Quo Vadis (1951)

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.