Peter preaches and baptizes at Ostrianum

Peter preaches and baptizes at Ostrianum is the episode in which Vinicius, searching for Lygia, encounters a Christian gathering and hears Peter teach its members how to live. The meeting’s importance lies not only in Peter’s instruction but in the form of his testimony: his account of Christ’s resurrection confronts Vinicius with a faith grounded in love, forgiveness, and witness, unsettling the values through which he has understood his pursuit of Lygia.

Setting and Gathering

Ostrianum is reached through a narrow depression bounded by ditches, with an aqueduct crossing it at one point. At its end stands an ivy-covered wall. Two quarrymen at the gate check the visitors’ signs before Vinicius and his attendants enter an enclosed cemetery. Separate monuments surround a central entrance to the hypogeum, where graves lie below ground; a fountain plays before the entrance. Since the crypt cannot contain the expected number, the ceremony takes place outdoors, where a large crowd gathers.

Lanterns provide scattered light, and almost everyone is hooded, whether against cold or the danger of betrayal. That concealment makes Vinicius fear that he will not find Lygia in the dim crowd. Torches are then lit near the crypt, and the assembly begins to sing. The hymn’s yearning for rescue in darkness distinguishes the gathering from the religious ceremonies Vinicius knows: he recognizes that these people do not merely honor their God but love him.

Peter’s Teaching

After the hymn, an old man emerges from the hypogeum and stands on a stone beside the fire. The crowd identifies him as Peter; some kneel and others reach toward him. He blesses the gathering with the sign of the cross, and Vinicius and his attendants follow the others to avoid revealing themselves. Peter’s authority is presented through the contrast between his plain appearance and the ceremonial insignia associated with other priesthoods. To Vinicius, he seems a witness who has come to relate what he saw and believes, rather than a priest whose standing rests on ritual display.

Peter speaks like a father instructing children. He urges the Christians to renounce luxury and excess, value poverty, purity, and truth, endure wrong and persecution patiently, obey those in authority, and guard against treachery, deceit, and slander. He also charges them to set a good example within their community and before pagans. These are not presented as isolated private virtues: they form a rule of conduct for a vulnerable group seeking to live faithfully amid hostility.

The sermon’s demand for love extends beyond familiar boundaries. Peter teaches that God is universal love and that loving other people fulfills God’s supreme command. Christians must love not only their own nation or those who treat them well, but also people who injure them; they are to forgive and return good for evil. Nor is love reserved for the virtuous, since Peter holds that love alone can drive evil out of the wicked. Chilo, who is present with Vinicius, immediately considers what this teaching means for his scheme: he concludes that Ursus will not kill Glaucus, and reassures himself that Glaucus would likewise spare him if recognized.

Peter’s Testimony and the Resurrection

Peter’s address moves from practical instruction to the events surrounding Christ’s death and resurrection. He recalls the grief and uncertainty that followed the Crucifixion, when he and John remained in the supper-chamber without sleep or food, believing their teacher dead. On the third day, Mary of Magdala reported that the Lord’s body had been taken; Peter and John ran to the sepulchre, where John arrived first, and Peter entered after others gathered at the entrance. He found the burial clothes but no body. At first, the disciples feared that the priests had removed Christ.

Peter recounts how Mary later returned with news that she had seen the Lord. The disciples did not believe her at first. Later, Cleopas and another disciple came back from Emmaus declaring that the Lord had risen. Peter says that Christ then appeared among the disciples behind closed doors and greeted them with peace. He testifies that he saw Christ with the others, and that the disciples believed he had risen from the dead. After eight days, Thomas touched Christ’s wounds and acknowledged him as Lord and God; Peter’s narration continues through the Ascension.

The account’s force for Vinicius rests on the tension between its extraordinary claim and the apparent sincerity of its witness. He finds the resurrection difficult to believe, yet Peter’s movements, tears, and detailed recollection make him unable to dismiss the old man as a liar. Around him, listeners throw back their hoods so as not to miss the testimony. As Peter describes Christ’s Ascension, they look upward as if expecting him to return and bless the community entrusted to Peter. For the assembled Christians, Rome and Caesar recede from view; Christ fills their understanding of the world.

Effects on Vinicius and the Assembly

Vinicius initially resists Peter’s ethical teaching. Since he has treated Lygia as the object of a single consuming passion, he interprets the call to purity as a condemnation of his desire and fears that it will strengthen her resistance to him. The prospect that she might embrace the teaching makes him feel that finding her will not mean possessing her. His response changes, however, when Peter’s teaching on universal love and his resurrection testimony reveal a religious outlook that he cannot reduce to familiar philosophical maxims.

Peter’s sermon also exposes the gulf between Roman social assumptions and the Christian community’s obligations. Vinicius finds it nearly impossible to imagine a Roman loving Parthians, Syrians, Greeks, Egyptians, Gauls, and Britons, or returning kindness for injury. Yet he senses that accepting this religion would require more than adding a new belief to his existing life: he would have to relinquish his habits and character and become different. The episode therefore makes his search for Lygia a spiritual crisis as well as a personal one. The account identifies Ostrianum as the setting for Peter’s preaching and testimony; the gathering’s emotional response is clear, while this episode does not establish that Vinicius is baptized there.