lygia from the flames and when Nero realizes the citizens believe him responsible he shifts the blame to the Christians, rounds them up with Marcus and leads them to the arena to be devoured by lions. Amidst all the activity Marcus realizes that he loves Lygia and that the new religion is taking hold in a way that can change history.

It's 64 A.D. Commander Marcus Vinicius and his troops have just returned to Rome after a three year successful campaign fighting in Britain and Gaul in the name of Nero, the narcissistic, tyrannical yet feckless emperor of Rome. Vinicius is the nephew of Petronius, one of Nero's most trusted advisers, the one person who can tell Nero the truth about most things without repercussion, except that he believes Nero to be a fool. It is upon this return that Vinicius meets the beautiful Lygia, technically a hostage in Rome's former conflict with the geopolitical region of Lygia (after which she has taken her name), but who is living as the adopted daughter of retired General Plautius and his wife, Lady Pomponia. While there is an undeniable attraction between the two, Vinicius who wants to buy her to be his concubine, Lygia does not admire his "life", including the barbarism of war, killing for the sake of sport, and the notion of slavery in the buying and selling of people. What Vinicius does not know is that Lygia and everyone in Plautius' household, including Lygia's hulking protector Ursus, are what are called Christians, they belonging to this secret sect. Beyond Vinicius and Lygia needing to find a way to bridge this divide in their lives for any sort of loving union, what happens between them is affected by Nero himself, who will inflict pain on others for his sheer enjoyment and for what he believes is a greater tribute to himself, and the mental fortitude of Christians themselves, who may be greater in number than anyone would imagine.—Huggo