“The Heat Wave” (1929) – The Public Domain Review

Feron (now Ferronius) wakes up in ancient Rome. The sun is also hot here. “The blazing rays penetrated even the purple splendor of the gold-fringed canopies above the seventy thousand perspiring people who sat or lay prostrate on the marble benches, panting with heat and excitement, while their dripping bodies swayed to and fro with the motion of the matches below.” The city is in the midst of a three-month drought, with the Tiber river low and oil-rich. What else can people do but enjoy the bread and circus of the Colosseum? Ferronius sits next to the emperor and silently repeats his plan. Days earlier, he had bribed Marcellus, the director of the bloodsport, to smuggle his slim, Christian lover Vedia out of prison. But he has been deceived. The delighted Marcellus, “fat lips hanging moist and red”, signals that Vedia is to be led into the well. She is torn to pieces by three lions before his eyes. The hot-headed Ferronius strangles Marcellus to death in revenge.