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| Prefect Apronianus |
Fans of LA noir will appreciate that the patron saint of Los Angeles
has a suitably miserable life and death. Her life may not have been
complex enough to make a film like
Chinatown, but with Jack
Nicholson taking over John Huston's spot (Prefect Apronianus / Noah
Cross), it would make an interesting short. Matt Damon would be my pick
for Emperor Julian the Apostate -- he's mind-bending as a bad guy.
Hailee Steinfeld would be good as the saint herself, Alia Shawkat would
play her older sister Demetria (an Ismene sort of character) and I'd
leave Francis Ford Coppola to round out the cast, since he'd be
directing.
The story, as I said, would need some plot
twists, but here's what I've got so far. In brief, Emperor Julian
reversed Theodosius' declaration that Christianity would be the official
religion of the Roman Empire. In fact, Julian went so far as to
restore the Roman pantheon (the deities, not the building) and to launch
a new persecution of Christians. This was an ugly time for anyone with
real religious convictions, especially difficult since no one could
pretend they had not been Christians before.
Apronianus,
Julian's appointment as Prefect of Rome, put his predecessor Flavianus
on the spot. Flavianus refused to deny his faith, and so was severely
scourged and then exiled from Rome. He died somewhere on the road,
injured, in despair for the fate of his wife and two daughters. [He
died in Acquapendente, but I think a roadside death is more cinematic.]
Flavianus' wife, Dafrosa, intended to maintain the household, but was
beheaded soon after. The two daughters remained at the family home, but
their father's wealth was denied to them. You can imagine the slaves
becoming recalcitrant, disobedient, perhaps even menacing. It must have
been a relief when Roman officers arrived to confiscate them for
resale, proceeds to fill the state coffers. The two girls were left on
their own, hungry and hopeless. Their lives were crumbling around them,
but as Rome was gripped in the terror of a new persecution, there would
be no kindly neighbors to offer help.
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| Saint Bibiana |
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| Demetria |
Having taken his time exacting revenge for some
ancient grudge against Flavianus, the new prefect (Apronianus) finally
summons the two girls. The older girl, Demetria, confesses her faith
and drops dead on the floor. Suicide? The younger, Bibiana, stands
up to the Prefect and he villainously wants to break her. Death would
be easy -- he prefers such suffering that she eventually abandons her
faith, which would effectively be a renunciation of her father. Perhaps
he makes an offer of adoption, or maybe concubinage. Since he's the
Noah Cross character, it could be the same thing. She refuses, so he
places her in the custody of Rufina, the matron at his favorite brothel.
Rufina's given instructions to to alternate kindness and cruelty until
the girl breaks. She's an old hand at this, and the prostitutes who
work there are naturally unsympathetic to Bibiana's stubborn refusal.
They apply certain pressures of their own.
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| Saint Bibiana's execution |
Recognizing the failure and the effect that Bibiana
is having on the other girls in the house, Rufina asks Apronianus to
take her back. He does, and makes one last attempt at extracting
submission. Bibiana is beaten to death with lead-weighted leather
thongs. Her body was then thrown in a ditch for the feral dogs to
devour. The corpse lay there for two days while the dogs sat near it --
the beasts must become sentinels when the Prefect has become a beast.
Eventually, Deacon John (he was a priest but I just promoted him)
gathers the body and carries it off for a Christian burial. In doing
so, he outs himself, of course, but the arrest and subsequent brutal
execution he faces are only implied by the shock and dismay of those who
see him remove Bibiana's body.
Too long to be a short film? Some one call Mr. Coppola and see what he's working on these days.
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